Solutions To Issues That Will Push Your Small Business Out Of The Market

How to increase your market share

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Running a small business is always going to present challenges that larger company owners won’t encounter. Cost is certainly an issue that you’ll need to consider. When you run a small company, your budget is going to be far more limited. You’ll need to choose what areas of your business need extra funding. There are always ways to cut back but, if you make the wrong decision, it could damage the prospects of your company. An example would be cutting out a section of your business and not replacing it with anything. For instance, it’s understandable that you don’t want to pay the wages of a full HR team. That’s going to be a massive expense, and the bottom line is you probably can’t afford it. However, unless you’re a solopreneur, you are going to need something that fills the role of HR. Otherwise, problems with employees could drag your business right down. This isn’t the only issue that you’ll face as a small business owner.

Let’s examine and dissect some of the other problems you might face on the market this year. As well as this, let’s look at the solutions and make sure you aren’t forced out of the market before 2017.

Stretching Yourself Too Thin

This plays into the idea of having a limited budget. With a limited budget, you are going to try to save money by covering more jobs yourself. Instead of hiring more staff, you’ll take on more responsibilities. Unfortunately, this will commonly lead to several issues. You may experience times when you are completely exhausted unable to perform your duties as the owner of business. If you have spent the previous day managing the accounts, you won’t be in the right frame of mind to deal with an important client meeting. You may fail to impress the client or even damage an existing relationship.

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It’s important that small business owners embrace the concept of delegation. You can read more about delegation on Huffingtonpost.com. You can’t rely on yourself to complete all the jobs. If you do this, things will slip through the cracks. You won’t be able to deliver a quality service to your customers. You will struggle to expand the reach of your company by signing on new clients.

You might also want to look into the possibility of automation. With automated software, some of the processes in your business can be completed using technology. For instance, NetSuite is a fantastic automated management system for your finances. It will take the issue of handling the accounts off your hands. Better still, you won’t need to hire anyone else to complete the job.

Failing To Stay Ahead Of The Curve

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As a small business owner, it’s understandable that you’ll get wrapped up in the idea of keeping your customers happy. Customer satisfaction is important and by maintaining relationships with existing customers; you’ll encourage loyalty. Loyal consumers will keep your business afloat, even during times of economic difficulty.

However, you still need to spend time researching the competition and keeping a check on the rest of the market. Retaining existing customer interest is fantastic, but you should also be looking to grow your customer base. You can only do this by offering more than the competition. Or, at the very least, keeping up with what they have to offer. If you don’t do this, new customers won’t give your business a second glance. You’ll lose them before you even get a chance to arrange promotion.

These days, it’s easy to keep up with the latest trends and updates. You can keep a check on hashtags and set Google alerts. You can even follow your competition so when they make an announcement, you’ll know immediately. This will avoid you encountering any surprises that could affect the revenue level of your business.

If you have time, you should also attend business events and exhibitions at least once a year. Make a point of showcasing your business, what it has to offer and where it stands in the industry. By doing this, you show that your company is a key player on the market. Not just to your clients but investors as well.

Keeping The Company Secure

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If your business is breached by a virus or a hack, it could cripple your company. You won’t be able to perform or offer any services to customers and clients. As such, you do need to take the threat of a security breach seriously. You should not assume that the possibility of a breach affecting your business is small. It doesn’t matter how big your company is or how strong its position is on the market. A security breach should always be a concern.

There are easy, cheap and effective ways to deal with this problem. One of the main areas of security that you need to focus on is IT. These days, you’re most vulnerable online because that’s where all the sensitive information is. I’m talking about, customer purchasing information, bank accounts, and investments. You may not realize this, but even a virus on your computer could pose a threat to this information. A hack could lead you to the point of disaster recovery.

With an IT team, you can get through a disaster recovery in minutes. Without them, it can take days or even weeks. During this time, your business is off the market and unable to compete. You can research more about disaster recovery on a site such as ATB-Tech.com.

Winning A New Contract

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As a small business owner, you’re always going to be facing competition from bigger companies with more resources and capital. In certain industries, you might be seeking government contracts. Will you get these as a small business owner? Most likely the answer is no. They want a company that offers the lowest bid, at a level that you can’t afford. What are your options in this situation?

You could target smaller contracts that are more affordable for your business. Although it might be appealing, you don’t need to aim for the contracts that offer the highest level of profit. Alternatively, you can use outsourcing to make your business seem like it has greater levels of resources. With outsourcing, a solopreneur can look like a powerhouse corporation on the market. As well as this, there are always ways to make your company look larger. For instance, you can check out something like Orega.com. There, you’ll be able to purchase a virtual office and make it seem like you are a major player on the market. Doing this, you will attract interest from B2B companies offering larger contracts.

Hiring Employees

Hiring employees presents a massive cost issue for small business owner. A recent report revealed that the cost of hiring, training and managing employees. It could cost as much as three times an employee's actual salary. You’re not just paying the wages. You’re taking on everything else that comes with it. For small business owners, this might just be one cost too far. Particularly, with the increased pressure of providing healthcare to employees. A cost like this might be easy for a Fortune 500 business to manage. But not an SBO.

On the other hand, there are a few solutions to this problem. First, it’s becoming increasingly popular to hire employees without offering a permanent contract. Instead, you recruit freelancers, and the benefits are massive. You no longer have to provide benefits such as paid sick leave, health care or any other costs. Instead, you’re only responsible for paying their wage.

You may also want to consider whether you need to hire employees at all. Instead, you can again, using outsourcing businesses. You get the services of using their employees without the high costs typically associated with labor. These are the solutions that SBOs need to consider. Otherwise, you’ll be putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on your business model.

Depending Heavily On Certain Clients

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As a small business, you might not have a large list of clients. Instead, you might have a few important clients that offer big contracts. Then, there are ten or so more that offer minor profits for your business. That’s your basic model and guess what? It’s a disaster waiting to happen. If your business is reliant on one client for a massive portion of your annual income, you’re in a dangerous situation. Think about what happens if that client walks away. Suddenly, you’re barely making any money at all. You can learn more about client dependance on Isb.sagepub.com.

To ensure the longevity of your business, you need to create diversity in your client list. Don’t just rely on big client contracts to keep you afloat. Reach out to small companies and grow leads in your business. You need to make sure that as many people are using your business as possible. In that situation, if you lose a major client it will be a hard knock. It won’t however, take you out of the running completely.

As you can see, there are issues that you’ll deal with on the market that big business owners laugh about. That doesn’t mean you can’t compete with these major companies. If you handle these challenges effectively, you can be a powerhouse no matter how small your company is.

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