Running a small business is a journey, one that takes you to places you thought you may never go. As you navigate though a myriad of decisions, pivots and issues to be dealt with, you will inevitably end up hitting some obstacles along the way to success. Small business roadblocks can be seen as an opportunity and a challenge. Depending on how they are handled, they can make or break you. In this article, we outline some of the more prominent small business roadblocks that owners like you face everyday.
Asking for referrals
This is something that many small businesses just don’t get around to or don’t approach in a systematic way.
You have developed a great relationship with many of your customers. They know you and trust you. You only have to ask and in most cases they will be more than happy to make an introduction to another potential client.
I once attended a sales training course and the trainer stated, “Money does grow on trees- it’s called referrals.”
Referrals are by far the most efficient way of generating new business. How many times have you asked for a referral in the last three months?
Here’s how you can get started quickly:
- If you haven’t already got one, make a list of all your current and former clients.
- Create a short email that includes a paragraph that they can copy and paste. This should describe in a very short concise manner the problem you solve and what makes you different.
- On the first Monday in every month send the email to five current or former clients
- Ask them to think of 1-3 people they know that might require your services and then ask them to make an introduction including the short paragraph on your business that you have written.
- Put a repeating event in your calendar to remind you to look at the results on a monthly basis.
- Repeat each month until you have exhausted your list.
- Track your activity and their response on a spreadsheet.
Same Store Sales
One of the easiest small business roadblocks you can avoid is lack of sales from existing or prior customers.
This is about asking for more business from clients, both current and former, that you already do, or recently did business with. These people already know you but may not know about all the services you provide.
Write a short email describing very briefly what services you provide.
Once a month select 5 current or former clients and send them the email.
Rinse and repeat on the same day every month to a new group of clients. Put a repeating event in your calendar to remind you to look at the results on a monthly basis.
Track your activity and their response on a spreadsheet.
Be systematic and track how it’s working. Be patient, it may not have an immediate response but if the email gets to the right person at the right time, you will most likely get a call!
Metrics
You can’t manage anything unless you can measure it. For instance, you can’t lose weight if you don’t measure your progress. Most small businesses neglect to measure key drivers of their business. When was the last time you looked at the number of visitors to your website and how they found you? Your website is of little or no use to you if you aren’t measuring how effective it is in converting browsers into clients.
QuickBooks has a very user-friendly report on Accounts Payable which helps you track the length of time it’s taking people to pay you. Are you using it?
Start simply. What are three things you need to measure and manage in your business? Once you have identified these three drivers, figure out how you can measure them and start tracking them once a month.
Once you start tracking you can start taking action to improve them. By tracking and measuring you will identify actions you can take and see if those actions result in improvements. Here’s a list of things you might want to track:
- Website activity
- Revenue per client
- Accounts Payable
- Cost of goods sold
- Profit and Loss by month
- Number of leads generated per month
- Number of converted leads per month
…and more! But for now just pick three and start tomorrow. Put a repeating event in your calendar to remind you look at the results on a monthly basis. See how it goes and add to the list.
Hiring
Many small business owners hesitate to hire, even when they have too much work to handle with the resources currently at their disposal. This is particularly true when they are a one-person operation. The main reason given is: “I don’t have time to train a new person” another one is: “What if I run out of work for them and have to let them go”?
Yes, training is time consuming and arduous, but believe us when we tell you, it’s probably the best possible use of your time. Going from being a doer to a manager is one of the more difficult challenges we face, but it’s a roadblock you must overcome in order to scale your business.
It just requires a little planning, patience and time. Once you’ve done it once it gets exponentially easier. Eventually someone you have trained can do the training and it’s off your hands.
With regard to being worried about running out of work; you already have more work than you can manage, which means you don’t have the time to nurture leads and take on new business. Having additional resources is like having a magnet for new business. Knowing you can absorb new business gives you the confidence to ask for it and the ability to deliver straight away. One thing builds on the other.
If you think you should be hiring then hire, don’t hesitate, cease the moment. Once you’ve done it you will ask yourself why you thought it was such an issue in the first place.
What are your Small Business Roadblocks?
We hope this post helps you address some of the most common small business roadblocks that you may run into. In spite of whatever challenge you come across, having a well thought out plan to address them is critical. My Business Roadmap is an effective tool that will guide you all the factors that must be identified and prioritized, and then provide you with the action items you need to overcome any issue you may have!
For more information on how to start with My Business Roadmap, learn more at here!