Question

write a report recommending one course of action/approach/selection

-Small business strategy.

Discuss the specific challenges of managing a small

enterprise. Identify the features that all successful small

companies share and suggest a course of action for a small

business founder that can increase the likelihood of succes

Answer 1

STRATEGIES

Hire an efficient team.

A small business normally can’t afford to hire a big team. You also can’t afford employees who don’t care about your business and doing their best to make it succeed. As Jim Collins would say, you need to get the right people on your bus before you start driving.You also don’t have to hire people with tons of experience (which costs a lot of money). Talented employees with little or no direct experience can often provide the same results as those with more experience.

An employee will have to be loyal to contribute their best and stay with you long-term. But how do you find - or create - loyalty?

Making each employee feel valued is a great start. But it’s also your job to instill in the minds and hearts of your workers that they are part of the business. They will share as much as anyone else in the successes and failures of the company.

It helps to bring people in who have a track record for loyalty - whether in past jobs or clubs or hobbies. But you should also reward employees for their efforts and provide guidance for their weaknesses.

All of this together creates strong employee relationships, which will help you build effective and efficient teams that grow your small business.

Actively learn from your competitors.

It doesn’t matter how old your company is, or what industry you’re in. There are always other successful companies that you can learn from.

That’s why strategic planning - and continually revising your strategic plan - is so important. Once you've created your plan, you still need to ask a few questions regularly:

How is this plan doing?
Are we reaching our goals? Are we doing what we set out to?
What are our competitors doing?
What can we learn from them?
Is there something they’re doing that we should copy? Avoid?
What is our competitive differentiator? What can we turn into a competitive advantage?
Does it matter what our competitors are doing?
Has anything in our industry changed that we should now adjust for?
A lot of these questions are easy to answer by reviewing competitors’ websites, reading their press releases or brand mentions, and monitoring competitor analysis tools.

Spend your time and money on “evergreen” resources.

5 Successful Strategies to Lead Your Small Business Effectively
Posted on September 04, 2018 by Brenda Cagara

Small businesses are different from large businesses in many ways, including what it takes for them to succeed.

Notably, your small business doesn’t have the kind of capital a large business does to throw at whatever strategies and ideas you want to pursue. That’s okay! You just have to do things a little differently to get more out of your time and resources.

That’s what I'm going to talk about today.

As someone at the helm of your business - trying to make the right decisions and get the most out of everything you do - these are my top five successful strategies to help you lead your small business effectively.

Top 5 Strategies for Small Business Success
1. Hire a small but efficient team.
A small business normally can’t afford to hire a big team. You also can’t afford employees who don’t care about your business and doing their best to make it succeed. As Jim Collins would say, you need to get the right people on your bus before you start driving.

Jim Collins Get the Right People on the Bus

This puts you in a tricky spot. How do you find these people, get them on your bus, and keep them?

Compensating Without Money

It starts with compensation. You don’t have to spend gobs of money to get good people, but they need to feel valued.

That compensation can come in many forms, like:

Autonomy to do their job
Listening to and trying their ideas
And leniency towards time off for things like vacation, doctors appointments, and big events
In some cases, these intangibles can mean as much as a salary and benefits.

You also don’t have to hire people with tons of experience (which costs a lot of money). Talented employees with little or no direct experience can often provide the same results as those with more experience.

Creating Loyalty

An employee will have to be loyal to contribute their best and stay with you long-term. But how do you find - or create - loyalty?

Making each employee feel valued is a great start. But it’s also your job to instill in the minds and hearts of your workers that they are part of the business. They will share as much as anyone else in the successes and failures of the company.

It helps to bring people in who have a track record for loyalty - whether in past jobs or clubs or hobbies. But you should also reward employees for their efforts and provide guidance for their weaknesses.

All of this together creates strong employee relationships, which will help you build effective and efficient teams that grow your small business.

2. Actively learn from your competitors.
It doesn’t matter how old your company is, or what industry you’re in. There are always other successful companies that you can learn from.

