The Roles of a Small Business Owner

Hello! If you’re reading this, you might be thinking of starting your own small business. If so, that’s super cool and you should definitely do it! If you’re here because you’re just curious, that is also awesome! Whatever your reason, thanks for being here. We hope this blog provides some insight into what goes on behind the scenes of starting and running a small business. Before we start, we want to note that we wrote this regarding our e-commerce business so this list may vary from the business you may be interested in starting.

When we say running a small business is a lot of work, we mean it. There are a lot of roles you have to play in maintaining your own small business. Of course, you can hire people externally to help you, but it can be hard to find the right person and it often time isn't very cost-effective. For us, hiring someone to help isn’t really an option right now, but we’re (thankfully) skilled in many areas and that really saved us when starting Sage & Oak. You don’t have to be professional or multi-talented to run your own small business. You just need to have drive and determination.

Below we’ll include a list of all the jobs we do on a (mostly) daily basis. We’re also going to include a brief description of what they mean to give you a better idea of the tasks at hand.

Accountant

We would love to hire an accountant to keep track of our income, expenses, and taxes, but we just aren’t ready yet. Accounting is very important so make sure you pay close attention to the numbers and do lots of research on the taxes you may have to pay. It's better to take the time to make sure your books are in order than it is to ignore them and get surprised later. Nobody wants a large bill from the IRS saying you forgot to pay your taxes.

Taylor advertising Sage & Oak on her forehead for social media.

Advertiser

An advertiser’s job is to do just that. Advertise. You’ll dive into market research to figure out what people are interested in, then use that information with your design/sales skills to create We’ll admit we don’t currently use paid ads because that’s just a lot more work than we have time for right now, but they’re super helpful! They’ll increase your reach to the demographics you select. You probably see ads every day so you know how powerful they can be for growing a brand. When you’re ready and established, using paid ads is a great way to bring people in.

Blog Writer

Hello, hi, it’s me. I’m writing this blog right now. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Blogs are very useful because they give you a chance to provide valuable information for people who might be searching for it. For example, say you’re looking into starting your own small business and have a couple of questions first. Maybe you’re wondering what all roles you’ll have to play as a small business owner. That’s where this blog comes in. You’ll search for your question and you’ll get lots of results, sure. However, if your blog ranks in Google, people are likely to click on it and read it. Know what else is on your website? Your products. Bam. Bringing people to your website like a pro.

Community Relationship Manager

Building relationships with other businesses and people around your city is so important. You can help others grow and in turn, they can help you as well. Join local Facebook groups, attend events, make connections. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to people and put yourself out there. Do what you can to help your community and that help will be reciprocated. After all, it does take a village.

Our favorite thing to do is shop local and support other small businesses. When you guys come in and check out our shop, it makes us so incredibly happy and we hope we can pass on that feeling to others. 

Content Creator

Content creators are responsible for quite literally making content. This includes the videos you see on TikTok, the sale posts you see from businesses, and everything in-between. You’ll write copy for social media as well as planning what you’re going to share. This is one of the most time-consuming jobs we have but it is definitely rewarding.

Customer Relationship Builder

This is very similar to the social media manager role, but make it in-person. Forming positive relationships with your customers makes it more likely they’ll keep supporting you. It’s also nice to just make connections with people after a year in quarantine. We have made a lot of customers out of our friends, but we have also enjoyed making friends out of our customers. Talk to your customers, ask them for feedback. Give them an experience they’ll tell their friends about. It’s all about how you treat others.

Customer Service Agent

Every so often we get emails from our customers with questions about sales or products. It would be rude to just ignore them, so we take a few minutes out of each day (if we can) to respond to your emails. Having outstanding customer service skills is important when starting a business. If a potential customer tries to contact your business and they feel ignored or inadequately informed about your products, then they will not be very likely to purchase from you. When dealing with any aspect of customer service for your business, just try your best to communicate clearly and kindly. If you provide a customer with a good experience they are much more likely to purchase from you again.

Taylor sketching logo concepts on Procreate.

Graphic Designer

I am a freelance graphic designer that works with many businesses, bands, brands, etc., so this is my favorite role. Every day, I work on creating social media posts, website graphics, labels, new product designs, etc. Basically, everything you see has some form of graphic design work put into it. I personally think this is among the most important jobs because this is what people see first and that first impression could make or break a brand.

Inventory Taker

You guessed it. You’re going to need to frequently count inventory to make sure things are as they should be and so you know when to order/create more products. On days we’re open, we count inventory several times and write it down in a grid notebook. You’ll develop your own system, and whatever works, works. Just keep in mind it is up to you to keep track.

IT Director

IT directors are in charge of things like your internet and your computer (and other devices you may use). You’d call the IT department for things like your printer when it’s not printing or your computer when it’s not turning on. I went to high school for IT Academy and I’m so thankful for that. So far we haven’t had any real issues we couldn’t fix ourselves. 

Marketing

There are many categories to marketing, but most commonly, it’s the process of attracting people to your business and converting them to customers. It’s the plan you’ll create to help turn potential prospects into customers. There are many umbrellas in marketing such as advertising, promoting, public relations, etc.

Materials Shopper

This is essentially just your grocery shopper, but with materials for your business instead. This can be a fun job (if you know what you need and make a list). Too many times we go to the store without a list and come out with things we don’t need and have to make special trips to go back for the things we do. It’s pretty awful. Always plan first.

Order Fulfiller

If you’re an e-commerce business, you’re going to have orders to fulfill and possibly ship. Before we started the pop-up inside of Sip & Dipity, we were only an online e-commerce business. We only shipped our products because we didn’t have a retail space for people to pick up their orders. When you order online for shipping, we go to the shop, grab everything you ordered (and some things you didn’t), bring it home, and package it up! If you selected in-store pickup, we let our children fulfill your order because they adore it and we leave it up at the shop with your name on it. 

