Small business success isn’t about luck! It comes from doing the right things. Read on to find out what these are.
Define Your Goals and Values
The first thing that anyone hoping to successfully run a small business needs to do is define both their companies goals and values. Remember goals are the things that you want to achieve with your business, such as get into profit, make a specific amount of profit or have a certain number of stores. Often breaking larger goals down into smaller ones can help make your path clearer and more achievable.
Values on the other hand define how you will behave to reach these goals. Values need to be defined as verbs because they will guide how your business acts. For example, to be sustainable is a value and it means you will need to consider how to enact this in each part of your business from the office to your supply chain to your packaging.
Values are particularly important right now, as they are no longer something that is only known to those working in the company. Indeed they are often defined with a business’s customer base in mind and shared with the public as a part of their brand identity.
Seek Support
Many small business owners feel as if they are alone in their enterprises, especially if they have a very small team. However, this is not actually the case. The reason for this is that there is a great deal of help and support out there for small business owners. Support that can allow you to avoid costly and embarrassing mistakes.
For example, you will find that many social media sites have private and public groups for small business owners in particular industries. LinkedIn is entirely business-focused and is a great place to source someone that can act as a mentor.
You can even get some fast and specific answers to any business-related issues you have by submitting a question to a business expert like Jim Thomas on sites such as Advisory cloud. This being a great solution for those looking for focused advice on particular problems rather than someone to mentor them through the entire process.
Find Your Funding
Last of all, if you want to be a successful small business owner, sourcing funding to turn your ideas into reality is essential. Sadly, this can be more challenging than it sounds. After all, it is a very competitive market, with new business popping up all the time, something that can make it difficult for your enterprise to stand out from the crowd.
Although, if the Dragons have taught us anything it is that accurate financial projects are essential, no matter what type of funding you are looking to source. Indeed, if you cannot show the bank, building society, angel investor, or crowdfunding platform that your business will provide a decent return on the money they put up, you will have problems.
With this in mind, be sure to have accurate, realistic financial projects that you both understand and can explain clearly. Even if that means getting some help from a financial professional in the beginning stages of setting up your small business.
