Our guide to business support services

Accessing business support services can mean outsourcing the tasks you don’t want to do or simply don’t have time for — think accounting or bookkeeping, for example. Although you might want to keep your expenses low as you scale your new business, it’s important to realise that you can’t always manage everything yourself.

By outsourcing these services to professionals, you can remain focused on your core business products or services.

You might consider keeping some of these business support services in-house and outsourcing a few, or maybe you want to outsource all of them! The decision is yours.

What are business support services?

Business support services are what they appear to be — they’re services that can help support your business. As a business owner, you’re busy wearing many hats — you don’t necessarily have time to learn how to do your own accounts or dabble with social media marketing. Instead, you can access advisory services, workshops and consultants to manage all this for you.

Types of business support services

Any aspect of your business that isn’t classed as your core service can be labelled as a business support service. So, really, anything can be outsourced.

Marketing

From website design to social media strategy, marketing consultants and freelancers can be found on platforms like People Per Hour, Fiverr, and Upwork. Alternatively, you can search for and contact marketers using LinkedIn.

Accounting

Filing your tax return can be daunting. Submitting it late or with incorrect information can lead to penalties, fines and audits. So it’s understandable many business owners hire professional accountants to take on this responsibility. Accountants can field all your tax questions and give you peace of mind when it comes to being tax-compliant.

Bookkeeping

Managing your finances, although not the most exciting thing, is essential. Without visibility into your finances, you can’t make impactful business decisions. From accounts payable and financial reporting to bank reconciliation, a bookkeeper can ensure your financial records are up-to-date. Find a local bookkeeper or consider investing in bookkeeping software to make life easier.

Legal and HR advice

Government services offer businesses plenty of useful legal and HR tools, templates and general advice for free (gov.uk). You can also sign up for useful legal and HR workshops through organisations like the Chambers of Commerce (where you can also access free HR advice through a paid membership). It’s worth checking out your local colleges, as they may also offer free clinics to new businesses.

IT services

From maintaining software systems to hardware setup, utilising IT professionals can save you a lot of time and money when it comes to tech. You need reliable digital systems to remain efficient across your business, and accessing these services can also reduce your business risk around cybersecurity threats — so it could be a worthy investment.

Business consulting

You can hire a business consultant to help you strategise for business growth, streamline your business operations, give you marketing direction, help find funding and grants, support you when buying a business, setting business goals and more. But you can also get plenty of free business support advice and funding guidance from organisations and schemes like The Princes Trust.

The world of business ownership can be a lonely place, but even though you’re focused on building your empire, you don’t have to do it alone. Making use of business support services, whether free or paid for, can free up significant resources allowing you to focus on selling your core business products.

If you’re interested in growing your business but don’t have the working capital to get started, you can apply for a business loan. A business loan can give you instant access to necessary funds whether you need to plug cash flow gaps, hire seasonal staff, pay for marketing and advertising campaigns, or want to purchase stock in bulk.

Our free loan comparison tool helps you find and compare eligible lenders in seconds. Get your free quote.