The 2024 Small Business Growth Support Guide
Navigating small business ownership can be challenging whether you’re brand new to it or you’ve been running your business for years. One thing is certain - there is always something to learn! In business learning from our mistakes can often be costly, draining and take you further away from what you’d prefer to be spending money and time on.
The great news is that with knowledge, you can make far less of those mistakes and we’ve put together our 2024 Small Business Growth Support Guide to do just that!
Whether you sell products or services, have an online program or community, or even have your own podcast, there will be something helpful for you here.
Inside the guide you’ll be able to get up to speed on what every small business owner should know about:
Selling physical or digital products
Selling services or programs
Hiring contractors and/or employees
Collabs and partnering for small business success; as well as
Protecting your business when using social media.
We want to help you minimise your risk and grow your small business without the headaches that we see so many people go through unnecessarily. So, read on and make sure you share the small business support by passing this on to your friends and networks.
To a brilliant 2024 in small business!
Emma Heuston
Ready to Boss Legal
Selling Physical or Digital Products
Online store
If you sell any physical or digital products from your site, having terms and conditions in place (amongst other protections) can save you from the unnecessary challenging experiences that online sellers.
Click here for 7 things to know about adding a store to your website
Products - Digital and Physical
While small business owners are often aware of the protection that disclaimers can bring to avoiding issues about refund requests and returns, it will likely come as a surprise to many that you really should have a disclaimer in place if you have a website, or offer the following:
Ebooks or other downloadables
Free or paid training or courses
Physical products
Digital products
Affiliate/referral links on your site or social media
Podcast episodes
And if you have a social media group or business profile, a disclaimer can protect you there too.
Click here to learn the type of disclaimers you need and why
Programs, memberships or subscription models
If you offer (or plan to offer) online courses, training or memberships, you need to be aware of the common issues that can be avoided.
Click here to learn how to protect your online offering
Ensuring that everything has been taken into account before launching your mastermind, online training or coaching program is equivalent to setting up yourself and your business for success. We’ve unpacked what to know and consider to be fully prepared to launch and roll out any type of online course, training or membership program.
Click here to learn the five questions to ask yourself
Referral partner (affiliate) relationships
Do people refer other people or businesses to use your services or buy physical or digital products from you? If you’re interested in how you might be able to boost your business through increasing your volume of referrers, you will find these two pages of interest…
Click here to learn about referral partner programs
Click here to learn how to set up an affiliate program in your small business
Collabs
In our experience helping businesses, we have seen the many ways that collaborations with influencers and ambassadors didn’t turn out well. For this reason, we have put together two checklists to help ensure that your working relationship starts and ends well.
Click here to learn how to determine a good fit and make it a successful endeavour
Selling Products Checklist
Tick the items below that you need to be better protected and support your small business growth. Then click on those you need to discover our legal templates.
Selling Services
Some of the most common small business growth inhibitors include inferior agreements with clients and having to deal with issues that could have been avoided if only you had the right disclaimers and/or policies in place.
Ensuring you get paid
One of the most common complaints from service based business owners relates to not being paid, or not being paid on time.
Click here to learn how to recover unpaid invoices
Referral partner (affiliate) relationships
Do people refer other people or businesses to use your services or buy physical or digital products from you? If you’re interested in how you might be able to boost your business through increasing your volume of referrers, you will find these two pages of interest…
Click here to learn about referral partner programs
Click here to learn how to set up an affiliate program in your small business
Brand ambassadors
If you sell products you’ve probably thought about the power of influencers. But have you ever thought about engaging a brand ambassador to help build awareness of your service based business?
While most people think this is marketing territory only reserved for product based business, the truth is, your business can experience incredible growth from collaborating with the right person, regardless of whether it is service based or product based.
Click here to learn how to determine a good fit and make it a successful endeavour
Collaborations and partnerships
Collaborating with other business owners can be an incredibly powerful way to grow a small business. We’ve helped so many people navigate circumstances where it’s gone wrong so we want you to learn from their experiences.
