Often, small to mid-size business owners are wearing many hats. The time needed to successfully run and grow a business in any given day is often not enough. As the demands placed on small to mid-sized business owners continues to grow, it’s important they establish external, trusted resources they can rely on to help them manage their business.
“Often, our small to mid-sized business owners started out doing everything on their own,” said Paula Buie, Vice President and Treasury Management Sales Officer, “but quickly realize they must delegate and have support in order to grow their business efficiently.” She added that it’s crucial for them to utilize external and internal resources for everything from managing the books and making sales to marketing their business. “They just can’t do it all on their own,” she said.
With nearly 70% of their time spent on the day-to-day operations of the business, small business owners often work more than 50 hours per week, including weekends, to make their business successful. Conversely, these same business owners are only spending 32% of their time on strategic planning and growing their business. What’s more, 37.9% have indicated they’ve missed a family or social occasion at least a few times per year due to their work. Buie commented, “These business owners need holistic partnerships and trusted outside counsel in order to help them run their business more efficiently. It’s also important that they have the right tools and resources in place.”
Many business owners travel nationally and internationally so having the ability to see a global viewpoint of what’s going on within their business while on the road is necessary. “Many of our clients utilize eBanking, mobile, and remote deposit capabilities,” she said. “This frees up a lot of time so that they can manage their business without multiple trips to the bank’s brick and mortar locations.”
She added, “To help our business owners efficiently mitigate potential fraud risks,
we encourage them to take advantage of our security tools, like Check Positive Pay options, ACH Positive Pay, Dual-Control, and Account Alerts. This helps them manage any potential fraud risks from occurring and reduces time and effort spent researching those types of issues.” In fact, in a recent report, it was estimated that over half of all businesses will experience fraud at some point in their business cycle with the average loss for a small business totaling over $150,000. “It’s clear that for a business to run efficiently, the business owner must have the necessary safeguards in place to help thwart any potential fraudulent activities.”
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First Bank’s Treasury Management services offers clients increased productivity with its efficient payments processing systems and accounts receivables’ options. “We’ll work with clients to really understand the challenges they’re having with the day-to-day operations of running their business,” she said. “Depending on where they are in their business lifecycle, there are different needs for different businesses. We’ll work to truly understand what the business owner needs in order to operate his or her business more efficiently. Most importantly, this will provide more time for them to devote to growing the business and doing the things they enjoy.”
Paula Buie, Vice President/Treasury Management Sales Officer
p: (314) 692-6353
e: [email protected]
https://fitsmallbusiness.com/entrepreneurship-statistics
https://www.acfe.com/occupational-fraud.aspx