What are the main challenges for small business owners?
As a new business owner, there’s so much I still need to learn, and I expect that will always be the case! I’ve done vast amounts of reading over the last year and have been lucky to have received useful tips from other business owners. Here’s just some of the challenges I’ve experienced to date, and some I will undoubtedly experience down the road as our business evolves.
1. Finding Clients
This isn't just an issue for small businesses. Even larger, hugely successful companies employ people specifically to find new clients every day. However, for small businesses that aren't a big name, finding clients can be particularly hard. Where do you begin? How do you know what to prioritise? Where should you allocate your resources?
Finding clients begins with figuring out who your ideal client is. It’s vital to connect with your current network and make sure you're spreading the word to the right people. Build a picture of what your ideal client looks like, what they do and where they spend their time online. Knowing who your client is can radically improve your outcome. Once you have decided on who your ideal client is, you can then start creating content specific to this clientele, spending time in the places they hang out online and sharing engaging content that appeals to them.
2. Increasing Brand Awareness
If your clients don't know who you are, how can you expect them to hire you? It can sometimes seem like the most successful brands have experienced overnight success. However, most of these companies' hard work, failures, and rejections happened behind the scenes. We’ve learnt at Libra VA Services that it’s vital to start raising awareness about your brand and building a reputation as soon as you start your business.
Be clear and consistent in your social media marketing. Share useful tips that apply to your ideal client’s pain points. What can you help them to solve? How will you do it? By focusing on their pain points, you enable your future client to see the benefits of working with you.
Consider taking part in an event with another small business, in doing so, you can each maximise your reach and dip into each other’s networks. For example, how about organising a Facebook Live around what’s working for you both in business and what isn’t?
Running a high-quality blog will also help increase your brand awareness. A blog will help drive traffic to your website and convert that traffic into leads. Moreover, blogs also help to build trust among your prospects. At Libra VA, we have found that our blog posts generate more engagement compared to our other social media posts.
3. Building an Email List
To convert prospects to clients, you need to first build trust by staying at the top of their mind and providing value consistently. This process begins with adding prospects to your email list. It’s important to build an opt-in email list, made up of subscribers who voluntarily give you their email address, in line with GDPR regulations. The act of opting in requires website functionality that captures their email address. This can be achieved with a form builder embedded on your website. Here’s an example of ours: https://www.librava.co.uk/newsletter
The key to getting people to sign-up is creating demand. In signing up, what benefit will I get? For example, you may choose to share a lead magnet with useful time management tips, access to your latest blog content or a monthly newsletter. Keep content useful and engaging – it should always be quality over quantity.
Running a high-quality blog will help increase your brand awareness.
A blog will help drive traffic to your website and convert that traffic into leads.
4. Lead Generation
Another problem facing most small businesses is lead generation – i.e., generating enough leads to keep your business growing. A successful lead generation engine is what turns website visitors into prospective clients and provides a steady stream of sales prospects.
Your website is the most important tool you have for turning prospects into clients. Make sure each of your web pages guides visitors to act. Do you use a tool that automatically pulls the submissions from your forms and puts them into your contact database? Do you have lead generation CTAs on each of your blog posts? Do you have a blog at all?
Focus on the most popular pages on your website first. Most businesses have a few, specific pages that bring in most of their traffic – this is often the homepage, "About" page and "Contact Us" page.
5. Exceeding Client Expectations
Customer satisfaction is an important goal, but exceeding client expectations is what all of us should strive for. After all, delighted customers are the ones who will use your services again, write testimonials, and refer you to their contacts.
It’s important to set expectations during onboarding meetings with new clients. Make sure you deliver on those expectations, but also look at how you can provide extras that go above and beyond so you can continue to improve the client experience. For example, with a recent client whose Instagram account I manage, I shared a guide on how to take great photos for Instagram.
6. Hiring Talented People
None of the above can happen at scale without a supportive, innovative team that understands your vision and supports you. Hiring is often one of the biggest challenges for small businesses, especially since small businesses tend to feel under-resourced to begin with. However, as Virtual Assistants, we know that it’s impossible to know everything and do everything by yourself. Hiring the right people matters. Since the costs of hiring are high, it's important to invest a significant amount of time in the hiring process. It's the great employees that will help your business get to the next level. Remember your employee is a reflection of you as a business.
7. Managing Your Finances
Every business will be different, but you'll want to cut costs where possible and manage cash flow by staying on top of invoices and bookkeeping. Business accountants can help you analyse your financial situation, assist with annual tax returns, and help you make good decisions. This is an investment Lou and I made very early on in our business. Only an accountant will truly understand how to properly apply tax deductions and VAT registration. It can be a costly mistake if you don’t set up your business correctly from the get-go.
8. Scaling Up
Some business owners will push growth at all costs. But if you grow your business too rapidly, you'll find yourself having to hire quickly. Bear in mind it takes a while to train people. If you don't train people well, it can end up backfiring.
The key to this is focusing on the service you provide to your clients. Without excellent customer service, you won’t be able to scale your business.
To read more of our blogs and find out how we can support you as you grow your small business, visit: librava.co.uk/services-rates