Running A Small Business In A Big Business World

Running A Small Business In A Big Business World

Target. Costco. Wal-Mart. Huge corporations run by huge numbers of people. You run a five-man grocery store. How the hell are you supposed to compete? First of all, look around. There are hundreds of small businesses out there – despite the mega-stores – and many of them are doing well. They’re satisfying customers, employing competent, loyal people, and delivering a great product. Here’s how you can make your small business work and why small businesses play a vital role in today’s economy.

Your first goal, whether you repair automobiles or sell one-of-a-kind women’s clothing, is to be the best at what you do. This is easier said than done – it does take work, organization, and consistency – but it is possible. Most importantly, you need to provide your customers with great service. How many times have you ventured into a big store looking for something specific and spent twenty minutes tracking down a customer service rep – and once you find her, she can’t direct you to your goal and doesn’t seem to care. To compete with big chains, you need to give your customers extraordinary service and a great product. You might charge more than Wal-Mart, but if they have a better experience with you from start to finish, customers will choose your store.

A large part of this process is hiring and retaining good employees. Don’t be unrealistic about this. You don’t want to pay $20 above the going rate to get rocket scientists to do auto repair work. You can, however, get a very solid employee if you pay a reasonable market rate, treat them well, and create a work atmosphere that promotes pride and incentives. The more skilled the position, the higher the rate of pay. As much as is feasible, you want to retain employees because hiring new people all the time promotes discontinuity at your business. It creates a negative vibe, means potentially expensive retraining, and no matter how well-systemized your business is, disrupts the flow of work.

Get systemized. You’re never going to be as orderly as McDonald’s. Huge businesses that turn out simple products can practically be run by robots. That’s not you. However, having systems in place in your business makes your business better. What does this mean? You have a filing system, you have a billing system, you have a uniform computer system. If you have people devoted to sales, they work only in sales. In short, your business runs well even if someone calls in sick or if you have to replace an employee. Being systemized helps employees and customers. The customer will get consistent service every time they come in – a pleasant receptionist and a knowledgeable technician. They’ll be billed regularly. They will get their products on time. And your employees can be trained on the systems you set up so that they feel both comfortable and confident. The more you know about how your business runs, the better it’s going to run.

Marketing is another part of running a small business that differs from how it’s done in big business world. Huge companies like Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, and Starbucks depend on brand recognition. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but this isn’t the best way to market for a small business. You need to know this. You need to know how to market your business, period. Many business owners either don’t want to deal with marketing at all, so they throw money at someone who does a campaign and leaves. Even if the campaign works in the short term, if you don’t understand why it worked or how it was done, you’re not going to be able to retain the customers you attracted or find new ones. Dive into marketing. What makes your business different to others of its type? What can you offer your customers that no one else can?

One of the best ways to figure out how to get new customers is to pin down who you already have. You’re attracting young parents like mad. Why? How can you find more? Where do you advertise to find them? Unlike a big business, you don’t have unlimited funds and you can’t just throw money at the marketing issue. You need to be strategic. By the same token, you do need to spend money. Many small businesses are unwilling to spend enough to market well. Be bold but make sure that boldness is backed up by knowledge. When you are pretty sure you have a good strategy, don’t be afraid to go for it.

In the same way that you can’t shy away from marketing or employee management as a small business owner, you can’t shy away from finances. Or systems – or any other part of running your business. Yes, you can and should hire a bookkeeper and have a technician on call if the copier breaks down.  In the end, however,  a small business depends on the owner, whether you’re an owner-operator or an absentee-owner. There’s no board of directors or stockholders or executives. No doubt you chose to be an entrepreneur because you like to run things your way. You wanted to model a business that you could be proud of and profit from. Make that happen by knowing your business well.

Small businesses serve a vital role in local economies and in the personality of cities. Although certain people prefer chains, there is a lot of consumer dissatisfaction with the big stores. The car wash business that somehow seems to tack $50 onto every service. The mega-store that was found polluting a local river – again. Obviously not all big businesses are bad and not all small businesses are good but the small business is tied closely to a an area and to its customers and that has both tangible and intangible value.

A small business owner isn’t going to make as much money as a VP at Goldman Sachs. But that VP isn’t going to see his customers in his hometown and greet them by name. She isn’t going to hear how terrific someone’s son looked for the first day of school thanks to his new haircut. That VP isn’t going to create something and thereby craft their life on their own terms. That’s what you get to do as an entrepreneur and that’s why even when it is a challenge, it is a challenge worth taking.