It’s tough to launch and maintain a small business. Competition is fierce, overheads are high, and, worst of all, it’s easy to make mistakes. Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes, from branding inconsistencies to poor marketing strategies and a lack of market research. But for all these pitfalls, there are surprisingly simple and sometimes innovative solutions.
If you’re an owner or manager of a small business, you’ll likely have come across some of these mistakes before, and the important thing is to see them not as outright failures, but opportunities for learning and growth. We’ve compiled common mistakes small businesses make, and how best to avoid them.
Poor financials
Managing finances is the day-to-day bread and butter of running a small business. But it’s easy to get things wrong, or tangled up and confused.
Without a clear budget, day-to-day essentials such as office supplies or other overheads can quietly eat into your finances and dilapidate your bottom line. And sales alone aren’t a guarantee of profitability; not keeping an eye on your cash flow can cause problems with the payroll or paying suppliers. Other pitfalls, such as mixing personal and professional cash, can cause problems with taxes down the line, and trying to undercut the competition with lower prices can limit the possibility for growth down the line.
To ensure that your finances don’t cause your small business a headache, it’s vitally important to have a clearly drawn-out budget that you follow to the letter. It will also allow you to allocate funds and resources effectively. Weekly check-ins on cash flow will help you avoid many pitfalls that small businesses encounter and keep operations running smoothly. Strategising rather than lowering prices will actually encourage growth in the mid/long term.
Marketing issues
In the modern marketing landscape, variation is the key to success. We all know that digital channels, and especially social media, are dominant in terms of the digital footfall they produce. Many small businesses primarily rely on these to market their products and services to the world. This may seem like a logical thing, but actually, limiting your output to purely digital means via the occasional Instagram post or newsletter may be holding your business back.
Other techniques, which are often overlooked, frankly, shouldn’t be. Using print, for example, as a means of getting marketing messages across, is still an effective way to communicate with existing and potential customers.
In conjunction with digital channels, it can become a marketing success story. Other innovative techniques can be implemented, such as using colour psychology, a way to appeal to your clientele in a uniquely visual medium, and drive their decision-making.
Inconsistent branding
Good marketing is one thing, but a pitfall small businesses often experience is inconsistent branding across channels. Different fonts, logos, and color schemes are all signs of sloppiness and make your brand seem completely unprofessional, ie, the exact opposite of what you’re hoping to achieve. If your ducks aren’t all in a row, it may be easier to completely overhaul your branding materials.
Don’t forget that branding extends to your web presence and across social media platforms. Consistent branding drives growth by projecting an air of professionalism across your marketing messages, which may have all been in vain should you overlook it.
SEO concerns
Another area where small businesses run into trouble is in their use, misuse, or lack of use of SEO (search engine optimisation). You may think it would be enough to have your marketing messages on a well-designed and consistently branded website.
You’d be wrong. First of all, you need a website that is functional and easy to navigate. This not only means on a desktop, but as we’re seeing more and more, on mobile devices too. It should be user-friendly and highly responsive.
Secondly, all copy should be optimised so that search engines can rank your listings, copy, and other marketing materials at the top of the pile. Learn to research keywords using resources such as Ahrefs, and analyse how well they’re working with other tools such as Google Analytics. Optimisation is key to the success and growth of small businesses.
These are just a few examples of mistakes small businesses make, but thankfully, the solutions are fairly easy and headache-free to implement. Remember, it’s a tough market out there, so if it’s broke, fix it.