Taylor taking a picture of our new “Take a cutting, leave a cutting

Photographer

From product shots to photos of the inside of your shop, photography is very important to a brand. This is something you shouldn’t do lazily. Your product photos sell a product and with bad photos, your products likely will be harder to sell. Thankfully you don't have to be a professional to handle the job of photographer for your brand or business. Investing money into making sure you have a fairly high-quality camera and taking the time to do a little editing is all it really takes to handle being your own photographer. There are tons of videos out there that can help you with your product photography, you just have to look for it.

Product Developer

Developing products can be tricky and tedious, but likely is what your business is all about. You’ll spend a lot of your time trying to develop new products to keep your customers coming back as well as products that will get the attention of potential customers. Dream big, have fun, and remember to keep your target audience in mind when deciding what products your business is going to sell.

Product Tester

Before launching products for sale, it’s in your best interest to test the products before doing so. For example, if you make candles, make sure you burn them all the way through to ensure they burn properly and safely. Properly testing your products not only helps ensure your products are safe for consumers, but will also save you a lot of hassle in the long run. It would look awful for your business to get a bad review because your products were not properly tested or don't live up to the expectations both you and your customers have for your products. More than once we have had to redesign a product after testing it because it wasn't at a standard we were proud of. That’s okay though. That’s how you get better.

Researcher

Lots of research will be done if you start your own small business (unless you’re super smart and have experience in it). We spend weeks researching taxes, business models, plans, licenses, the market, etc., before we make any decision. Make sure you know what you’re getting into so you can plan accordingly. No amount of research will prevent tiny problems from arising that you’ll have to handle to keep your business running, but doing adequate research will better prepare you to handle those problems efficiently.

Salesperson

When you have a retail space, you’re going to have to take payments. That’s the salesperson’s job. They’ll man the register to check people out if they’re making a purchase. Can’t forget to bag their items and give them an envelope with free goodies in it. If you visit the shop, likely you’ll see our children trying to fulfill this role for us. They try really hard so sorry in advance if they try to push something onto you.

Taylor working behind the counter.

SEO Writer

After your website is finished, you should work on SEO. Search Engine Optimization is basically optimizing your website to increase the likelihood of it ranking in Google. You know how you search for something and the specific link you’re looking for might not be on the first page of Google's results? This has to do with SEO. You’ll do keyword research and use keywords based on what people search for. Your SEO settings will be found in your website builder and you can use Google’s Keyword Planner to help you.

Social Media Manager

A social media manager monitors all your social profiles, responds to questions, comments, and messages. We like to lump social media into one category - the planning, the creating, the executing, and then responding. Of all the jobs we do running our business, running our social media literally takes up the most amount of time and it’s honestly not something we love to do. Running a good social media account takes a lot of research, planning, and time for something that might not reach very many people. We spend a lot of time creating graphics and videos for them to only be seen by 3 or 4 people and it can be discouraging to see your hard work go unseen, but you have to keep trying. Make your presence known and don’t stop posting. You never know when a customer might check out your social media but you do know what they might see when they do. They will see the content you’ve worked so hard on. 

Stocker

As you sell products, you’ll need to fill the shelves back up. Stocking always feels great because you’re putting more products on the shelves likely because people have purchased them! It’s such a good feeling. We love stocking our shelves (and baskets). Stocking is like watching your little business plant blossom.

Tax Payer

With all businesses, if you make money, you owe money. As a self-employed individual, you are responsible for paying self-employment taxes and sales tax since they aren’t being done for you. This is our least favorite part, obviously. Making sure you are paying all of the taxes that are expected of you can be a major headache but it's nowhere near as big of a headache as dealing with the fees and consequences that not paying your taxes correctly might bring.

Web Developer

To sell your products online, you’ll need a website. If you want to only sell in-store, that’s perfectly fine, too. It’s okay if you’re not familiar with coding and web development. There are options out there for drag-and-drop builders to help people with little to no experience create a great website that will help further grow your business. Remember, your website is important. Make sure it flows well, answers questions people may have, and functions properly (both on mobile and desktop devices.) There’s nothing worse than finding a mistake on your website after it’s been launched. 

Never forget, good things take time.

This isn’t truly a complete list as things change all the time and we for sure have forgotten some jobs. We’re only human and to be honest, that list was kind of hard to compile. It’s not easy to think of everything you do daily on the spot like this. We mostly just think of it as one big job we need to do, not the individual titles that go along with it.

Don’t let this list scare you- that’s not what the purpose of this blog is. It may seem daunting because maybe you don’t know these skills yet. That’s okay! You don’t have to be skilled in all of these fields to be able to manage your own small business. It takes drive, determination, patience, and a willingness to learn. Reach out to people for help. People are eager to teach if you’re ready to learn. Reach out to us with any questions you might have and we’ll help out as much as we can!

Thanks for reading our fifth blog. This one was a really fun one to write because it showed us just how much work we put into our small business. It was honestly pretty eye-opening, so maybe now we will start being easier on ourselves about not accomplishing all of our tasks for the day. Who are we kidding? That’s never going to happen.

However, we are so much more proud of ourselves than we ever thought we could be. We put our all into our small business and it feels so good to see our growth. Some days it is really hard to want to push on, but looking back to see how far we’ve come since we started is a great reason to push on.

We hope you learned something from this blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We’d love to try and help you in any way we can!

Also as a special thank you for reading this blog, take 10% off your next order with promo code: “BLOG10”!