Leveraging expert knowledge can hold the key to small business success

Building a startup is a multi-disciplinary challenge that can stretch even the most competent people to the limit. Often, taking on the burden of learning a host of non-core business functions such as development, hosting, IT, SEO and Internet marketing can divert important resources away from activities that are crucial during the early phases of a business.

Admittedly Internet marketing is something that is crucial in the early phases of a business (or any phase of a business), but it's something that requires a bit of knowledge and experience and it takes time and effort to build this up. This time and effort could be better spent building important business contacts, looking after existing clients and making business deals.

Cost weighed against skills & knowledge

Most small business startups simply don't have the financial backing to hire on a top developer, SEO expert and Internet marketer - or even a mid level one. Hiring someone with the skills and expertise to drive business growth online can be an expensive exercise. Often the benefits of Internet marketing and SEO accrue over time, so your business only sees the benefits of this operating cost down the line.

Become an expert at everything

Most business owners, understanding this problem, make the decision to learn and implement all of their IT related requirements (development, hosting, SEO, marketing, etc) themselves. This is as good a decision as it is a bad one. Good because you reduce your reliance on third party services down the line, and become far more capable of implementation and adapting to changes. Bad because you waste time picking up skills that have nothing to do with your core offering.

The business approach

As a business owner, you want to drive growth and revenue through your passion and understanding of the niche. Learning how to embed a view in a Drupal webpage, is therefore not something you should have to know about - even if your website requires it.

Strategic partnerships are the answer. There are experts available with a wide range of skills, knowledge and know-how. You might not be able to hire them full-time, but what you really need from them is a guiding hand and a bit of knowledge.

Retaining expertise and knowledge

As a business owner, it can often be a hard choice to part with money, but if consulting with an expert for an hour costs you $100 and saves you from wasting time on unnecessary development, or saves you money by better focusing your marketing, or opens up new opportunities by providing creative solutions and problem solving, then, in the long run you have made a better business decision than someone who undertakes to do everything themselves.

Understanding that consulting and advice can save you time, money and effort you then need to find someone who you can work with, who is reliable and knowledgable. Fortunately there are things you can do to narrow down your choice (before resorting to trial and error):

• contact via email, IM, phone or skype
• get a feel for how they work
• ask questions
• read their blog
• see if they are published or write for prominent sites

More often than not, having the right person on your team to provide experience, knowledge and skill on a retainer or consulting basis can prove to be far more cost effective than hiring on a professional, and far more effective than taking on everything yourself.