As a business owner, the success of your business is very important to you, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that your business thrives. Starting a business will require you to make some investments, and here are three important areas of your business to invest in for better success.

#1: Insurance

Insurance exists as financial protection against costs associated with certain circumstances. As a business owner, it’s important to invest in the necessary amount of insurance to protect your business from a huge financial loss.

Workers Compensation Insurance

If you have employees, then it is by law that you have to have workers’ compensation insurance. This covers lost wages and medical expenses for employees who have been injured on the job, through no fault of their own.

Health and Life Insurance

Two other types of insurance that you may need to provide for your employees are health and life insurance. These types of insurance are usually only available for those who work full-time, but each individual business can choose to provide insurance for part-time employees as well (note that workers’ compensation insurance usually covers all employees).

General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance is another type of insurance that the majority of businesses will need. This protects your business (financially) against claims of slander/libel, bodily injury, or property damage. This is the most basic type of insurance coverage and you may need more, depending on the type of business you have. Other types of insurance you may need include commercial property insurance (if you operate from a physical location) and commercial auto insurance (if you drive a vehicle for business purposes).

#2: Marketing

Marketing is how you let people know that your business exists and that you’re ready to serve their needs. It also lets job-seekers know that you’re hiring.

Recruitment Marketing

Recruitment marketing is a type of marketing that targets job-seekers instead of consumers. This is a much more effective method than posting on job boards because recruitment marketing agencies know how to market your business as a workplace to job-seekers, as opposed to you marketing your products or services to consumers. Recruitment marketing brings the most qualified candidates to you so that you don’t have to go searching for them.

Offline (Traditional) Marketing

In today’s digital world, you may be surprised to hear that traditional marketing methods still work. They aren’t as effective as digital marketing strategies, but they can still be very helpful for small businesses that serve their local community.  Some examples of traditional marketing include billboards, newspapers, other printed advertisements, and TV/radio commercials. There are marketing agencies that still specialize in traditional forms of marketing for those businesses that are interested.

Online (Digital) Marketing

Digital marketing agencies are going to be more commonplace since the majority of people have access to and use the internet on a daily basis. Digital marketing techniques allow you to reach the widest audience possible, with techniques such as email marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).

#3: Software

Finally, it’s important to invest in your software systems because they’re going to automate repetitive business tasks so that you won’t have to do them by hand. This allows for quicker and more accurate completion, and you and your employees will be able to focus on other business tasks.

Financial

Accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes are examples of the financial operations of your business, and there’s software available that helps automate these tasks. Your finances are a core business function, so investing in software that can manage the repetitive parts is a good idea.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

ERP software manages the day-to-day activities of a business, so it includes your finances. However, there are so many more business activities that can be automated by software. There are daily business operations such as procurement, inventory management, and warehouse management, and there are also human resources (HR).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Another important aspect of your business is customer (or client) relationships. This tool helps you understand how consumers are interacting with your business, how you’re interacting with them, and how to produce the best marketing campaigns to increase sales.

These three areas of business will protect you financially, bring in more customers and employees, and make sure that all of your business operations are being done properly. When you have these three areas of your business secured, you’re able to focus on growing your business.