In a dog-eat-dog business world dominated by demand for lower prices, faster delivery, and better products, we are often confronted, as small business owners or entrepreneurs, with a real issue: How do we cater to a competitive market while actually paying bills?
Many small businesses don't succeed, and the one's that do remain, well, that's all they are doing; remaining.
Being a small business owner in this day and time has its own set of challenges and we don't have to be our own stumbling blocks.
After some research, I realized three simple ways small business owners and entrepreneurs sabotage themselves in business every day.
Being Unorganized: While this is not a great mountain-top revelation, it is a fundemental requirement of being successful in business. If you have employees, find the one who has the best organizational skills and employee them to assist in this task. There are many apps available for smartphones and tablets also which could prove valuable in being better organized.
Overcommitting Yourself: Overcommitting yourself will drain the life out of you and keep you from being your best. Your clients suffer and your business will suffer as a result. One easy way to know if you are overcommitting yourself is if you consistently forget appointments or tasks. Consider delegating tasks, hiring someone, or outsourcing some work if needed. It didn't take me too long to realize I needed to learn a magical word in business: "No". Once I learned how to say "no", learned when I needed to delegate tasks, and streamlined operations, overcommitting myself became a thing of the past.
Remember this, if you do not remember anything else: If you don't take care of yourself or your clients, neither will last.
Pricing Your Work or Services too Low: Or too high, for that matter. If you are not making a decent profit, your business will not remain open, or you will become frustrated with your work. Find the market price for whatever it is you are offering and stay competitive, but don't give it away. If you price it too low, the value perception is not on point. One psychological factor here is that people perceive your product or service to not be credible if the pricing is too low, believe it or not.
At some point, you will find yourself struggling to be more productive, increase revenue, and streamline the income generating process of your business. The key to achieving these all lie within finding the best price point, delegating tasks as you need to, and being super organized.
Regardless of your product or service, we should strive to be clean in our operations and also take care of ourselves in the process. It can be, and often is, a grueling task when launching a start-up company. Remember this, if you do not remember anything else: If you don't take care of yourself or your clients, neither will last.
Photo: Pixabay/geralt