Choosing Professional Counsel for A New Small Business

Choosing professional counsel for a new small business does not stop with choosing an attorney. There are several more professional services you will need to consider.

Finding an attorney for your small business is a matter of knowing when you need one, what type of attorney is best, and the steps to choose a candidate. The lawyer-business owner relationship is a vital decision. Spend the necessary time in finding an attorney right for your company. Making the decision to hire a lawyer is a proactive choice as opposed to needing a lawyer when you're in a legal bind.

In addition to a lawyer, you will need to choose an accountant for your small business. This can mean the difference between success and failure. After all, it’s your financial numbers that make or break your business. The bottom line is that you should expect today’s accountant to be much more than a bookkeeper. Most do add considerable value. The trick is to separate the wheat from the chaff.

So, with your raised expectations, how do you choose the right accountant for your small business? Like any relationship, it boils down to a compatibility of interests, experience and outlooks. Business owners are often confused as to the certified public accountant (CPA) designation. A CPA has surpassed accepted financial education levels and has passed state-administered tests to prove competency and periodic re-certification exams. Certain situations, such as audits and many loan applications, require CPA involvement. Not surprisingly, CPAs can charge higher fees than a non-CPAs. But there are a great many non-CPAs who excel at small business accounting and financial and technology consulting. Again, getting to know them and your needs is the necessary first step.

Another important choice for you to make as a small business owner is choosing your mentor. Your friends and family, the Web, periodicals, and even casual acquaintances can provide you with a steady daily flow of information regarding news, industry developments, and opportunities. Industry analysts, consultants, employees, and good networking contacts can share their expert knowledge with you regarding particular situations and needs you may encounter. But only a mentor can truly share wisdom with you on an ongoing basis. A mentor is someone with more entrepreneurial business experience than you who serves as a trusted confidante over an extended period of time, usually free of charge. Why do they do this? They may do it to develop their skills as a teacher, manager, strategist, consultant or to simply give back to their community. Regardless of their reasoning for doing this they are there to help you as a small business owner.

The last part of this section brings us good points for choosing a payroll processor. Processing of payroll for your small business may not seem to be the best use for your computer technology, but then again it is one of the most essential parts of running your business. If your small business is operated from just one location and the employees are paid salary on a monthly basis, the payroll processing may be a very easy task to accomplish. And in such cases, any payroll processing system which can accommodate the payroll tax structure of your local area will be easily able to handle the payroll very efficiently.

The task of managing the payroll becomes difficult as your company starts growing and has a widely-dispersed work force. As your small business grows, your employee base will most likely change--you may be paying employees on an hourly basis and need to have provisions for shift differentials and overtime premium; on the other hand, you may also have employees who may be working with you on a union contract. In such cases your  payroll solution needs to be carefully evaluated  to ensure its capability of accommodating the current demands of your business, along with compliance of government regulations.

For help with questions about choosing legal counsel for your new small business, please contact us.