How to Legally Start a Freelance Business

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |how to legally start a freelance business |How to Legally Start a Freelance BusinessDid you know that over 59 million Americans have started to work for themselves thanks to the growing gig economy? What might have seemed like a far-off dream in the past is now an achievable reality.

If you are wondering how to legally start a freelance business, keep reading to find out all you need to know.

Why Become a Freelancer?

The obvious reason to become a freelancer is to work for yourself doing something you love. But there are many other reasons to become a freelancer.

More companies are turning to freelancers to fill a need for qualified talent. Small businesses all the way up to giant corporations are making it a regular habit to find web developers, copywriters, photographers, consultants, and more to complete tasks for them.

It is a win-win situation. Freelancers get to enjoy a steady workflow and ample opportunities. Companies get access to high-quality work without dealing with employee taxes, insurance, and other things associated with having employees.

Freelancing Is Still Hard Work

You will have to put in some effort upfront when it comes to legally starting a freelance business and finding your own work. And after you get going you will have to manage all aspects of your business.

You will need to find a balance between tackling day-to-day operations, completing the freelance work you are getting paid for, and making sure you are abiding by any local, state, or federal laws.

One way to make this easier on yourself is to hire a freelancer to help you out. You can use other people’s talents to take care of tasks like graphic design or social media management.

How to Legally Start a Freelance Business

You will need to organize your business according to the services you provide. One of the first things you need to do when you find out how to become a freelancer is decide what type of business structure to use.

Knowing this information helps you to apply for the appropriate business licenses and set yourself up as the proper type of business entity.

You can choose to have a sole proprietorship, limited liability company, or corporation. It is a great idea to get some legal advice before making any decisions, as each structure will have significant implications.
For example, a sole proprietor shares assets and debts with their company. This means you are legally liable for anything that may occur as a result of your business.

An LLC provides some asset protection, as your assets are separate from the business. So if you default on a loan or get sued your assets can’t be touched.

Register With the IRS

After you get your business license you will need to get an employer identification number from the IRS. This is what you will use to pay income taxes.

To get this you will need a social security number.

Get a State Business License

Once you have your EIN you can apply for your state business license.

You will define your business entity name, address, and pay registration fees. You can use the IRS portal to do all of this at once.

Do a search before filing to make sure no businesses with your name already exist.

Your state might have additional laws and regulations for setting up a business. Check your state website for any other specific information.

Start Your Own Freelance Business

It may seem a bit daunting, but getting started is the hardest part. Once you find out how to legally start a freelance business you can use your skills to create the life you dream of.

Make sure you check our blog for other helpful legal articles along the way.

The Benefits of a Business Plan Service

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StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Article |Business Plan |The Benefits of a Business Plan ServiceNot every business has a business plan, not because they don’t need one but because they don’t have the skills or knowledge to create it. That’s where a business plan service can help, these services offer a professional solution to business planning, so you get it right first time.

More Clarity

Not having a business plan doesn’t mean you can’t run a business, but the chances are your business will miss out on efficiency and a host of other benefits that go with having a core plan. For one thing, you will have more clarity which can lead to better decision making in key areas.

Whether it’s an investment, personnel, leases, or resourcing, you can make decisions faster and better when you can look at your business performance over a period and see how it aligns with your business goals. A business plan service can help you develop or update a business plan.

Better Marketing

If you have an excellent product, you need to get it in front of the right people; this requires some industry insight and proper planning. If you want to improve your marketing, then identify your target market and ideal customer persona; you also need to carry out market analysis.

All of this goes into your business plan, so you know exactly who to target and when. A quick glance at your business plan during key periods of the year gives you the solid information you need to make intelligent marketing decisions. This also helps when needing to secure funding.

Funding Support

Whether it’s a bank loan or outside investment from a venture capitalist, you need a business plan with some solid numbers to support your pitch. An investor will need to know your valuation of the company, how you arrived at that valuation, and why you need funding going forward.

Although this section of the business plan is important, not every business owner knows how to calculate the finances of the business and write it out in a way that’s suitable to investors. That’s where a business plan writing service can be useful; they can assist with outlining the numbers.

