In the business world, small businesses come and go like your average online trend, and with more and more businesses set to close their doors in 2019, what can you do to ensure it’s your year of success? Take a look at some of the most valuable tips below to ensure your business has a fighting chance in 2019, not only to survive, but also to compete with the bigger fish.
1. Become More Efficient
Efficiency plays a massive role for successful businesses today. Whether it’s making an employee’s jobs easier by implementing new software to get things done quickly, or by investing in new warehouse property to ensure you have space for employees to work and get the job done right. Efficiency can always be improved upon, and it’s your job to look for ways to do exactly that. Usually, some new software or simple alterations to how things are done in the office is all it takes.
2. Improve Customer Service
Customer service is probably one of the most important aspects of running a successful business. Without good, prompt, professional communication, your customers are likely going to look elsewhere for similar products and services in the future. Your competitors already have this section under control, so it’s imperative you look for ways to improve this operation before it’s too late. A good helpdesk software package could be all it takes to improve your customer services as a whole, so whatever the cost, you should look for ways to get this implemented ASAP.
3. Research Your Competitors Regularly
Regardless of how well you think you have things under control already, your competitors will always be doing something better. Research your competitors on a weekly basis, as you’ll always find a new website feature, competitive prices, better customer service, and a better website that works – these are all things you could be doing just by piggybacking off your competitors. This doesn’t mean you need to copy everything they do to operate, but there’s certainly nothing wrong in trying to act in a similar manner if you know it’s working for them.
4. Listen to Your Past Customers
Your past history with customers will give you a clue as to where you’re going wrong or what you need to do to improve the service you provide as a whole. Get in contact with previous customers to see why they are no longer shopping with you. Also, get in contact with customers who currently shop with you to better understand what you can do to improve. It’s truly the smaller things in business that can make a considerable difference in terms of survival, especially today when there are millions of businesses worldwide all fighting for the same custom.
5. Always Stay Motivated
The moment you lose motivation to run your business is the moment it fails. Just because you’re the owner it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time off to breathe once in a while. Of course, you still need to work hard and put the hours in to ensure your small business is a success, but staying motivated is key to its survival.
In conclusion, it doesn’t matter what you do between now and the end of 2019 – if you haven’t already built a foundation for your business to thrive from, you’re going to find it hard to keep things afloat. However, by implementing the above tips before the end of 2018, you’re going to have a much better chance of taking your business further, and not get sucked into that dreaded black hole like a lot of business will do next year.
