Why do many small businesses struggle to achieve true success?

Most small business owners we come across tell us they know they need to fix their business issues. They may even have a rough idea of exactly what needs to be done, but they don't know where to start!

Add to this the fact that they are usually already working long hours and fixing things requires even more of the time they don't have, and the result is nothing is ever fixed!

The truth is that they are working longer hours because they haven't addressed the business issues they know they need to address!

There are seven main reasons why small businesses struggle to achieve true business success.

1. Lack of a Marketing Strategy and Plan

Many small businesses think that providing a good product or service, having a website and advertising in the Yellow Pages is enough. This may seem to work for them in the short-term but eventually Sales growth begins to decline as they fail to attract new customers (or even retain existing ones).

Without a Marketing Strategy and a Marketing Plan a small business may be on the journey to business failure because it cannot ensure it maximises its potential for growth or that it gets a real Return on Investment for it's marketing expenditure.

2. Insufficient focus on detailed Cost Management

Most small business owners focus all their attention on Sales with little or no consideration given to costs.

As a business grows, so do it's expenses usually both in cost of goods and overheads. If insufficient attention is given to costs, profits start to fall - even during a growth phase.

Understanding and managing your cost is a vital part of survival for any business.

3. Employee Performance Issues

As a business grows, many small business owners find that they become increasingly frustrated with their employees.

Unless you build a solid foundation for managing your employees, the above issues only get worse as your business continues to grow. In the end, this will contribute to your business entering the Decline phase of your business life cycle and running the risk of business failure lot sooner.

As soon as your business requires more than one person, you need to begin to put an Employee Management System in place that will grow with your business and support your business success!

4. Reactive Cash Flow Management

During the growth phase, small businesses typically find they struggle to maintain cash flow. Often their customers owe them more than they owe suppliers, but there is never enough money in the bank to pay wages and suppliers when necessary. So the cycle of juggling supplier payments and making debt collection phone calls repeats itself week in and week out. Additional cash flow impacts of hiring new employees or purchasing additional assets is also often not considered.

Reacting to cash flow issues as they occur, rather than planning for them adds a significant load to the business. The time spent in dealing with angry suppliers and chasing money from customers takes time away from focusing on the survival and growth of the business.

Unless a Cash Flow Management system is put in place, the cycle of reacting to cash flow issues will never be broken and the survival of the business is put at risk!

5. Insufficient business knowledge of the owners

Most small business owners do not have any experience at running a business and often under-estimate just what that involves. "We will learn as we grow" is the common attitude.

Soon enough they discover that getting on top of Bookkeeping, Wages Laws, staff problems, marketing, business expansion, cash flow etc. is more than they can manage and their business begins to suffer.

It takes an awful lot of knowledge and experience to run a successful business. The time it takes to learn it all can be daunting and a failure to grasp the basics can significantly increase the risk of business failure.

Ixpress Coaching & Consulting can offset this lack of knowledge and help your business on the path to success!

6. Inefficient Business Processes

The establishment of processes in a business usually start off small. Manually written quotes and invoices are a good example. Things also change as a business grows and what used to be "in someone's head" needs to become more formalised as the volume of work increases. What worked well in the past may no longer work well in the future.

As a business grows, processes need to be reviewed and improved to ensure overhead costs and problems are kept to a minimum and don't put your business at risk of business failure.

Business Process Improvement needs to be targeted to ensure you get a quick return on investment and support the growth of your business!

7. "Tactical" rather than a "Strategic" approach to the business

Most small business owners are focussed on the daily issues of running their business, reacting to problems as they occur. This causes their dreams and vision for the business to be put on hold for a later day. With no strategies in place to guide them, they lose sight of the bigger picture and put the survival of their business at risk.

A Business Strategic Review will let you sit back and take a realistic look at your business and develop a realistic Business Development Plan that will ensure your business survival by helping you target the areas of your business that need it most!

What are the benefits of using a business coach or consultant?

Some studies put the Return on Investment in using a Small Business Consultant or Small Business Coach at between 529% and 788%. Others say it can be as high as 1000%.

The following benefits have been reported for companies using Business Coaching or Business Consulting services:

• 53% increase in Productivity
• 39% increase in Customer Service
• 32% increase in the retention of senior people
• 23% reduction in costs
• 22% increase in profits

Just how much would it be worth to you if your employees could complete one and a half times the amount of work in the same time? If your business could continue to grow without putting on new staff at a rapid pace?