Everyone wants to be their own boss, from YouTubers making money from their videos to hobbyists monetizing their favorite pastimes. The result is usually starting your own small business. However, maintaining a small business, even on you are passionate about, can be difficult.
According to the United States Small Business Administration, approximately 45 percent of small business don’t survive past the first five years of operation. Businesses can fail for any number of reasons. The most common reason is that a company loses customers or experiences some other problem with their cash flow. If you want to ensure your business survives past five years.
- Partner with Local Businesses
Every business needs other companies who will give them the supplies they need to provide their goods and services. Bakeries need suppliers for their flour, poultry and for their packaging materials. A home construction company may need to work with a polycarbonate supplier, a concrete supplier and another business for their tiles. However, partnering with suppliers also means you have to shoulder certain costs, most especially the transport fee.
Partnering with a local supplier can be your best bet in reducing supply costs. Because of their proximity to your own company, expect lower delivery costs for your purchases. Their nearness also ensures you won’t have to wait long for your supplies to arrive, reducing the chances of your goods getting delayed because you didn’t have the means to make them. All these can translate to greater prosperity and more chances of your business surviving for longer.
- Expand Your Skills
Many businessowners make the mistake of assuming they already know everything they do about their field, but they could not be more wrong. A clever businessowner knows that they must constantly learn more things about economics. Constant retraining and learning is essential to not only your growth as a businessowner but as a person.
Take classes online to understand new ways to make your business more profitable. Perhaps you can learn more about how to leverage social media presences? Or maybe you can learn more about marketing your products by partnering with the right influences? Don’t let your skills atrophy just because you are busy. Take time off to learn valuable new skills and you can ensure that your business survives much longer.
- Go Online
Few people could imagine in the 90s that online commerce would soon become not an option but a necessity? The pandemic has only hastened the inevitable, with millions of people relying on e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Amazon instead of venturing out to physical stores. The previous retail apocalypse also highlighted that people prefer to do their shopping online in the 21st century. If you want your company to thrive and not just survive in the post-pandemic world, you must take your business online.
The most basic way you can bring your business to the digital frontier is by building your own website. A website acts as your company’s digital storefront. Potential online customers will find your business much easier because websites will turn up on search engines. You can expand your customer base quite well because they can order your goods through the website as well.
Another great thing about taking your business online is you can enable different forms of electronic payment. This alone can make your business more enticing as people across the country or even the world can patronize your business.
- Market Through Social Media
Social media has become one of the most powerful economic forces in the planet. Businesses, both big and small, can reach millions or even billions of people on platforms like Facebook and Instagram with the right strategies.
Leveraging social media is one of those buzzwords businessowners tend to hear a lot, but what does that actually mean? It means making good use of your presence on social media.
First, you should try to maximize your contact with customers or potential customers by answering comments, replying to their messages and similar efforts. Another method you can use to market your business through social media is through using clever hashtags. This will allow you to appear on the timelines and search queries of different users around the world. Finally, you can partner with social media influencers to give your brand a sizable boost.
A business takes time to develop and even longer to mature. However, if you don’t take the time to nurture it, it can fail very quickly. If you don’t want your business folding within the first five years, heed and follow the above advice.
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