Click here to learn what to know and consider before committing to a business collab
Adding coaching to your services
If adding coaching to your services, or setting it up as a standalone business, it is essential to get the foundations sorted from the start. This includes getting the legal formalities, systems and processes in place.
Click here if you already offer coaching
Click here to learn the business coaching agreement must haves
Click here to learn about setting up coaching in your business
Click here to learn the essentials for group coaching success
Protecting your intellectual property
When doing business, sometimes you want to share ideas or private information with others. But before you share confidential information, it is wise to have a non disclosure agreement on hand. This article breaks down what a non-disclosure agreement is and looks at common examples of where it is used.
Click here to learn when to use a non-disclosure agreement
Selling Services Checklist
Tick the items below that you need to be better protected and support your small business growth. Then click through on those you need to discover our legal templates.
Service Specific Agreements
Hiring Help
A big part of growing a small business in profitability is by bringing in others with skills you don’t possess or to assist you with your workload. If this is on your radar, you may be looking at either employing people or engaging them as contractors, or both. In this section of the guide we’re bringing you all the insights and tips on what you need to know before hiring any employee or contractor.
VA’s, contractors & subcontractors
It is common for small business owners to hire contractors or subcontractors but not bother to have them sign a formal contractor agreement. This article covers what contractor agreements are and the 4 benefits of having the right type of agreement as a business owner.
Click here to learn how to hire a contractor in Australia or overseas
Click here to learn the common mistakes to avoid made when hiring contractors
Employing team members
If you plan to hire full time or part time employees, there are critical elements that small business owners overlook that can get you into hot water.
Click here to discover what an employment contract must include in Australia
Casual employees
Before you hire a casual employee, there are important considerations you need to know. This article covers all you need to know when it comes to casual employees' entitlements and how they are defined by the law.
Click here to access important information about hiring casuals
Work from home/hybrid employees
The versatility of being able to work from home has kept businesses afloat and employees in their jobs during the pandemic. While this work setup has its benefits, it also comes with risks. As work from home arrangements are now commonplace, the employment agreement you have needs to reflect the arrangement clearly.
Click here to learn what to know about work from home agreements
Click here to learn important considerations for employees with hybrid work arrangements
Hiring Help Checklist
Tick the items below that your small business needs to be better protected and support your growth. Then click through on those you need to find our legal templates.
Online Presence
Podcasting
If podcasting has been on your to do list for a while, we share with you what to know before launching your podcast, including opportunities to monetise your podcast.
Click here to learn the 5 things to know about starting a podcast
Webinars & Online Courses & Programs
Whether you run (or plan to run) free or paid webinars, here are some helpful tips.
Click here to discover how to run a successful webinar
Social media
If you run a community or group on any social media platform, you are responsible for everything that anyone posts, including posts made by your group admins or social media managers. We’ve explored what constitutes defamation on social media, what this applies to, and how you can prevent defamatory content from being published to your page, or in your groups.
Click here to learn what all small business owners need to be alert to
Like to use testimonials or imagery of your clients or customers and share it on social media or your website? Maybe you host webinars or in-person events where photographs or video footage is taken that you want to be able to put to use afterwards?
Click here to learn what you need in place to be free to do that
Online Presence Protection Checklist
Tick the items below that you need to be better protected and support your small business growth. Then click through on those you need to discover our legal templates.
We hope that you have found our Small Business Growth Support Guide helpful. You are welcome to download the PDF version here and save it for future reference. Or, forward it to another small business owner so they can also protect themselves and their business.
If you are ready to take action you are welcome to take up a one-time FREE, no-obligation chat to determine which templates will be best for you, you can select a time that suits you here. I look forward to learning about your needs and helping you protect your small business.
Emma Heuston
Ready to Boss Legal
In reading this article from Ready to Boss Legal (Article), you have not asked us to provide legal advice to you and this Article should not be used in substitution for legal advice. This Article contains information only and Ready to Boss Legal is not acting as your lawyer in providing this Article or other information to you. You do not have a solicitor/client relationship with Ready to Boss Legal unless you choose to formally engage us in writing for customised legal services (excluding template purchase which is also legal information).