Overcoming Small Business Challenges
The future can look bleak when starting a small business. According to the U.K. Office for National Statistics, six out of ten businesses starting in the U.K. today won’t make it to 2020. In the United States things are only marginally better with Small Business Administration research showing two-thirds of new businesses close their doors within the first two years and only about half survive the first five years. This may sound like a depressing number for a small business owner, but you can avoid becoming just another statistic by being aware of the most common small business challenges—and how to handle them.
Have a Complete Business Plan
Owning and running a small business is a time-consuming process, and owners often spend too much time working in their business instead of working on it.
Having a business plan will help you determine where you want your business to be and the steps that you need to get there. A complete business plan should include a description of the business, a market analysis, a competitor assessment, a marketing plan, an operating plan, and a financial plan. Having a sound and highly structured business plan will help you keep your eye on the prize before you get bogged down by the day-to-day running of your business.
Attract and Retain Customers
Getting customers, and subsequently keeping them, is one of the most difficult challenges a small business owner will face; it doesn’t matter how good of a product or service you offer if you don’t have any customers. Your marketing budget is probably nowhere near big enough to compete against well-established competitors, so you’ll have to leverage your social media skills, get a good understanding of SEO, and hone your online and email marketing skills.
Once you’ve built a client base, you’ll need to effectively manage your customers. There are plenty of cloud-based apps for CRM, Customer Service, and Customer Support that can help you do this. These apps let you automate the process of recording and storing customer information, ultimately helping you deliver a better customer experience.
Manage Your Finances
Starting a new business is a massive drain on finances, and its common for small businesses not to be able to recuperate these costs sufficiently enough to ensure long-term success. Here, the importance of understanding your current financial state and your business’s cash flow can’t be stressed enough.
You need to know how much money is coming in and going out so that you don’t overspend and are able to cover your expenses. Failure to do so could have catastrophic consequences, which is why managing your business finances is one of the most time-consuming and stressful, but important, activities you’ll have to deal with. An accounting app can be invaluable because you’ll have all your financial information on one platform, including tools that enable you to accept payments online, generate invoices, give you late payment reminders, and help with time tracking, among other key functions.
Realistically, the challenges of starting a small business aren’t limited to these three criteria, but they are the stepping stones—and the most daunting tasks–you’ll have to face as a small business owner starting a new business. If you don’t want your business to be just another statistic, stay on top of your game by tackling your business plan, garnering users, and planning your finances before you get too caught up with working in the business instead of working on it.
