Ask questions. Get answers.

I would say don't hire a mentor, hire a consultant. Banks and other large companies hire consultants all the time to introduce you processes and technology into their business.

Talk to sales reps. If you want to improve different areas of your business, speak to sales from the service providers. They will help you get an understanding of how their product can help. Speak to enough sales reps and you will get a better understanding of the industry and ways you can improve your current processes.

You could hire a consultant and I would recommend that. However not until you talk to sales reps first and do some industry recon first. Research your industry, know more about the tech that is available, then look at a consultant. Then you can get value for money out of them.

I have companies call asking for help however they don't really know their industry. They don't research and they don't want to change anything. They just want someone to talk to and let off steam. I have no interest in that and nor to most consultants I know.

A consultant should be able to walk in. Identify issues and put forward solutions. If your not willing or can't afford to make changes, your not in a position to hire a consultant. Prior to hiring a consultant you should have a basic understanding of what your pains are.

Are your processes taking too long. Is your spend too high vs return. Do you want to automate more. Just speaking with a consultant over the phone prior to hiring them, they should be able to tell you. Yes or No, around how much to actually make changes in your business.

If the consultant can't give you a basic understanding of what you should expect and how much to impliment change. Then call someone else.

Samantha,

That is a great question and as a solo entrepreneur myself, I've run into this issue as well. When I first started out, I was keeping track on post-it notes. Crazy right? But I was so focused on the product and making the sale that I was much less concerned than I should have been about keeping track.

I eventually created a spread sheet. I still use a version of the spreadsheet, but I try to capture all my sales electronically as they happen. This could be swiping their card using my Square dongle which generates the invoice or just printing out a paper invoice and keeping a copy until I can manually enter it into the system.

I'm working toward keeping track in a cloud based accounting system, but I haven't quite made it there yet. I'm hopeful to get that done in the coming months.

Do you literally mean "SEO" or more generally "digital marketing"?

I would argue that "SEO" is a methodology that should just be a natural part of everything you do on your web site.It is now the rules and tips on how Google would like to see information, and how to help people searching. 

A simple analogy would be to say that paragraphs and grammer are tools for "Human Reading Optimisation". And you would never ask "who should use grammer?"

But there is also a difference between asking "should I use grammer" and "should I write something?" Or "what should I write?"

That's a digital marketing strategy. Now there are lots of ways of doing it:
- web site

- facebook page

- landing page

- youtube channel

- instagram

- etc etc etc

And then there is the question of organic (i.e. hope they will come) versus paid traffic. 

Should you pay someone to make these decisions and/or implement them?

That is hopefully what your question is.

I have now been in business for 20 years and I swing between doing it inhouse and doing it externally. Interestingly, it is as my business grows that I change. 

And note that I said "inhouse" and not "myself".

Noreen, I don't think I can provide a comprehensive answer to your question, but I'll add my own experience to the mix.

I recently switched from one content management system (CMS) to another. The previous one had a database. The new one did not (flat-file). I kept the URL structure exactly the same for porting over all the old articles I had written.

Note of importance: ensure that you have a global redirect (404 page) setup. This page can be simple, but should at least have the global website navigation. The file where this information needs changed is the ".htaccess" file. If you know your way around code you can change it yourself. If not, you can search and find boilerplate code to use.

Some content management systems by default don't use "search engine friendly" URL structures. The result is something like "yourdomain.com/blog/12420291942.php" that doesn't mean much to your users or search engines. Even if a user bookmarks such a page, they may not remember what it is about without revisiting it.

So if you switch to search engine friendly URL structure (usually referred to as the "mod rewrite" - again search for more detail) search engines and users will be able to make more sense of your content. Having redirects (permanent or temporary) in place will also funnel people that try to visit old links to a page that can refocus their search for your content.

One of the options we like best is Employment Hero. It has helped us avoid headaches with employee management (and payroll), and it integrates directly with Xero. It also handles employee onboarding, which is so important in the scheme of attracting and retaining great employees. 

There is a free option to get started, but you need to pay (minimum $99 per month at $6 per employee) to really unlock all the benefits. 

As Sonia King mentioned there are a lot, but this one is an Australian-based business and we like it for all its features. We wrote a review on it too, in case this is helpful.