That’s why strategic planning - and continually revising your strategic plan - is so important. Once you've created your plan, you still need to ask a few questions regularly:

How is this plan doing?
Are we reaching our goals? Are we doing what we set out to?
What are our competitors doing?
What can we learn from them?
Is there something they’re doing that we should copy? Avoid?
What is our competitive differentiator? What can we turn into a competitive advantage?
Does it matter what our competitors are doing?
Has anything in our industry changed that we should now adjust for?
A lot of these questions are easy to answer by reviewing competitors’ websites, reading their press releases or brand mentions, and monitoring competitor analysis tools. Here’s a whole list of online competitor analysis tools you can use.

3. Spend your time and money on “evergreen” resources.
The most successful strategies tend to keep working after you stop funding them. These are particularly great for small businesses who can’t always outspend everyone else in the market.

So how do you create “evergreen” resources like this?

It’s not too difficult. In fact, you’re probably familiar with many good options already. Often, small business leaders just need to reframe how they think about these strategies.

Search engine optimization, for example, is a great evergreen resource. There’s a bottomless well of people searching for things online. If you put in the work to get your website or brand in front of those people, it’s going to pay dividends long-term.

5 Successful Strategies to Lead Your Small Business Effectively
Posted on September 04, 2018 by Brenda Cagara

Small businesses are different from large businesses in many ways, including what it takes for them to succeed.

Notably, your small business doesn’t have the kind of capital a large business does to throw at whatever strategies and ideas you want to pursue. That’s okay! You just have to do things a little differently to get more out of your time and resources.

That’s what I'm going to talk about today.

As someone at the helm of your business - trying to make the right decisions and get the most out of everything you do - these are my top five successful strategies to help you lead your small business effectively.

Top 5 Strategies for Small Business Success
1. Hire a small but efficient team.
A small business normally can’t afford to hire a big team. You also can’t afford employees who don’t care about your business and doing their best to make it succeed. As Jim Collins would say, you need to get the right people on your bus before you start driving.

Jim Collins Get the Right People on the Bus

This puts you in a tricky spot. How do you find these people, get them on your bus, and keep them?

Compensating Without Money

It starts with compensation. You don’t have to spend gobs of money to get good people, but they need to feel valued.

That compensation can come in many forms, like:

Autonomy to do their job
Listening to and trying their ideas
And leniency towards time off for things like vacation, doctors appointments, and big events
In some cases, these intangibles can mean as much as a salary and benefits.

You also don’t have to hire people with tons of experience (which costs a lot of money). Talented employees with little or no direct experience can often provide the same results as those with more experience.

Creating Loyalty

An employee will have to be loyal to contribute their best and stay with you long-term. But how do you find - or create - loyalty?

Making each employee feel valued is a great start. But it’s also your job to instill in the minds and hearts of your workers that they are part of the business. They will share as much as anyone else in the successes and failures of the company.

It helps to bring people in who have a track record for loyalty - whether in past jobs or clubs or hobbies. But you should also reward employees for their efforts and provide guidance for their weaknesses.

All of this together creates strong employee relationships, which will help you build effective and efficient teams that grow your small business.

2. Actively learn from your competitors.
It doesn’t matter how old your company is, or what industry you’re in. There are always other successful companies that you can learn from.

That’s why strategic planning - and continually revising your strategic plan - is so important. Once you've created your plan, you still need to ask a few questions regularly:

How is this plan doing?
Are we reaching our goals? Are we doing what we set out to?
What are our competitors doing?
What can we learn from them?
Is there something they’re doing that we should copy? Avoid?
What is our competitive differentiator? What can we turn into a competitive advantage?
Does it matter what our competitors are doing?
Has anything in our industry changed that we should now adjust for?
A lot of these questions are easy to answer by reviewing competitors’ websites, reading their press releases or brand mentions, and monitoring competitor analysis tools. Here’s a whole list of online competitor analysis tools you can use.

3. Spend your time and money on “evergreen” resources.
The most successful strategies tend to keep working after you stop funding them. These are particularly great for small businesses who can’t always outspend everyone else in the market.

So how do you create “evergreen” resources like this?

