Business development specialists are behind-the-scenes workers at companies who help create growth and opportunity through relationships with existing and new customers, clients, and partners. You might think this type of work isn’t necessary for your small or solo business, but that’s actually not the case! Even the smallest business can benefit from business development help from time to time if you don’t have those skills in-house or they’re not a high priority to you in your current role. Here are five reasons to hire a freelance business development specialist to increase your bottom line.
1) Save Time
Small business owners have many different things on their plates; from staffing, marketing, and finances, and there is never enough time. And with all of these things constantly competing for attention, it’s easy for potential new customers to get lost in between. That’s why working with a freelance business development specialist is so valuable: they can take an hour or two each day of your time and turn it into hundreds of leads and opportunities. With that kind of ROI, hiring a freelancer may be just what you need to give your business (and your sanity) some breathing room.
Here are 5 reasons why small businesses should hire a freelance business development specialist. They Have A Focus On Prospecting: As much as you might want to think about building relationships and connecting with prospects, most small businesses don’t have the time or resources to do so. This is where having someone dedicated solely to prospecting comes in handy they can work at it full-time while your core team focuses on other aspects of running your business. A single person focused solely on prospecting will be more efficient than even several people doing it part-time because of how focused they are.
2) Reach More Customers
One of the best ways you can grow your freelance business is through effective business development. However, it’s hard enough trying to run your own business you shouldn’t have to do all of it. An experienced freelance business development specialist will be able to help you streamline your outreach and help take some of that burden off your plate so you can focus on growing your core services.
You’ll also be able to reach more potential customers without having so many hands in too many pots at once. Your new representative will work directly with clients, generating leads, scheduling calls and even helping clients set up their project plans from start to finish. This means you’ll be able to spend less time pitching yourself and more time actually doing what you love. What could be better than that?
3) Free Up Resources
When you hire a freelance business development specialist, it can free up resources in your company that can be used elsewhere. For example, if you are expanding or shifting your marketing or sales strategy, you might need an experienced person to help guide those efforts. But instead of hiring internally, you can hire an outside contractor who specializes in these areas of business development. This can save your company money and allow for more effective growth strategies. With thousands of different businesses competing for customers every day, focusing on growth is critical for success; by hiring a freelance business development specialist, companies are better positioned to grow and succeed.
Bringing in an expert also makes sense from a team-building perspective. Your staff will benefit from interacting with someone who has experience they may not have, opening their eyes to new possibilities as well as providing them with tools they may not have access to otherwise. It also gives workers new ways of looking at their role within your organization and how they fit into its overall growth plan, which can provide motivation for everyone involved. The extra drive provided by a business development professional will improve productivity for everyone involved not just the freelancer because everyone sees how his or her job affects overall success.
4) Advertise in New Ways
It’s not always easy to fit marketing into your budget. And it’s even harder if you don’t know what kind of business development makes sense for your industry. A freelance business development specialist could help you figure out ways to effectively market your business without costing too much money or having negative effects on other areas of your company. For example, one entrepreneur who hired a freelancer found that asking everyone in her network for referrals saved her over $100,000!
Many freelancers are experienced in multiple industries and they can assist with finding effective marketing methods as well as which ones won’t be worth it for your bottom line. If you need more clients but aren’t sure how to go about getting them, talk to a freelancer today! One thing I’ve noticed is that many people get confused between articles and blogs. While they seem similar, they serve very different purposes. Articles provide content to sell while blogs drive traffic back to your site.
5) Offer Additional Services
When you hire freelancers or build your agency’s team by hiring subcontractors and virtual assistants, it can be difficult to get them all on board at once. These types of workers are paid on an as-needed basis, which means that a lot of tasks go undone until you actually need them. To avoid bottlenecks and underperforming staff, make sure you offer additional services so your contractors have something else productive to do when they aren’t working on client projects for you. For example, designers and writers could help format text for digital use or create email templates for marketing automation campaigns. It takes time but often saves headaches in the long run.
Set aside an hour or two each week to work with these contractors one-on-one to brainstorm new ideas that will increase their efficiency. If you need more hands on deck, consider hiring project managers who can facilitate meetings between clients and your team members while guiding everyone through every stage of a project from start to finish. Project managers also add important oversight needed to ensure deadlines are met and quality standards upheld across entire teams which is especially useful if you have several different businesses running concurrently or multiple branches operating independently around the world.
