Small, local businesses are the backbone of any functional community, but in today’s internationally connected world, it can be even tougher for them to survive than it has ever been in the past.
The prevalence of the Internet has created a global marketplace where individuals from around the world can work with others without leaving their offices or even homes. From international services provided over video chat to worldwide shipping, there are many ways that companies can work with international markets and become more streamlined and profitable.
While this may sound like a good thing for the economy, small businesses may struggle to adapt to these developments. That’s particularly true for companies that aren’t very technologically advanced, or that don’t have a large team who can turn around massive projects to suit the needs of today’s consumers.
As a small business leader, you might be concerned about how the development of international trade and online tech will affect your organisation. Alongside other pressures, including hyperinflation and staff shortages, this can lead to serious problems for many small businesses.\
However, it’s important to consider strategies on how to scale your startup in the face of these challenges. By focusing on innovative approaches, strategic partnerships, and leveraging digital platforms, you can seize opportunities presented by international trade and online technologies.
All these combined pressures have meant that experts have estimated that as many as 57% of the UK’s small businesses are at risk of closure in 2023. That’s a terrifying figure for everyone involved, and particularly so for leaders like yourself.
Still, you’re not completely helpless, and there are many ways that your company can improve its productivity to compete in today’s global market. This article offers some practical ways that small businesses can adapt and provide a more efficient service that helps them stand tall alongside major corporations.
Review Existing Strategies For Inefficiencies
To begin, you should review what your organisation is already doing, and see if there are any inefficiencies that could be wasting your valuable time and resources. Even simple business procedures, such as paying contractors or managing digital files, can take extra time if not conducted effectively. These inefficiencies can amount to many manhours, which will cost your business money and make it harder for you to compete against larger entities.
Reviewing these processes and learning how staff are using their time could help you to make the most of the resources you already have at your disposal. You’ll then be able to make time and cost savings easily without having to do much to overhaul your business. This is only the first stage, but for very small companies, it can make a massive difference and give near-instant results. So, it’s worth exploring your business’s existing processes and working out ways to save time. Even small results could be a major benefit, so it’s worth the time and effort.
Explore New Approaches To Project Management
Efficiencies in general business practice are useful, but you also need to see how you can cut down on waste across other areas of your organisation, including the management of major projects. If you don’t already use an efficient, iterative project management technique like Agile, then you might want to consider it. These processes map out the entire project and section it out, with dedicated team members given specific tasks and made to take ownership of each part of the process.
Implementing this approach, which comes with new jargon and a range of strategies that might seem entirely alien to you, might look daunting, but with the help of expert consultancies like 1ovmany. They offer tailored Agile training, with a particular focus on OKR, to a range of businesses and can adjust their offering to help you and your staff absorb the information quickly and see how you can use these techniques in your upcoming projects. If you’re considering adopting this approach to project management and want to provide Agile and OKR training to your staff, you should register your interest in one of their training courses.
Review Your Competition And The Strategies They Use
A simple way to get insight into what more you can be doing for your customers is to conduct more thorough competitor research. Once you’ve opened your business, it’s easy to forget competitor research, but without it, you might find that it’s harder to evolve and grow your organisation. So, you should invest time and energy in reviewing your competitor’s offerings and how you can emulate their success and learn from their failures.
To conduct accurate competitor research, you should review their online presence, check customer comments and look at the offering that they provide. This applies not just to your direct competitors but also to companies that operate in your niche or target your intended customer base. You’ll then have a comprehensive overview of the market you operate in and can see how you could adjust and improve your offering to stay competitive.
Check Out How Technology Could Improve Your Efficiency
Technology is only good when it’s working, and if you’ve ever been burned before by a poorly-implemented tech strategy, you might be averse to bringing in new tools this time around. However, as embracing technology is the key to fostering growth among small businesses, it’s crucial that company leaders overcome their fears and start to find ways tech can work for them.
That means exploring ways to automate basic tasks and reviewing the tools that are used by your competitors. If they can use them, you definitely can, and if you don’t then you’ll quickly be left behind. Think about it from a consumer’s point of view: what about shops that don’t accept cards? Or websites that don’t offer e-commerce options? These are serious turn-offs when shopping for clothes or gifts, and the same can be said for almost anything in the corporate landscape. B2B customers need convenience too, and so whatever sector you operate in, you can find ways to offer simplicity and make the lives of your customers easier with technology.
Streamlining Your Small Business: Our Final Thoughts
In the past, most small businesses only had to compete with other organisations in their local area. Travelling long distances for most products or services would have been inefficient for clients, so they mostly worked with businesses in and around the area they lived in. For some companies in relatively small towns but with high demand for a certain service or solution, selling was easy. With limited competition locally, companies could thrive for many years without much effort and didn’t always need to adapt quickly.
Over the past few years, the Internet has changed all that and made it incredibly easy for today’s consumers and businesses to buy from and work alongside companies around the world. With the click of a button or a few taps on a screen, anyone can get access to thousands of options, with companies literally fighting for their attention and business. These developments mean that for any small business that wants to survive and thrive in 2023 and beyond, doing the minimum is no longer enough. You have to work harder and smarter than ever before, which can be scary, especially if you don’t know where to start. This article should give you the nudge and pointers you need to start deep-diving into your business and working out ways to take it to the next level, without necessarily expanding and investing a lot of money into it.
