The challenges for small business owners always exist. However, it is important for startups to be able to meet them. Only 51% of businesses survive beyond their first five years of existence, failing to meet the challenges for small business owners that they face.
1. Stay passionate and motivated about your business
This is one of the biggest challenges for small business owners. It is important that you are fully passionate about your activity, your core business, around which the services offered in your company revolve. But more importantly, you have to succeed in staying enthusiastic, maintaining your level of motivation and high standards. You will thus be able to continuously offer optimal quality services, you will easily be more productive and you will be committed to constant improvement, which will guarantee a most satisfactory customer experience.
To stay motivated, you can record your goals on a clearly visible medium in your workspace, or as a wallpaper on your computer and/or smartphone. Keeping an eye on what the competition is offering can also motivate you to work harder so you don’t fall behind. And when everything seems particularly difficult and you lose hope, rethinking your initial motivations can serve as a boost to get you back on the right foot.
2. Attract and retain customers
It is generally more difficult for small businesses to attract and retain customers, because very often they do not have large enough marketing budgets to compete with medium and large companies. This is what makes it one of the toughest challenges for small business owners. However, there is no question of admitting defeat because low-budget strategies can be developed to hook more prospects, convert them into customers and retain existing ones. Customer relationship management tools (CRM) can be used in this context. CRM is a software developed to help organizations and businesses build better relationships with customers
This unique system offers you all the functionalities that a company requires, particularly in terms of communication, project and task management, contact center, or website creation. They allow the platform to be used on tablets and smartphones, and allows an unlimited number of users per account, which allows any team, regardless of size, to test all the functionalities for free and without risk. .
Online or email marketing, search engine optimization, and social media are all effective tactics for attracting and retaining customers if your budget is low.
3. Ensure quality recruitment
Among the challenges for small business owners is the ability to recruit employees with the skills necessary to grow their business. Indeed, startups must overcome particular obstacles when it comes to recruitment. And for good reason, when it comes to hiring, small businesses are in competition with medium-sized and especially large businesses. Since the latter have more resources, they are more likely to offer higher salaries, and moreover, they are more likely to benefit from a strong employer brand image.
As a small business owner, you will therefore need to be creative and original to stand out and hope to attract the ultimate workforce. The use of a recruitment firm can help you in this context.
4. Keep employees healthy
This is one of the most difficult aspects to manage, because while there is no doubt that the health of your workers is important, increased health care costs tend to make finances difficult to manage, especially for small businesses. An effective approach could be to focus more on prevention, by adopting measures aimed, for example, at reducing stress (regularly schedule moments of relaxation, frequent discussions with staff, promote fellowship, etc.).
5. Avoid bankruptcy
As a business owner, you need to spend time managing your cash flow, constantly knowing your cash balance, and forecasting your cash flow for at least the next six months. Projections will prevent you from overspending and keep your finances under control. If necessary, do not hesitate to hire an accountant to support you.
6. Have a website
Being present and communicating on the Internet has become essential for all companies. An internet user spends an average of 16 hours a week surfing the web. More than two-thirds of companies with at least 10 employees have a website and only one in ten sells on the web. A website allows you to:
- present your your products & services,
- enhance your products and/or your services, by adding photos, descriptions,
- create a direct link with your customers, survey their opinion,
- maintain and develop your turnover,
- sell you products and services online,
- inform your customers and prospects with: your contact details, your prices, your offers, etc.
7. Local SEO
Local SEO services Sydney is a branch of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It designates all the strategies and actions that improve the visibility of a company on search engines in a local geographical area.
The objective is to be well positioned in the results of local searches of Internet users. This is essential for a lot of businesses, because an increasingly large share of Google searches have a local intent, for example: a DIY store in Sydney, a bakery in Melbourne, the best hotel for my next vacation in Turkey, a sports club or the opening hours of somewhere etc. This is a crucial asset for small businesses. To better understand the extent of this trend, here are some figures and statistics:
- Out of 5 Internet users using search engines to find out about products or services, 4 do local searches
- 34% of internet users performing a local search on a computer/tablet visit a store during the day (up to 50% for those performing local searches on a smartphone!).
Being referenced locally is therefore important so as not to miss out on these customers!
Conclusion:
Now you know more about the biggest problems for small business owners and plausible solutions to address them. It’s up to you to determine which ones are best for you to meet your challenges!
