Startup Spark

Get The Right Help At The Right Time When Starting Your Business

by Ben Yoskovitz on February 5th, 2007

Pamela Slim has some excellent advice in a recent blog post, The “Big Four” every entrepreneur needs. In a nutshell, every company needs a great lawyer, accountant, banker and insurance specialist.

Sure, cash flow is king, and paying big hourly rates to these experts might hurt the pocket book but it’s well worth it. And you should find these people before you need them. It’s better to have a lawyer you’re friendly with before you desperately need one.

Pamela has some good ideas on how to find the right people too…

Ranking the importance of the “big four”, I’d say:

1. Accountant
2. Banker
3. Lawyer
4. Insurance Specialist

A great accountant will find you money you didn’t know you had.

A great banker will cut you slack, find you financing and make big, scary, unfriendly banks seem reasonable and approachable.

It’s never a bad idea to try and squeeze every last drop of money out of your business and cash flow. Great accountants and bankers can help with that.

To a somewhat lesser degree, I’ve been thinking about similar issues with my recent thoughts on when you should outsource. My focus isn’t on the “big four” but on other areas of your business that should be outsourced so you can focus on what’s most important.

Quick tip: (I believe this was from a comment someone made on this blog or aonther, but I can’t recall the reference) You can save yourself money by getting 1-hour free advice sessions with multiple lawyers instead of just one.

I’ve never had great accountants or bankers. My businesses have suffered because of that. I’m working on fixing that ASAP. You should too.

Share This

POSTED IN: Business