Better Structure

Without a business plan, a company might suffer from structural inefficiencies that can affect the bottom line. A good business plan should include who works in the business, what departments they manage and what their key skills are, which creates a useful framework for the business.

Not only does a business plan create a structure that helps to strengthen the business internally and flourish, but it also helps to create clarity from the outside. Investors can then look at the business and understand how it works, giving them more confidence to part with their money.

Better Hiring

If you don’t have a business plan, chances are you will bring in the right people at the wrong time leading to inefficiencies that can be avoided with some proper planning. Get it right, and a business plan can assist with hiring the best talent to take the business forwards when required.

Top Tips to Juggle Your Business Responsibilities

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Business Responsibilities|Top Tips to Juggle Your Business ResponsibilitiesAs a business owner, it is likely that you will be in charge of more than one element of your business and that you will have to oversee the rest of your business’s processes. Rather than always feeling flustered and disorganized, here are some of the best ways that you can juggle your business responsibilities in 2022.

Get Management Technology

Rather than try to juggle all of your responsibilities alone and remember every single task that you need to perform, you should use management technology. This technology has been specifically designed to help business leaders to better control what happens within their business. If you are a landlord or run a property business, you might decide to work with a property management company that uses the most modern technology, as this can help you to manage repairs and maintenance, find tenants, and handle fees and inspections. You will then be able to run your business flawlessly without constantly having to think about what task you need to complete next.

Delegate

A great business leader will be able to delegate certain tasks to other members of their team, rather than trying to do every single activity themselves. By loosening control on your business, you will be able to ensure that you can focus your full attention on the aspects which are important to you or which are your strengths, while allowing your employees to handle the elements of your business that are their forte. By doing this, you will be able to ensure that every single part of your business runs smoothly and simultaneously and that you do not have to run from place to place trying to do everything at once.

Stay Organized

There is nothing that can help you to juggle all of your business responsibilities more, though, than staying organized. Organization is key to your leadership strategy as it can allow you to feel in control at all times and to know exactly what is on your to-do list. Staying organized can also help you to handle tasks more quickly as you will not have to spend hours looking for the resources or paperwork that you need. So if you struggle to stay organized, you should invest in a good storage unit for your office, go entirely paperless, and consider downloading organization apps that may be able to help you.

Have a Plan

One of the top steps that you can take to juggle every single one of your business responsibilities, though, is to have a plan in place, whether this is only a plan for the day or one that encompasses a longer period. Having a plan will allow you to ascertain what task you need to do in what order and can ensure that you never feel that what you are doing is aimless or will not contribute to the success of your business. This will also ensure that every single person knows what they are meant to be doing at any given time.

Free Advertising: Does It Exist & How To Do It

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Free Advertising|Free Advertising: Does It Exist & How To Do ItIf something is free, that means you haven’t paid for it. So, are there ways to advertise your business without spending a penny? Technically, there are. However, there are also ways to achieve ‘free’ advertising in another sense.

You see, advertising usually works as such: you pay to get your adverts placed somewhere – this can be online, on TV, in a newspaper, on a billboard, etc. There is another type of free advertising where you do spend some money, but the actual advertising of your business is done for free. Effectively, this is done by using your customers to advertise your business for you.

With that in mind, here are some ways to take advantage of free advertising:

Social media comments

Social media replies and comments are easy ways to advertise your business. All you have to do is pick viral tweets or celebrity/influencer accounts and comment on their posts. Comment normal things – don’t actively advertise your business or post links! It’s completely free to do, and you have a huge chance of multiple users clicking your name when they see you’re a brand. As a result, this might drive traffic to your site.

Who knows, you may even get lucky and see one of the influencers contact you asking for free stuff. So, you can start influencer marketing as well!

Social media giveaways

Another tactic that takes advantage of the power of social media. This is one of those things that you do spend money on, but the advertising is free. Host a giveaway on social media where you give free products or money to one person. As part of the giveaway, everyone has to share the post, add it to their story, like it, follow you, and tag a friend.

Simple requirements, but it means that your post is getting shared around loads. Thus, it’s free exposure and advertising for your brand. A small upfront cost leads to excellent advertising benefits.