It’s not too difficult. In fact, you’re probably familiar with many good options already. Often, small business leaders just need to reframe how they think about these strategies.

Search engine optimization, for example, is a great evergreen resource. There’s a bottomless well of people searching for things online. If you put in the work to get your website or brand in front of those people, it’s going to pay dividends long-term. Here’s a good guide to local SEO for you.

Content marketing is another. People often think of content as another word for blogging, but it also includes videos, infographics, and anything else you can create and publish.

Thorough blog posts and customer testimonial videos are powerful pieces of content you can create with little upfront investment.

Small business sales and marketing often involves paying for one-off events and ads. They might help you earn new business, but the sales stop flowing soon after you stop paying.

Text Request

5 Successful Strategies to Lead Your Small Business Effectively
Posted on September 04, 2018 by Brenda Cagara

Small businesses are different from large businesses in many ways, including what it takes for them to succeed.

Notably, your small business doesn’t have the kind of capital a large business does to throw at whatever strategies and ideas you want to pursue. That’s okay! You just have to do things a little differently to get more out of your time and resources.

That’s what I'm going to talk about today.

As someone at the helm of your business - trying to make the right decisions and get the most out of everything you do - these are my top five successful strategies to help you lead your small business effectively.

Top 5 Strategies for Small Business Success
1. Hire a small but efficient team.
A small business normally can’t afford to hire a big team. You also can’t afford employees who don’t care about your business and doing their best to make it succeed. As Jim Collins would say, you need to get the right people on your bus before you start driving.

Jim Collins Get the Right People on the Bus

This puts you in a tricky spot. How do you find these people, get them on your bus, and keep them?

Compensating Without Money

It starts with compensation. You don’t have to spend gobs of money to get good people, but they need to feel valued.

That compensation can come in many forms, like:

Autonomy to do their job
Listening to and trying their ideas
And leniency towards time off for things like vacation, doctors appointments, and big events
In some cases, these intangibles can mean as much as a salary and benefits.

You also don’t have to hire people with tons of experience (which costs a lot of money). Talented employees with little or no direct experience can often provide the same results as those with more experience.

Creating Loyalty

An employee will have to be loyal to contribute their best and stay with you long-term. But how do you find - or create - loyalty?

Making each employee feel valued is a great start. But it’s also your job to instill in the minds and hearts of your workers that they are part of the business. They will share as much as anyone else in the successes and failures of the company.

It helps to bring people in who have a track record for loyalty - whether in past jobs or clubs or hobbies. But you should also reward employees for their efforts and provide guidance for their weaknesses.

All of this together creates strong employee relationships, which will help you build effective and efficient teams that grow your small business.

2. Actively learn from your competitors.
It doesn’t matter how old your company is, or what industry you’re in. There are always other successful companies that you can learn from.

That’s why strategic planning - and continually revising your strategic plan - is so important. Once you've created your plan, you still need to ask a few questions regularly:

How is this plan doing?
Are we reaching our goals? Are we doing what we set out to?
What are our competitors doing?
What can we learn from them?
Is there something they’re doing that we should copy? Avoid?
What is our competitive differentiator? What can we turn into a competitive advantage?
Does it matter what our competitors are doing?
Has anything in our industry changed that we should now adjust for?
A lot of these questions are easy to answer by reviewing competitors’ websites, reading their press releases or brand mentions, and monitoring competitor analysis tools. Here’s a whole list of online competitor analysis tools you can use.

3. Spend your time and money on “evergreen” resources.
The most successful strategies tend to keep working after you stop funding them. These are particularly great for small businesses who can’t always outspend everyone else in the market.

So how do you create “evergreen” resources like this?

It’s not too difficult. In fact, you’re probably familiar with many good options already. Often, small business leaders just need to reframe how they think about these strategies.

Search engine optimization, for example, is a great evergreen resource. There’s a bottomless well of people searching for things online. If you put in the work to get your website or brand in front of those people, it’s going to pay dividends long-term. Here’s a good guide to local SEO for you.

Content marketing is another. People often think of content as another word for blogging, but it also includes videos, infographics, and anything else you can create and publish.

