As a small business owner or manager, you have to make tough choices every day to keep your business afloat.

But since you can't do everyone's jobs for them, it's important to focus on a few key business best practices in order to help your company be successful right from the start. With that in mind, here are a few small business best practices to help your company excel.

Business Best Practice #1: Communicate proactively.

Running a small business can be difficult, especially with only a small number of staff members you can count on to help you achieve your vision. Because of this, it can be easy to respond only when a client initiates communication. While this makes things easier on your end, it can often leave clients feeling left in the dark.

By taking simple, proactive steps to answer questions or concerns before a client thinks to ask, you can easily make clients feel more involved and important. "Official" correspondence and updates about important topics related to their account are great, but even something like a short weekly or bi-weekly email about the status of a project can make a significant difference in your relationship with clients.

Business Best Practice #2: Respond quickly and efficiently.

Those in sales will know that when you get a new business lead, it's important to respond right away. This will not only give you a better chance of securing the lead, but will also give a good first impression to the potential future client.

This same principle can (and should) also be applied to clients who reach out with questions or concerns. It's important to be diligent with your response time to let customers know they are important to you. On top of that, it's crucial to ensure your team members are responding with the same level of urgency.

A good rule of thumb is the 45-minute rule: When you receive a phone call, email, text, etc. from a client, always strive to respond within 45 minutes. Even if you don't have a concrete answer or solution, just letting the client know you received their message and are working on it can go a long way to making your clients feel heard and valued.

Business Best Practice #3: Work with an experienced HR firm.

Human resources, benefits and payroll are essential functions that small businesses often struggle with. While it can be tempting to try to manage HR and payroll completely in-house, doing so can take away time and focus from functions that actually help drive business growth.

Because this work is so important, you have to get it right. By outsourcing payroll and working with an HR consultant, you can rest assured that all of those needs are being taken care of properly, and in turn decrease your business' exposure to risk.

Business Best Practice #4: Hire smart.

While it may be tempting to hire only the most experienced professionals, it can actually be more beneficial to hire an applicant who has a great attitude and train them for the position. In doing this, you'll ensure that the applicant really wants the position and will work hard to impress you because they feel like you gave them a chance.

Another way to help your business hire smart is to use some sort of recruiting tool, like an applicant tracking system. In fact, 75% of hiring managers use recruiting software or applicant tracking in order to help improve their company's hiring process.

If you keep these business best practices in mind, you're sure to have a successful start to your small business.

Managing a small business presents many challenges, but following business best practices will help you make sure everything is running smoothly.