How to Avoid the 3 Most Common Challenges Every Small Business Owner Encounters by Mike Raber - Part one

All great businesses begin as an idea or passion waiting to be transformed into physical form. You may have a dream, passion, or an idea for a great business; yet, when it comes to building a small business, it’s very important to have a solid core foundation built on marketing, organizational development, and financial in place to support the needs of your business. Without these three core elements in place, small businesses will be challenged and eventually implode.

When it comes to starting a small business, or taking an existing business to the next level, there are three common challenges small- and mid-sized business face. It doesn’t matter if the business sells widgets, or is a service related business. At the end of the day, the three core fundamental components are the same. As the saying goes “business is business.” All small businesses must build and manage relationships, develop the business to sustain itself, and create a financial foundation to support the business. Over the course of the next three blogs, I will be going through these.

FIRST COMMON SMALL BUSINESS CHALLENGE – Part one

The most common challenge small business owners face – not having a consistent marketing or lead generation system in place. Most small businesses are lacking consistent performance because lead generation for new business is not a priority. Without a systemized marketing approach a good business idea will perish.

All effective marketing programs incorporate certain key components which determine the level of effectiveness of the business’s marketing program or campaign. For instance, campaigns must be carried out over a predetermined period of time. They must be relational in nature. As the saying goes; “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Your relationship building must be consistent, like a mailing that is sent out the first week of the month, each month over a long period of time, instead of quarterly or occasionally. Over time consistency builds trust. Additionally, your marketing must be consistent with a common theme, jingle, or campaign that keeps you in the forefront of your target market's mind on an ongoing basis.

Many small business owners have more of a transactional focus, rather than a relational focus. When I work with small- and mid-size business owners, I find they spend a majority of their time perfecting their craft. The plumber fixes toilets, the accountant crunches numbers, and the real estate agent shows houses. They also spend a significant amount of time putting out fires, handling customer service, and administration activities. Only at this point does lead generation finally fit into the schedule.

Without leads or people on your calendar, your business will dissolve. In business and sales, lead generation is undeniably one of the most important and simultaneously overlooked business activities. It often gets the least amount of attention – right up there with business and financial planning. As with many businesses, if marketing or lead generation is addressed, often it is misdirected. The primary focus shifts to lower cost forms of advertising and other forms of passive marketing. The focus should be about proactively going out and finding new leads. A common approach is to begin attending networking chamber lunches or other community based social and business gatherings.

Examples of passive approaches are advertising, direct mail, and hoping for referrals (but not actively working a referral system). Proactive lead generation examples are cold calling, knocking on doors, networking, or actively working a referral system. Additionally, “It’s also very helpful to have a video presence, especially when it comes to social media. What do you want your video to accomplish for your business to succeed?” (David Kocol, Videographer, personal communication June 13, 2017).

Your goal should be to sit down with potential prospects or advocates and constantly focus on building strong relationships with existing clients or customers. The objective should be to continually add these new contacts into a relational database consisting of past and present clients, new contacts, and leads who properly fit your business. The trick to a well-run marketing program is to have it as systematized and automated as possible, without losing the personal touch.

The growth of your business is dependent upon a strong systematized database built upon relationships, not just a mailing list. I notice many small business owners will often spend a large amount of money and time trying to acquire leads to fill their pipeline. Unfortunately, once they get busy they neglect the very activities and people who initially brought business in the door. This neglect creates peaks and valleys in the day-to-day operations of the business and revenue.