independent businesses with fewer than 500 employees
represent 99.7% all employer firms. Small
business is often referred to as the “backbone” of the economy. There are many reasons why but one of these
is that between 1993 and 2009 small business accounted for 65% of the 15
million new jobs created. Whether you
are a current small business owner or whether you are thinking about starting a
business here are some tips to help make it a success.
Take a risk: You don’t want to spend the rest of your
life wondering what if. From the words of the famous novelist Mark
Twain “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn’t do than the ones you did do. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade wins in your sail. Explore, dream,
discover.”
Focus on What
Matters: In small business, one of
the things that matters the most is the customers. Understandably the real goal of any business
is to make money but without any customers - that is a hard fish to fry. Instead of focusing on the latest and the
greatest try to aim your focus more on what would make the customers want to
come back again. All it takes is one
satisfied customer to tell a family member or a friend about their shopping
experience and that could turn into two or three more future customers.
Keep on Trucking: It takes a while to take off and start
developing into a well-known business.
The process of opening and maintaining a business involves hard work and
dedication. The initial opening of a
business is a lot like pouring a foundation of concrete. It takes quite a bit of time and effort for
it to become solid but once it is set up you are left with a firm base to stand
on. Thomas Edison once said, “Many of
life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success
when they gave up.”
