Having an idea is only the start of becoming a profitable
and successful small business. The key challenges are how to set up, market and satisfy the resulting demand for your product
and service. And this can be where many small businesses fall down.
The kernel of the business is the founder or
founders. Usually, they will have a defined skill set in a particular niche such as manufacturing, quantity surveying or retail.
Many will have come from a large corporate environment where there are other people or departments to look after the wide
range of `infrastructure` items needed for a business to function. These include premises, personnel, marketing or logistics.
In a small business, all these skills have to be accomplished by a very small team of people – or probably just the
owner.
In a small business time spent producing or fulfilling orders cannot be spent of getting new business and
vice versa. Therefore developing an effective way to market the business or get the goods produced (dependent upon the owners
skill set) can make or break the business. Trying to do everything yourself can mean getting nothing done effectively.
Determining what to do and how to get things done is a key element of small business management. Outsourcing non core
or time consuming tasks can be vital to create the space necessary for the owner to focus on making the business a success.
In a similar vein, you may produce the best tea pot in the world but unless people know about it, they cannot buy!
Therefore, how you go about marketing your goods or service is as vital as what is produced, how it is produced and the selling
price. Getting the message across to your target audience can be an expensive and challenging task if you are not familiar
with the dark arts of marketing. Maybe this is one area where employing a specialist agency could help. But make sure that
you can deliver against the expected order take so do not be too ambitious with your communication until you have proven the
response and demand levels. Whilst it may be acceptable to focus sales on one or two customers in the early days, making sure
that your sales are well diversified means that the failure of one order will not jeopardise your business. Equally, there
is little benefit to be had by spreading your sales too thinly since the cost of supply may well be too great. As with all
expenditure, spend on marketing needs to be in proportion and measured to make sure it is delivering what was expected during
the campaign brief.
Not many small business managers have the all round skills necessary to encompass the whole
enterprise. Since it underpins the whole business viability, getting to grips with business finance and reporting is a vital
aspect that must be covered if you are to understand your organisation. Keeping in control of the bank balance, managing cashflow
and ensuring a solid trading basis to the business is key to success. Therefore, if you are not already familiar with business
finances you should seek out local bookkeeping and
accounting courses and select one suitable for your needs. Acquiring basic skills in this area will greatly enhance your chances of success
by allowing you to manage and monitor the financial success of your business.
