Small business entrepreneurship comes with its struggles with a variety of issues, including acquiring clients and obtaining cheap health care. Entrepreneur Garen Armstrong lists 6 typical issues that small businesses encounter and provide solutions.
1. Customer acquisition and marketing
Garen Armstong’s small business entrepreneurship guidance is to Get More Clients. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done to develop a strong clientele. Here are some suggestions for attracting new clients:
- Decide who your ideal client is.
Finding out who your ideal consumer is is where it all starts. You will be shooting in the dark if not. Prioritize who should get your message. Make a buyer persona as a starting point.
- Promote oneself as an authority
Make sure your blog is active and that you regularly produce free, informative information for your potential clients. Selling your services will be a lot simpler once you’ve established your expertise.
- Demand recommendations
Utilize your current consumer base. Ask your customers whether they know anyone who might use your service or skills on a regular basis.
- Networking
Networking’s power should never be underrated. It is a fantastic approach to finding new leads, pinpointing best practices, and keeping up with industry trends.
- Updating your website
Update your website frequently with fresh material. Have a blog that is updated frequently. Make your website SEO-friendly. Make sure that pages load quickly. Ensure that your website is both mobile-friendly and simple to read.
- Speak at or support a related occasion
Look for regional opportunities to present yourself to a particular audience at a business-related event. This offers a special opportunity for networking while being a low-cost technique of marketing your service.
2. Planning for succession
A strategy for transferring authority, including frequently the ownership of a business, to a subordinate is succession. It also goes by the name “replacement planning,” and it makes sure that operations keep going smoothly even if the most crucial members of a company leave for other employment opportunities, retire, or pass away.
Sadly, less than 25% of small firms in Canada have a documented succession plan. This lack of preparation could put the company’s finances in danger, resulting in knowledge and experience loss and result in unfulfilled customer needs. Seven stages are suggested by Robert Half for effective succession planning.
3. Choosing talented candidates
Even though most individuals want to work for smaller firms, hiring and recruiting are always a challenge for small enterprises. According to Indeed, finding the ideal person for their company is a challenge for 56% of small businesses.
It’s challenging to compete with larger businesses for great employees. Large enterprises profit from exceptional perk packages and high salaries. Lack of brand recognition, limited recruiting tools, and an informal hiring procedure can all be problems for small businesses.
It is advised to work with a recruiter. Discovering the ideal match will pay off in the long run, even if finding and vetting the best individuals initially costs more money.
4. Owner Exhaustion
Small business owner burnout is a major liability for the company. Even the most resilient people can become worn out by long hours and ongoing performance pressure. Many small business entrepreneurs postpone vacations and neglect their health in order to manage their enterprises. It sometimes seems impossible to strike the ideal balance between work and life. Fortunately, small business owners have a lot of burnout recovery options at their disposal.
5. Investment in growth
The correct people must be hired, the technology must be improved, and a marketing plan must be launched. Unfortunately, more than two-thirds of business owners struggle to get the funding they need to expand. Garen Armstrong shares his best advice regarding small business entrepreneurship:
One explanation is that lenders are aware of the fact that most small enterprises fail. It is crucial to comprehend how a small business loan functions in order to increase your chances of obtaining funding. If a conventional lender is not an option, you might wish to check into alternative online lenders or investors interested in purchasing stock in your business.
6. Medical care
Offering health insurance to employees is one of the most difficult issues that small businesses must deal with. Traditional health insurance policies are sometimes pricy, constrained, and challenging. These insurance policies are typically neither flexible nor cost-effective for small businesses because they are made for huge corporations. The Health Spending Account is a more affordable option than traditional insurance (HSA). A tax-deductible health and dental plan with no premiums are known as an HSA. Consider learning more about an HSA to see how it can save your healthcare expenses while providing your staff with top-notch coverage.
Small business entrepreneurship has its challenges but just like Garen Armstrong, if you persist through those challenges you can grow exponentially bigger than you ever expected.