Challenges Every Small Business Faces (and how to fix them)
Small businesses are essential and always will be, essential. They provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and create meaningful jobs with greater job satisfaction than positions with larger, traditional companies. They foster local economies, keep the money close to home, and support neighborhoods and communities.
The first few years of business can be really hard. Small companies come up against many different challenges. Some are much harder than others to overcome. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of small businesses fail by the end of the first year followed by 50% in five years, and by the 10th year, it will have climbed to 80%.
With those meek survival statistics, it’s easy to see why people face the first few years of business with such uneasiness. There are many common business problems and challenges that owners face and many are actually fixable. So step back, assess your problem points, and rethink your strategy.
I made a list of common challenges that small businesses may face and some advice about how to fix them. Here are three challenges your businesses face:
Finding Customers
The “BIG BRANDS” don’t just sit around waiting for the leads to come in – even the biggest most successful companies have people working hard, daily to find new customers.
But, for small businesses, it’s an even bigger challenge. How can you find customers when you don’t have a big well-known name? Then there are so many channels to focus on and how do you know which one to prioritize?
All those additional costs are also incredibly high, and small businesses most likely won’t have pockets that deep. In fact, the cost of acquiring new customers has increased a whopping 60% over the past six years.
How to Fix It:
Figuring out who your ideal customer is so you can get the word out to the right people.
Get an idea of what your target customers look like, what they do, and where they spend time online then you can begin creating content that caters more specifically to your target customers.
Increase Brand Awareness
If your customers don’t know who you are, then how will they buy from you?
Building brand awareness helps generate trust, and helps associate your brand with your products and services, those factors combined help to drive sales and build a base of loyal customers.
How to Fix It:
There are many ways to spread brand awareness, but I’m going to just mention three.
- Public relations – less about paying for a spot and more about focusing your voice and finding your place in the market.
- Co-marketing – Partnering with another brand will give you some of their image and reputation.
- Blogging – Consistently running a high-quality blog will help you build brand awareness and helps drive traffic to your site and create leads and email lists.
Building an Email List
To help move prospects along their buyers’ path to become your customer, you need to build trust through constant nurturing, staying top of mind, and continuing to provide value for your brand. These marketing emails will directly influence purchasing decisions. Keep adding fresh new contacts to that list.
How to Fix It:
Don’t be the guy who buys email lists. Instead, build opt-in email lists. An opt-in email list is made up of people who voluntarily subscribe, giving you their email addresses, and now you can send them emails. These customers have already shown interest. What do interested people do? They are definitely more likely to make purchases, especially with nurturing. The act of opting in necessitates website functionality that requires their email address.
I hope these common small business problems won’t be problems for long. For more blogs or help with your small business visit Projects Made Simple Llc.