Free gifts

Handing out free gifts to consumers and customers will also help you advertise for free. Give people things like custom stickers, bags, coffee cups, lanyards, etc. All of these products are branded, meaning your customers will literally be walking advertisements for you.

Make the free gifts as functional as possible to encourage your customers to use them. They’ll go about their daily life advertising your business to everyone that sees them. It is such a smart and effective way of spreading brand awareness as far as the eye can see.

There you have it; free advertising does exist and it is really effective. You can see from the final two ideas how the act of advertising your business is free. You spend money on the giveaway or the free gifts, but after that the advertising and promotion you receive come with no costs at all. Ideas like these are really helpful for emerging businesses with small marketing budgets. You can’t afford to keep paying for online ads or massive TV adverts. So, you need to think of sneaky ways to expose your business for free.

How To Drive Your Customer Engagement Within Your Company

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Engagement|How To Drive Your Customer Engagement Within Your CompanyCustomer engagement has always been important in the business world. Not only is it a tool to drive sales, but it can also help to put your brand on the map. However, while it used to be important from a brand perspective, changing consumer trends indicate that it’s now vital for the customer, too. For example, ‘nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers want brands to connect with them’. Furthemore, consumers are more likely to support a brand they feel engaged and connected with, as it feels a little more personal than supporting a ‘faceless’ brand.

With that in mind, here are some simple ways in which you can drive customer engagement within your company.

Communicate openly.

Communication is pivotal to the development of any relationship, meaning that you have to be able to effectively communicate with your customers if you want to succeed. Thankfully, open communication has never been easier – as there are now plenty of ways in which you can reach out to your customers. For example, in addition to face-to-face conversations, you can chat over email, the phone, or through your social media channels.

However, you should also ensure that you think carefully about how you want to communicate with your customers. For example, what kind of tone will you use when liaising with clients? Do you want to appear professional and formal or chatty and friendly? Either way, being consistent in your approach to communicating will help you build a better relationship with your customers and drive engagement. You should also ensure that you are as transparent as possible when communicating with clients. Don’t hide behind complicated technical or legal jargon – show your human side and respond honestly to their messages, especially if they are complaining.

Improve your marketing strategy.

There are various different ways in which you can encourage customers to engage with your brand – but your digital marketing strategy is perhaps the most important, especially as consumers spend more time online than ever before. As a result, you should work on refining your ecommerce marketing strategy as much as possible.

For example, you should ensure that you have a clear target audience in mind so that you can tailor your digital content to their likes and dislikes. For example, if you’re marketing your brand to a younger audience, you might want to consider influencer marketing. While this is a relatively new marketing technique, younger audiences, in particular, are more likely to buy products that have been recommended to them by an authority figure or someone they look up to, such as a social media influencer.

Focus on Employee Engagement.

Employee engagement is just as important as customer engagement, especially as your employees will likely spend most of their time engaging with customers face-to-face. When they are happy and motivated, they’ll be able to create a more welcoming environment for your customers. When dissatisfied, they’ll be less committed to their work and more likely to make mistakes that could drive customers away instead of reeling them in. As a result, you should seek to invest in employee engagement strategies that will not only raise employee morale but also enhance your bottom line and improve your relationship with your customers.

Ideally, you should ensure that all staff members (particularly those in customer-facing roles) receive customer service training. This is a great way to put your best foot forward, as they’ll know exactly how to deal with customers, even those who may be complaining.

Stand Out From The Crowd.

Another way to drive customer engagement within your brand is through actually attracting customers in the first place. With thousands of new businesses being launched each day, you must be able to stand out in a saturated market if you want to succeed. For example, while you might want to provide comprehensive and varied services to your customers, honing in on a specific niche is the easiest way to achieve this goal. After all, this will enable you to optimize your products and services for your customers. This way, you’ll also be able to present your brand as an industry leader whom customers can trust, making it more likely that they’ll continue to support you.

You should also give your customers as many reasons as possible to stick around and support your brand. To do this, you could put together a unique loyalty scheme that rewards them for their continued support. For example, this could include exclusive discount codes, freebies, or early access to products before they hit the market. The more valued you make your customers feel, the more willing they will be to engage with your brand.