Massachusetts
It’s quite an accomplishment to start a business, but the even bigger achievement is to maintain one. Around 20% of small businesses don’t make it past their first year, 50% don’t get beyond five, and 80% are gone in ten years. Here’s how to meet nine challenges that could thwart your success.
Business Development Challenges
Getting new business. This starts with defining who your ideal customers are. Decide on their demographics—gender, age range, location, education, socio-economic level. If you target B2B customers, pinpoint industries and job functions, with each one’s role in the buying process. For all prospects, define the needs they have that your products and services meet. Then, identify the best marketing channels—the social media platforms they’re on; websites and print media they go to; events they attend. Evaluate direct mail, cold calling, advertising. Contact the people you know who could be referral sources.
Boosting brand awareness. When you decide on marketing channels, take these steps:
- Create content. Post content that appeals to your ideal customers on your website, blog, and social platforms. Talk about problems they need to solve, deliver messages they want to hear, connect with their interests. Don’t sell—tell. Invite comments.
- Dial up your PR. Public relations content includes news about your business and, with permission, your customers. Do a feature on problems you address and how you solve them. Identify the online and print sources that cover your business and target your audience—locally, regionally, and nationally. Contact editors and reporters with press releases and article ideas. Get help from a freelance writer.
- Co-market with another business. Approach a non-competing business in your industry, or one from a different industry who has a similar audience. Distribute each other’s products or do product placements together.
- Investigate paid advertising. Evaluate online and offline opportunities, paying attention to costs and results—their ROI (return on investment).
Building a quality email list. Emails are still the most effective marketing channel—on average, they return $42 for every dollar spent. Problem is, a typical email database degrades more than 20% every year, so it’s important to add new addresses constantly. The way to go is to build an opt-in email list. Use website pop ups that offer special deals or exclusive information in exchange for the visitor’s email addresses. Don’t be tempted to buy an email list—they have poor deliverability (the percent of emails that reach the recipient’s inbox), and they hurt the reputation of your IP address.
Getting leads. Start with making sure your online marketing is working as hard as it can to convert visitors into prospects. Check that there’s a call-to-action (CTA) on every site page, blog, social post, and email. Have landing pages for special marketing programs. Use available free lead management apps and software.
Business Management Challenges
Keeping customers satisfied. This is key to your success—repeat business is more profitable simply because it costs less to retain a satisfied customer than to go get a new one. Plus, happy customers are a terrific source of prospect referrals. Work to surpass expectations; track customer satisfaction to keep improving it; and ask satisfied customers to rate you on your Google Business Profile dashboard.
Hiring the best people. Focus on making your brand a preferred place to work by creating and maintaining a company culture people are drawn to. Then, devote enough time in the hiring process to get to know candidates well and learn about their work histories.
Scaling successfully. Adjust to the changes growth makes to your organization. These can occur in all areas—developing products and services, marketing them, financially managing the business, handling human resources. You may find yourself changing your primary focus from product quality to the quality of your team. Of course, one thing that should never change is your commitment to superior customer service.
Keeping the workflow efficient. Put processes in place to efficiently deliver quality work. Then monitor these processes as your organization grows. Look for areas where you can save time. Ask the people doing the daily work for feedback on ways to cut time-wasters.
Staying financially solid. Just do three things. Watch your cash flow by paying attention to accounts receivable and accounts payable. Stay on top of your bookkeeping, including payroll and tax payments. And use credit intellige Remember, your AdviCoach is ready to help you develop the capabilities to meet these challenges—and not just survive, but thrive!