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While many might associate the United States with some of the most well-known companies, such as Ford, General Motors, Microsoft, and Apple, the truth is that small businesses are just as important to the country’s economy.
How To Be A Successful Small Business Owner
In fact, according to the US Small Business Administration, there are approximately 28 million smaller businesses across the country. Combined, they make up 54 percent of US sales.
Pillars Of Small Business Success
Additionally, small businesses are responsible for approximately 55 percent of jobs and, since the 1970s, more than 60 percent of new job growth.
It goes without saying that without small businesses and independent shops, the US corporate sector would look very different. Not only local customers can benefit from a local business nearby, but also the owners.
Starting your own business is easier than you think, but you’ll still need to take some important steps to make sure you’re successful in the short term and well into the future.
To get started, ask yourself what your business goals are. Specific questions to ask yourself include:
Tips For Starting A Business
Discussing your business plans with experts will always help, whether it is your first business venture or your fifth.
By having detailed conversations with other small business owners, you’ll understand the ins and outs of starting and running your own business, and what it takes to be successful in the long run.
First, explore the option of obtaining a small business loan from the SBA. You can receive loans ranging from $5,000 up to $5 million.
If an SBA loan doesn’t work out, you can also get financing from friends, family, and investors. In addition, you should consider opening a business checking account.
Things Successful Business Owners Do
Without a solid marketing strategy, your products and services will have a hard time gaining ground. You’ll want to highlight how your business will attract new customers while also providing revenue forecasts.
Maintaining a positive mindset is much more important than you think. Set achievable goals and benchmarks that will help your small business stay on the path to success.
The information provided in these articles is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be construed as the opinion of Central Bancompany, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and does not imply endorsement or endorsement of any of the information, products, services or providers mentioned. All information presented is without any representation, warranty or guarantee regarding the accuracy, relevance or completeness of the information.
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Ways To Help Small Business Clients Be Financially Successful
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Practical Steps For Small Business Resiliency
Over the years of running a small business, owners inevitably learn many lessons about how to grow and run a business more effectively. Fortunately, many of these homeowners are more than happy to share their business tips.
For Laura Kelly, owning a business can sometimes be an isolating experience. “Especially if you’re a solo business owner, you can lose touch with other business owners,” says Kelly, who 15 years ago started The Handwork Studio, a Narberth, Pennsylvania-based company that hosts sewing camps and classes. for children in 10 states along the east coast.
The crucial solution for Kelly has been to network in the larger business community. That means meeting with her personal business trainer for an hour every four weeks. The coach has helped her find solutions to problems and work through difficult decisions with her business. She also interacts on Facebook and Linkedin from the comfort of her own home.
“He walked me through some visualization exercises,” Kelly recalls. “The mere exercise of walking away from the business and belittling it really helped me see the issues that were bothering me. Within an hour, I was left with clarity and a plan of action to move forward.
Reasons Why You Should Go Into Business For Yourself
And then there is the intellectual group to which Kelly belongs. She and her fellow service business owners meet on a conference line. “We discuss problems and solutions, and we talk to each other off the ledge.”
As a busy business owner, it’s hard to find time to network, but getting better at networking and networking can pay dividends down the road.
Another lesson Kelly has learned over the years: break big goals down into smaller ones. “I have 10-year goals, I have 3-year goals and 1-year goals, and I have quarterly goals for my business,” she says. “When it comes to revenue, I’ll break it down into smaller numbers to make it easier to come by. If I know I need to bring in a couple hundred thousand in revenue in the first quarter, I’m like, ‘What does that mean in terms of camp sales? How many campers do I need to get? If I know I need 800 campers to reach the revenue goal, then it’s easier to figure out how to achieve it. These kinds of really specific goals can drive your actions.”
Each employee of The Handwork Studio has a goal board for her that shows her progress toward those goals. It helps keep everyone focused, adds Kelly: “I can tell you at any time exactly how much revenue we have, our website traffic and how many Facebook likes we have.”
Legal Requirements To Start A Small Business: Basic Start Up Requirements
Building a performance-driven culture starts with being very specific about goals—for yourself and your employees. When an employee is happy, she will be able to give the best performance and customer service possible.
When Marks Group, a technology consultancy, started in 1994, it was just Gene Marks and his father. “He was in sales and I was in service,” Marks recalls. Then his dad died. “When he passed away, I took over and realized I couldn’t do it all, and I hired some new employees. I learned that you can make a lot more money when you have other people doing it for you.”
As he hired more people, Marks realized that he had been doing a job that he was pretty bad at. Business revenue skyrocketed as he hired new people because he was hiring people who were better than him at certain jobs. “I just learned the hard way: focus on what you do best and delegate the rest.”
Eight years ago, Marks realized that he was sitting in an office that cost almost $30,000 a year to rent, while his employees were outside working with clients. So Marks got rid of the suburban Philadelphia office and made his workforce virtual. Along the way, he replaced the landline phone with an Internet-based phone that cost about $10 a month, and he also ditched computer servers for the cloud.
Starting A Small Business
Lowering the roof gave Marks some peace of mind during the Great Recession. “When things go wrong, you don’t have to panic, because it can reduce revenue,” says Marks. “Even at the height of the recession, we never lost money. Reducing overhead costs really does give you that peace of mind. If your overheads are low, you can make pricing decisions you couldn’t otherwise make.”
Trying to do too much too soon? Do you feel that you need to be everything to all customers? Perhaps diversifying is not always the best strategy. Sometimes it’s nice to replicate magic if you have something that works really well. That has been the successful strategy for Ace Apparel, says Marc Mathios, who along with his two brothers are the third generation to run the 78-year-old family business.
“One of the industry silos that we’re really good at is parking garage operators,” says Mathios. “The reason parking operators like working with us is because we make our own line of jackets suitable for parking businesses… We have duplicated that success with 30 different parking operators across North America.”
It’s a common trap: a person gets excited about the idea of a small business, quits their day job, and then runs out of money and fails.
Things To Consider Before Launching A Successful Small Business
Spanx founder Sara Blakely credits her success to the fact that she actually kept up her day.
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