No business attribute is more important today as that of adaptability, as many, many businesses are on the brink of irrelevance … unless they change as fast as change itself. Study these 20 small business struggles. They will alert you to common mistakes to avoid and help you adapt. In avoiding them you will increase your chances of business success.
Your strategies on success do run out of steam, get old, and become ineffective. You need to keep refreshing them based on your anticipation of the next change.
Check out our thoughts on team leverage.
With the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.
Building a small business for failure? Certainly not. But results show many more failures than successes. In 7 out of 8 industry sectors.
From a November 2012 article by Scott Shane, his results showed a services sector rate of success of 47% and a retail sector success rate of 41%. For businesses started in 2005. Not very enduring.
Why you may ask? Many reasons. Two of the top reasons … poor cash flow planning and not enough capital resources.
So what other mistakes can a small business avoid to improve its success besides having more cash as a safety net? Consider these 28 you should avoid improving your success rate:
Weak to no competitive advantages
Quite simply, if you can’t build and sustain competitive advantages, don’t start the business. Best places to look for advantages? Customer service and convenience. Find ways to save customers more time in solving their problems than your competitors.
No focus on customer relationships
Customer relationship building is not rocket science. Build customer relationships like you make friends. Be pleasant, social … wear a smile and a nametag. All things being equal, people like doing business with their friends. Not very good at making friends? Maybe a small business is not for you.
Lacking target customers
You can’t be a business that is all things to all people. Do you know who your target customers are? Your ideal customers? If not, you need to get busy.
No attention on customer value
Look for customer value in places you might not expect to find it. Have you thought about building a synergistic alliance and relationships with other businesses? Relationships that create customer value that neither business could create on their own?
No focus on customer follow-up
Promptly follow up with your customers will be noticed. Go the extra mile. And always, always, always keep your promises.
Ignoring the little things
How many times have you surprised customers by doing little things that were not expected? Here is an example.
My favorite florist always insists on taking my vase of flowers out to my car and setting it up so it won’t get knocked over. Consistently. A little thing, yes. But it makes a difference.
Remember, the more you engage with customers, the more you can own the moment. And the better your understanding of their needs and from these insights the easier it is for you to win new advocates.
Limited focus on business plan
It’s not clear to us why business plans are the way they are, but they’re often focused on too many things. If you want to maximize success, the key is to focus on five topics. We recommend dividing the business plan into these five sections and use them to manage your business:
- Competitive analysis
Market research and analysis
- Marketing plan
Financial plan and cash flow
- Short versus long term