8 Challenges Faced by Small Business and How to Solve Them — bizee.co
1. Cash Flow Issues
Money problems are often the ones that entrepreneurs are most afraid of, and for a good reason. There are a lot of incoming and outgoing transactions that you need to take care of in order to sustain your start up. At the same time you have to manage all of that whilst meeting deadlines.
The solution is to track every transaction, keeping a simple forecast and keeping it strict. Don’t ignore it. That kind of bookkeeping can save your business. Hiring an accountant would be the best and an obvious option, but since you are just starting out, it is understandable that you probably cannot afford it. But do not worry, there are other solutions.
With the technology developing, there are a lot of software options for tracking payments, creating invoices, managing cash flow and so on. The software can warn you when a payment is due, update your bank statements and file your VAT. There are also some business strategies you can implement such as asking for a down payment, every time you receive an order. Also, it is always worth asking your customers for faster invoice payments. As for your vendors, try to have them extend your payment deadline. With the right strategy, you can overcome cash flow issues.
Visit links: Avoid Cash Flow Problems
2. Avoiding burnout
If you are a small business owner, you probably want to do everything by yourself. You knew your product or service, you can do it quicker and better than anyone else.
But that is probably going to cost you. Not your money, but your health and family relationships. Often, burnout and stress can make you quit everything completely, and you don’t really want that. In order to avoid this, it is best to learn to delegate your tasks, and maybe even hire some help, whether full time or for just an hour a day, it is your choice.
Let them help you with the simple things that take a lot of your time and let yourself focus on the more important parts of your business. Remember to clearly voice your tasks when delegating. Communication is the key to a successful working relationship. You don’t need to do everything and remember, you are not giving up control, you are just getting help.
3. Finding and retaining customers
As you probably already know, the key to finding customers is to have a product that is unique and that can satisfy their needs. So, do a little market research, find you target group, see what their pain points are and how you can resolves this for them.
Also, marketing plays a big part in your business. Choose a popular media platform to advertise your business and keep it simple. Make your statement brief but something that would stick in your customer’s mind, since mind positioning is half the job. You should also be available as much as possible, so that you can reply instantly or at least in the first few hours. Do not use automatic responses, make those e-mails personal and trust that they will know the difference. For special potential clients, where you think you can earn well, you can always offer a demo service just to give them a taste of what working with you would look like.
Social Media is a good way to engage and interact with your target audience. Our skilled Social Media Assistants can help you to formulate and implement a coherent and curated strategy that will bring your brand or product to the right audience.
Don’t be shy and feel free to ask current customers to recommend you to others, because there is no better marketing than a happy customer. Their unique experience will be the best commercial.
A way to keep customers is to have a great service coupled with the best price. This sounds like a very obvious thing to say but keeping that value-for-money policy constantly on your mind will guide you. You can again do the research, but this time focus on the existing customers, ask them for feedback, see just how much you earn from them and how much is the service actually costing you. Focus on your best customers, learn from their example and you will profit more.
If you have a negative comment, get right on it. Call the customers personally, ask them specifics about what bothered them and offer compensation in a form of discounts, gifts, etc. It seems like a lot of trouble, but it is worth it. Negative comments will not lead to good word-of-mouth, which is something that can make or break a business.
Use the following link to create buyers persona templates to help your customer base grow: Create Your Own Persona Templates