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In light of National Small Business Week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenges that keep small businesses from doing more business and what these entrepreneurs, who already wear so many hats, can do to overcome them.
Recently, I partnered with Constant Contact on a new national survey of small business owners, looking at how these entrepreneurs approach and prioritize things like operations, marketing and strategic planning. The results shed light on important pain points that are impacting small business owners and provide a big-picture perspective on the challenges that face many of the small businesses and entrepreneurs with whom I work day-to-day. Below I’ll take a closer look at three key challenges and outline simple, effective actions small business owners and entrepreneurs can take to tackle these challenges head-on while also growing their business.
Reacting vs. looking ahead
Every business owner knows how important it is to stay on top of day-to-day operations, but survey results suggest “short-termism” is a common problem amongst small business owners. The survey found that most small business owners (63 percent) plan strategically just a year or less in advance, which is understandable — business owners often need to prioritize issues of the day and immediate objectives over longer-term plans — but strategic opportunities may be missed when you are only looking at the business challenges that are right in front of you.
If you are constantly reacting, you miss the opportunity to engage in longer-term strategic partnerships, or to develop new products or services that meet your customers’ evolving needs, and you generally aren’t able to track your financials or promote your business as well as you should.
The solution? Create a schedule. Set regular times each quarter, and each month, to take stock of your longer-term plans, review financials and evaluate new opportunities. Here is a sample planning structure:
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Monthly Plan: Choose your top-three initiatives for…
