Some great tips for your small business

Every business needs help and here are some great tips for your small business

Build a support network

Whenever anyone works alone, whether an outside dales rep or solopreneur, having a group of people to bounce ideas off of or to even just have some coffee with, can be a huge stress reliever.

Whether you join an after work group or join a CoWorking space, having contact with others in your position is a great help.

Networking events can be a good source as well. Check out Meetup.com or your local Chamber of Commerce for events.

Set Goals

“I want to have a bigger company” is a goal. But, it is not a very good goal as it is not specific enough. For your goals to be useful, they need to be specific and the more specific, the better.

“I want to increase my sales by 20%, hire 3 part time employees and take my first vacation by January 1 2021,” is a much better goal.

Then figure out how to get to that point, with other smaller goals, and follow them until you achieve your main goal OR realize it is unattainable and rework your goals(s) into a workable one.

Delegation is your friend

That’s right, letting other people do tasks that you don’t like, that you’re not good at or that don’t move your company forward, will benefit your business.

Why sit in front of your computer all day building your website, when you can be out making sales?

Let someone who is good at web design take that over.

Keep overhead low.

Yes, hiring someone to build your website will come with a cost, but that cost will be offset with the sales that you generate while the web designer does their job.

If you are a single person business, you clearly do not need an office suite. Yes, the DD or Starbucks may work out for a while, but at some point you will want to come across as a bit more professional and, again, this is where a CoWorking space may come in.

These spaces are cheaper than a standard office space and you may have the support of the other CoWorkers.

If you have to look god for clients but don’t have dress clothes, do not fret because the Goodwill actually may have some good options.

A few points for shopping at a Goodwill or similar stores:

• Make sure that what you buy fits or you can have them tailored.
• Make sure there is no damage to them, anywhere.
• Make sure they are not too dated. You do not want to look like you fell out of a ’70s B-movie.

Another option are the outlet shops that are popular now. Yes, you will pay more than the $.50 to $1.00 from a thrift store, but it will be brand new and at a steep discount. Where I live, there is a Van Heusen Outlet. In Macy’s a VH shirt goes for $70+ but at the VH store, I can get a brand new shirt for as low as $12.50.

Find a Niche and stick with it.

If you are brand-spanking new, it may take a bit of time to find your sweet spot, But once you find your niche, stick with it and don’t change.

You can expand, but never give up your niche…unless, your niches market fails.

Keep your day job as long as you can

You might want to dive right in and be 100% self-employed but… don’t. It may take you quite a while to build up your business so that you can leave your day job.

Stay Focused

This is very important. Every second you are not working on your business is lost time you will never get back. Remember, seconds turn into minutes and minutes turn into hours and… hours turn into days of lost time.

If you spend 5 minutes every workday chatting about non-work things, that’s 25 minutes of lost time a 5 day work week (most of us work 7 days) and almost 2 hours of lost time a month.

Set up very specific times for interruptions, such as:

• Check email immediately when you get in the office or start your day
• Have meetings at specific times, say 1p – 2p
• Make phone calls at a specific time as well

Of course the important email,meeting and call will come up, but having a schedule will keep you on track much better than having none.

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So, do you have any tips that have worked for you or someone you know? Let us know in the comments.

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