Factor In Your Small Business

The key limitation for business growth is often the business owner. Let's take a look at how you could be holding your business back. Letting The Fear Win The first way a business owner limits their business's growth is simply by being afraid to make any changes because they fear the result of any decision they make will be a risk to the business itself. While being cautious is wise - being frozen by fear will stifle business growth. Customer demands change over time, economic and environmental conditions can impact your business, technology advances and socio-demographics can totally alter the business landscape. Your ability to adapt to these ever-changing conditions will see you compete, survive and thrive, whilst inaction is likely to render your business and products obsolete over time. Sadly, standing still for any entrepreneur is simply not an option. To overcome your fear, implement risk management practices. Outline all the possible risks to your business and rate the according to the potential impact to your continued business operation and the likelihood of them occurring. Then for each of the risks develop a risk mitigation plan. This plan should outline the preventative measures that are required and the course of action should the risk be realised. For those risks that are both high and likely, you should take steps to implement the preventative course of action as a priority, while those that are lower in the order of magnitude and less likely to happen should be implemented as budget and resources allow. If your fear is related to a particular project or task, the same methodology can be applied. Completing this process should go some way to alleviating your fears. All or Nothing Risk Taking In my experience, the entrepreneurs that cause themselves most grief are the ones who have bet the entire business operation on a particular outcome. So to keep your fear factor to an absolute minimum, my suggestion is to never bet it all. (Sometimes it is required, but only after careful research and considered deliberation). Keep your investment at a level the business itself can afford to lose. That way if you do roll the dice and lose, your losses are kept to a manageable minimum and the continued operation of your business is assured. The other way I see this 'all or nothing' approach manifest itself is when developing new products and services, business owners fail to undertake research, including capturing the 'voice of the customer' to obtain actionable insights and use it in the development process. They also fail to undertake client-based testing to ensure they have hit the mark with their development. The further down the development path you go without testing the higher the level of risk. serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato serrinhadefato Refusing to Research Many entrepreneurs believe because they know their business, their customers and their industry they don't need to do any research. The only thing you are able to guarantee is you think you know what they want. But the harsh reality is unless you seek their input you are just guessing. Your research should be as thorough as possible. As a minimum you should look at the economic conditions both globally and locally, examine relevant social and demographic trends. You should seek to understand industry issues and trends, take a look at your competitors and what they are doing and do a review of your own business performance and issues as well as seek input from your customer base. Be thorough in your research but take care not to get caught in a situation of 'analysis paralysis' where you get so bogged down in the research that you fail to make the vital decisions needed to move your business forward. Failing to Grow and Develop Another possible way a business owner can limit the growth of their business is by failing to develop and grow both as a person and as a professional. This often occurs when the entrepreneur is operating solo, or is performing many of the roles in the business. With all the competing priorities, it is often difficult for them to commit time to professional development. Taking time to develop your skills and expertise is vital. It can open your eyes to valuable opportunities and help you to solve business problems. I am always happy to take time out to learn and to grow because I know that I will be rewarded with at least one or two valuable gems that will help my business grow. Failing to Seek Wise Counsel Business owners can also stymie business growth by failing to seek priceless input from experienced third parties. This could be in the form of mentoring, advisors in specific aspects of running a business or from someone who has been there, done that. I believe that business owners are best served by creating their own advisory panel. Membership should include a legal and compliance expert, a financial advisor, a technology advisor, sales and marketing expert, an industry expert, a customer representative and a growth advisor. Seeking the counsel of this advisory panel will prevent you from making common mistakes, they will hold you accountable for your actions and keep you on track to achieving your strategic goals - faster and with less risk. They can act as a sounding board in a dilemma and often are able to provide you an array of possible solutions - more often than not, ones you had not thought of. Don't be a road block to business success, carefully examine how your actions could be affecting your small business and work to address the limitations. You and your business will be much better for it. Karen L. Paiyo is an Australian Small Business Counsellor, supporting and nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurship in the Asia Pacific Region. Karen empowers small business owners by transferring to them the skills and expertise needed to help them take their business ideas from creative concept to profitable reality, faster and with less risk.