A business often depends on employees to do most of the legwork for it. Without employees, your business would be nothing. Well, this is the case for some companies, particularly those with thousands of hard-working employees. But, for a small business, can it be beneficial to have as few full-time employees as possible?

It might seem as though you’re not doing yourself any favors, but it can genuinely provide numerous advantages if you keep your ranks as thin as you can. Here’s how you will benefit from not employing lots of full-time staff:

Avoid complicated regulations

There are so many different business regulations in the world for you to contend with. Indeed, you are going to have to learn many of them and abide by them as a small business without many employees. However, there are other regulations and things that only apply to businesses of a certain size. Take ACA compliance as a perfect example, it only kicks into action when you have 50 or more full-time employees. If your business is smaller than this, you have one less thing to worry about. It can be very frustrating getting caught up in the dozens of regulations you have to deal with when you employ lots of people. So, keeping your workforce as small as possible means you can avoid this. 

Save a lot of money

Not hiring full-time employees will help your business save a considerable amount of money. For starters, you don’t have to pay for their wages or benefits. Already, that’s a massive chunk of money you save year after year. 

Secondly, if you don’t have that many employees, you don’t need to work out of an office that can accommodate them. This means you can save money on a smaller office – or just work remotely. 

The more employees you have, the more expensive it becomes to keep them all happy. You may have to provide bonuses and raises, but there’s also the concern that people leave your business for another one. As a result, you then have to spend a lot of money trying to hire replacements. If you keep your ranks as tight as possible, you don’t have to worry about any of these financial issues. 

What if you need employees to help you do your job?

It’s okay to hire a handful of full-time employees, just keep the numbers as low as you can. One great alternative is to outsource jobs to other companies or individuals. Yes, you have to pay to outsource, but it is considerably cheaper than hiring full-time employees. Plus, they aren’t your employees, so you don’t have to worry about certain regulations. Outsource as many essential services as you can, reducing the need for full-time employees. 

Ultimately, a business without that many full-time employees will be easier and more affordable to run. That’s the basic conclusion you can draw from this. If you’re thinking about starting a new business, try to avoid hiring too many people. There may come a time when you need extra help, but look into outsourcing or doing as much by yourself as you can to save money and avoid extra stress.