Keeping your head above water whilst juggling different roles is quite a feat as a small business. Getting your business to not only survive but thrive takes time and a copious amount of effort. You need to sow the seeds of creativity, out of the box thinking and plenty of hard work before you begin to reap the results. Here are seven ways your small business can thrive.
No matter your industry and business, the power of content marketing can never be underestimated. Words are used in marketing and branding efforts to persuade, convince and convert clients. Good writing goes beyond the technicalities of grammar and spelling — it is about reaching the hearts and minds of your audience to produce loyalty and trust in your offerings. Like a good movie, many elements come together for good writing.
1. Delegate but Dedicate Time
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of leraning” – Bill Gates As a growing business, your clients are one of your most significant assets. Don’t brush off their needs or take an authoritative tone with them. While you may be the expert in the services you are offering, it is their brand whose needs need to be met. Listen carefully to what they are looking for and stay present throughout the client journey. Don’t pawn them off to your team once the deal is made. Delegate the work but dedicate the time to check in on your clients. Make them feel that their time with you is worth their money. Offer support and advice that matters to their organisation. Anyone can offer the same services you do, but not everyone can support their clients in the same manner. You and your team make your brand unique — make the best use of that.
2. Value Your Team
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” – E. Luccock Human capital is often underrated — but nothing is more valuable than the people you have representing your business. Teamwork makes the dream work — understand, encourage and spend quality time with your team. While you are the boss, they are the glue that holds your business together. Be interested in their ideas and feedback. When working with the clients and executing the work, your team can offer you a different perspective on doing better. Ideate, discuss and determine what works and doesn’t together. Demand efficiency and creativity by getting your hands dirty too. Don’t make the success of your business their responsibility. Stay away from a top-down approach and start listening.
For instance, you sell shoes and wish to increase your sales — you have to address issues and offer suggestions that people can use or purchase quickly. For example, while promoting your shoes, share insights about beauty and fashion, common problems faced when buying shoes or how your shoes work for different feet. This shows your audience you are not merely selling shoes but that you know what you are selling to their benefit. When your audience can trust your advice, they will lean on you for your service and products.
3. Review and Rebrand
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos Don’t skimp on rebranding efforts just because you are a small business. Every successful venture started small with little to show for and grew with time. You have to invest in your business to gain from it. Constantly review your systems, processes and image. Keep what works and do away with what doesn’t. Think of the business image and personality you want to share with your clients — how do you want to be seen and heard? We recently rebranded — you can learn more about that in our blog post “We Rebranded!”. The rebranding was necessary for evaluating our past actions and charting our progress in the future. The rebranding journey encourages the business to look at the strengths and areas of improvement, which sets a strong foundation for digital marketing and building a brand that you can be proud of.
4. Don’t Shy Away from Criticisms
“The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” – Norman Vincent Peale One of the most challenging things about being a business owner is having your hard work criticised. As you hustle your way to success — many people may have an opinion about what you do. But here’s the thing there is a difference between direct criticism and constructive criticism. The latter allows you to improve and innovate to do better. We asked our team to do a competitive analysis, and they came back with our strengths and areas of improvement (which we are implementing at present). While it was hard to hear our weaknesses — it motivated us to do better. Nothing or nobody is perfect; we have to keep learning and evolving, which is how we arrived here as humans.
5. Lose the Fight or Flight Mode
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin Going into business is not war — the C in competition is not always about eliminating competition but collaborations that support growth. If you are constantly in a fight or flight mode as a business, you leave no room for growth. You can’t keep fighting in business or run away at first sight of a problem. The solution? Have a plan, think and work ahead of time to implement strategies.
When you stay prepared, you never have to prepare. Work closely with your team to implement it and review the plan regularly. The action plan may not work immediately, but it will with consistency and due diligence. One of our areas of improvement was our online presence, where other agencies had exciting news and information to share; ours was lacklustre. So, we changed it up! WriteHaus Asia’s Instagram engagement was poor initially, but now with consistent posting and aesthetics, we see better results.
6. Study Your Competition, Don’t Compare
You do you — that is a rule of thumb. Every business is unique — while the offerings may be similar, the people are different, and the clientele is diverse. So don’t devalue your hard work and effort over what-ifs and maybes and lose yourself in comparison. Recognise that everybody’s skin in the game is different and navigate their operations in a way that works for them. Some are prepared to take higher risks, while others prefer to keep it safe. Neither approach is wrong. Instead, you learn about what they do differently when studying the competition. You can aim to incorporate that into your business by customising it to suit your business needs and personality.
