10 Rules For Small Business Success

We have gathered so much over the years from research and study running small businesses, their growth, and successes. Many businesses succeed and many others fail. For those ones that succeeded, experienced positive growth and success, there are rules, principles and attitudes that worked for them. And if you are a small business owner, you should go through these 10 rules for small business success that we have gathered to help you. 

The rules guiding the success of small businesses are very key to the success of your business if you really want to have good growth. And the result of ignoring is the direct opposite of ‘small business success’. And in fact, just one can make the necessary change you want. So, check out these rules for small business success:   

 

1. Grow Gradually – Small To Big

 

If you think you wouldn’t start your business yet because you want to start big first, you are very likely on your path to crashing hard. One of the best pieces of advice regarding starting a small business is to first of all carve a niche for yourself. Think of an area of specialty or a segment of a narrow market that you can conveniently fit into, instead of trying to compete for every customer.

 

Put your focus on specific industry, products, and audience. You do not even have what it takes as a small business owner to be a generalist and satisfy every customer. So, pick a niche for better focus, understand it very well, consider others within the same industry, kick off and grow it into a big business.

 

2. Take Care Of What Cares About Your Bills

 

You’d agree that entrepreneurs often come across a wide range of great ideas. But then, they can simply become a distraction from the key things we should be focused on. Before you begin to delve into new areas, be clear  on what aspect of your business provides the main cash. What aspect really takes care of you and pays your bills? You should focus on that aspect first and nurture it. 

 

3. Provide Products Customers Wants

 

Eugene Kleiner, a pioneering venture capitalist says, “Make sure the dog will eat the dog food.” This means that no matter how great you think your ideas are, always ensure that the products or services you are offering have a target market already in place for it.

 

4. Set Goals

 

If you haven’t set goals for your small business success, how exactly do you intend to attain it? It is often interesting getting yourself to work on your business projects, but have you created a business plan for the success and survival of your business?

 

It is not necessarily the amount of page document you are creating that matters but your exact planning. When you develop a business plan, you will be caused to think through the crucial aspect of your company. You’d look into your industry, market, competition, and your strategy.

 

5. Identify Your Target Market

 

Where are your customers often found? What are their interests, ages, location, and other demographics? 

 

Ensure to analyze your customers characteristics so you understand what makes them make the kind of purchase decisions that they make. Have a clear target market and get to be more effective and efficient in your marketing efforts and product development.

 

6. Focus On A Business At A Time

 

Entrepreneurs are often faced with a lot of opportunities because of their curious nature. It is however very important to focus on clear and specific business(es) which can be properly and efficiently handled. Some business plans combine  a lot of businesses together – baby sitting service, bar, laundromat, and bookstore for instance are just diverse and not compatible.

 

It is important to put your focus on one aspect, whether service or product, your distribution channel, and target market.

 

7. Be Brief And Precise With Words

 

The world is fast moving, everyone is busy and changing. If you must pass any message across relating to your business, it is important to keep it succinct. Your brochures, newsletters, websites, and ads should not be clustered with messages. Grab the minds of your audience quickly by keeping things brief and straightforward with nice photos and fascinating videos.

 

8. Build Relationships

 

Your business is going to succeed only by how well you are able to build relationships. All of us meet other people for business and other things. We prefer to do business with people we trust and love.  So, if you really want to have an edge in competition, leverage on building relationships.

 

Know your customers. Let your customers know and trust you. Find out where and who they hang out with. Find out about their families and friends. Expand.

 

9. Leverage On An Existing Market

 

There is absolutely nothing bad with doing what people are already doing. Trying to create a market for a totally new product or service is very hard. It is also expensive to achieve and consumes a lot of time.

 

You can leverage on an existing market with a new dimension, features, outlook, dimension. Which you have researched your target audience to readily embrace. For instance, Facebook wasn’t the first social media platform at the time it was launched. But it had so many new features and advantages which the others didn’t have. Google wasn’t the first search engine too. The iPod too wasn’t the first in terms of a digital music player.

 

10. Double Your Estimates

 

When starting a business, it is better to double your capital and estimated time of achieving certain goals. This is because, when it comes to entrepreneurship, even though many entrepreneurs are optimistic naturally about their plans and goals, things often take longer and cost more than initially planned. So, it is often better to stay fully prepared for your small business success.