Keeping Your Small Business Relevant in a Changing Market 20 Aug 2018

The small business world is always changing. It seems that every few months something happens that impacts part of your business, whether it’s changes to social media algorithms or customer habits.

For example, rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft have strong appeal for customers because of their ease of use and low cost. This change in customer habits has caused many taxi services to go bankrupt because they can’t compete.

This kind of environment makes staying relevant more crucial than ever to help your small business grow. In this article, we’ll consider 5 tips for keeping your business relevant to your market.

1. Pay Attention to the Little Things

Small details such as website user experience, branding, personal interest, and fast customer service are sometimes overlooked. People may think that because these things are small, they don’t matter. But the truth is that in a digital age of impersonal sales tactics, paying attention to seemingly little things can be a refreshing change for your customers.

Customers may not even realize how much these things matter to them. But the small stuff, like handwritten notes, fast customer service, or even a simple sincere thank you for buying your products can make your customers satisfied enough to come back again and again.

2. Track Your Marketing Successes and Failures

When you have limited funds to spend on marketing, it’s important to stretch those resources as far as you can. To ensure your marketing brings in customers, try tracking your marketing performance. This can have a bigger effect than you’d expect.

For example, a study by Econsultancy in 2016 found that for every $92 spent getting customers, just $1 was spent converting them into leads. Let’s suppose that you track your marketing and find this to be the case. You may decide that to make the most of your budget, you need to devote more money to converting strangers into leads instead of spending it on generic marketing blasts.

Tracking your marketing doesn’t have to be a time-consuming process. Using a marketing automation tool will help you automatically identify what’s working and what’s not. This will help you put an end to marketing techniques that are a cash drain and invest in what is working.

3. Set Up a Project or Task Management System

As your business gets busier, you’ll have many tasks to manage and coordinate with the rest of your staff. It can be challenging to keep track of everything, and thinking about setting up a brand new project or task management system can be overwhelming.

This is where you can turn downtime, or the slow season, into productive time. Setting up new systems during the January slow-down, for example, will give everyone time to learn it before things get busy again.

4. Keep Your Finances Up to Date

Staying up to date with company finances is something that every business owner dreads, but it’s critical that you do it. This is especially important for companies that don’t have accountants, as you don’t have someone in charge of finances to remind you of deadlines and problems.

When you check your finances regularly, you know when your company is doing well and when you need to make some changes. This enables you to act quickly and make the necessary changes before it’s too late.

5. Stay Ahead of Taxes

Most people only need to worry about their taxes being due in April. However, as a business owner, there are many tax dates that you need to keep in mind. It’s hard to keep up with all of the federal and state tax requirements.

That’s why it’s helpful to keep ahead of your taxes by marking different tax deadlines on your calendar, deciding whether you’re going to file your taxes yourself or with an accountant, and ensuring you have all the necessary receipts for your business just in case that dreaded audit pops up.

Stay Relevant When Hiring

In this article, we’ve learned how small businesses can stay relevant by paying attention to small things, tracking marketing, setting up a system to manage tasks, keeping up with their finances, and getting ahead of taxes. But how can you stay relevant when hiring new employees? You need to make sure your hires are compliant, safe to work with and have the experience that they claim to.

Want to supercharge your hiring process? Then download our free small business hiring checklist. This ebook will give you step-by-step guidance to help you improve your hiring process. Following it closely means you’ll have one less thing to worry about as your business grows.