5 Ways to Improve Your Small Business

Like plants, small businesses need certain key factors in place in order to grow into the
businesses they dream of becoming. Considered different forms of nourishment, these specific proponents give the small business the power to face its potential, understand it and thereby know how to grow to meet the demand. Should you refuse the challenge, chances are the brand will stagnate and never realize its true potential.

Think Small
Contrary to the idea that "bigger is better," smaller is actually preferred for smaller teams. Instead of spreading yourself thin, focus on what you do well and specialize. While it's visually pleasing to fill a web page with words expanding upon your various talents in the hope that at least one will attract attention, words are not as strong as referrals. By going the route of the expert, you are able to more easily find clients and start building those ever so important relationships that put you in the role of a trusted advisor. These then translate to steady income which can be used to expand once you are ready. Aside from the support, smaller and fewer projects give you the opportunity to iron out any kinks in both work flow and customer service. After all, these two things are much harder to control as you spread the brand further.

Think Speed
When you envision customers now and customers of the future, what do you see? Mobile phones, one touch ordering and unbelievably fast check-out systems. This means investing in top of the line point of sale systems and mobile payment methods is essential if only for survival alone. A great POS is more than just for the customer benefit, however. The best software provides insight on peak hours and sales trends, and it’s flexible enough to be used in various types of businesses. These metrics then give you a means by which you can plan how to shape your future business strategy. If you ever hope to expand, the more you can streamline, the more time you'll have to take on bigger projects.

Think Connectivity
Consumers these days are all about being connected. Mainly through the upswing of the prominence of social media, customers that contact companies through means such as Twitter or Facebook are expecting some form of acknowledgement. Don't ignore them. Ignoring them is basically stating that you do not care about them and their opinion. As true or false as this may be, it is never a good message to even imply. More than this, however, customers are a key resource in expanding your brand. They are more than happy to tell you what they want and what they will pay more for. Don't take everything they say at face value but do consider the thoughts of the majority. If you play your cards right, your appeased fan base will begin telling their friends about you, growing your customer base for free.

Think Metrics
source: www.good.is
Metrics, as we all know, come in as many colors as there are in the rainbow. From measuring employee satisfaction to predicting revenue, most decisions in a company, no matter its size, are based on numbers. As a small business, tracking everything is a little beyond your capabilities. Instead, narrow down the most important facets that you want to change heading into the future. Sales revenue, customer retention, cost of customer acquisition, productivity, gross margin, monthly profit, overhead costs, variable cost percentage, inventory size and hours worked per process are the ten most important for growing companies. Each one provides you a way to see how well you are doing while clearly highlighting places that need improvement.

Think Flexibility or Efficiency
The important thing here is to never mix the two. As you expand, choose one or the other. Research published in the Strategic Management Journal shows that small companies focusing in either flexibility or communication do much better than those that try to bridge both at once. This further backs up the earlier point that focus is critical to achieving early success at such a vulnerable position. When deciding between the two, remember to choose the one your team is actually good at and not the one you prefer. While wanting to change things up every six months keeps the brand exciting, it will be useless should you not have a team capable of performing overhauls in such short time spans.

Any small business has the potential to become a corporation given enough time and the right decisions. By knowing your company and knowing its capabilities, you can utilize them to upgrade the most important aspects. From integrated POS to defined metrics, planning for the future should never be an amorphous ideal.