Thorough blog posts and customer testimonial videos are powerful pieces of content you can create with little upfront investment. Here’s a guide for creating great blog posts quickly, and for creating great testimonial videos

How are these different than other strategies?

Small business sales and marketing often involves paying for one-off events and ads. They might help you earn new business, but the sales stop flowing soon after you stop paying.

E.g., you could sponsor an event that would get your name out there, start a few conversations, and maybe bring in a few new paying accounts. Then you’d sponsor the same event next year, and maybe a few other events in between, to keep new accounts coming in.

Or, you could spend 1/10th of a sponsor fee to create a customer testimonial video that you can circulate for years, bringing in dozens of new accounts. Which would you rather invest in?

Target your ideal customers, and only your ideal customers.

A goal of nearly every business is to attract more customers or clients.

Large businesses often cast a wide net, because they can afford to and it keeps them from having to figure out as much. They create general sales and marketing campaigns, and bring in a few fish.

But small businesses have to be more aware, more attuned to who your ideal customer is and what makes them tick. It’s okay if you don’t have tons of money to throw at new campaigns or to test various market segments. You just have to pay attention to the right people.

Use low cost but effective marketing strategies.

I’ve sprinkled this throughout the other four points, but the most successful strategies for leading your small business effectively are often going to be inexpensive.

The investment that makes them work is sweat equity.

LIMITATIONS

1.Financial risk:

The funds needed to start your business and keep it profitable can be considerable. Taking the step into business ownership will most probably deplete all your savings and you may not enough to live off as there is no guaranteed income. You may also need a business loan until your business grows profitable.

2. Increased stress levels:

As a business owner, you are responsible for everything including the running of your business, customers, employees, expenses etc. There is a huge amount of pressure put on business owners which can build up into stress. Find it hard to switch off.

3. Less free time:

A lot of people think that if you start a business, you will have more free time. This is not true. Business owners are their business and usually work 24/7. Even though you are your own boss and can choose your hours, most business owners can’t get away from business operations. The more time and effort you put into your business to make it profitable, the less time off you have. Once your business gets to a self-sufficient point in its life then you can afford to take time off. However, it can be hard for business owners to actually switch off and relax as the business is an extension of themselves.

4. Perform undesirable tasks:

As a business owner, you will have to do things that you don’t enjoy for the sake of the business. All the responsibility falls on you so you will have to make the hard decisions and put in the hard yards to become successful.

To overcome these limitations the following features must be used

Sponsor Local Events: Local events are a great place to get more brand visibility. The good news is that most small-scale events are sponsored by many different brands, each of which pay only a small sum of money to get featured on the list of sponsors/partners. Find out about upcoming local events through social media and social networking sites. Make sure you choose the event you want to be associated with strategically so that you target the right demographics.

Get More Creative: With Packaging If you sell a product, a new creative packaging can be a great marketing stunt. If you sell a service, a creative method of presentation for your business can also help you reach out to a wider audience. A new creative idea isn't necessarily a more expensive one, but can definitely be a better fit for your unique business idea. In all earnestness, the right presentation techniques will make a world of difference. Don't be afraid to think outside.

Make The Most Of Social Media: While most small business owners understand the potential of building a stronger social media community, the key lies in HOW you use this community to benefit your business. One trick that never fails - Don't sell, instead educate. Make the most of your social media and social networking contacts. Every single person you know can help you reach out to a lot more people if you have the right approach. The key is to build a stronger relationship.

Strategize On Effective Promotional Schemes: If you are new in the business, you need people to try out your product/service before they can start to purchase more. It's a good idea to give away free trials and samples, so that your target customers can experience your services first hand. It's one the easiest ways to impress them, considering that today's economy has people more comfortable about paying for things they have been able to try out first.

Get Customer Feedback: Before you think about paying for a new client database so that you can plan a new marketing strategy, make use of the wealth of information you'll find in your existing client database. Isn't it a lot cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one? Most customers are more than happy to give feedbacks on the product/services they paid for. The problem is that most methods to get a valuable feedback can be perceived as intrusive.