Fearless and motivated entrepreneurs should never be underestimated.
Small businesses are often viewed as underdogs, especially when entering existing marketplaces to take on large businesses. But with a global shift to ethical spending and local buying power, more entrepreneurs are taking the leap to start their own business, and success stories abound in David and Goliath style business plans.
The decision to strike out on your own as an entrepreneur and start your own business is a life-changing one.
Whether you’re looking to leave the corporate world behind, make a change for the better in your industry, or have the flexibility to become your own boss, your livelihood is now connected to your small business.
Read more: 7 Ways a Small Business Community Can Help You Grow
So how do you give your small business the best chance in life?
Hopefully before taking the leap to start your own small business you sat and created a comprehensive business plan. Regardless of what your business is, the most important step is identifying your market, potential customers/clients, and their needs, and drilling down into what motivates you and your business, as well as your goals for the future.
Ultimately, it all comes down to the people you want to attract to your business.
How does your business help them?
Have a brainstorm and come up with a list of every way your business helps improve the quality of someone’s life, and refine which part of their life it improves.
- Are you simplifying a process in their business, giving them more time to focus on other things?
- Are you selling a product that will improve their day-to-day experience?
- Are you offering an experience that will bring a smile to their face?
Regardless of what service or product you offer, this list of improvements is what every piece of your marketing, messaging and content should convey. Every piece of communication should show or tell the audience all the positive outcomes you’re going to bring to their life.
What’s your niche?
Although disrupting is the new buzzword, most businesses don’t have the customer base or power to take on the big-business behemoths straight out of the gate.
If you’re just replicating someone else’s business model, and they have the existing market share and giant marketing budget, you’re unlikely to successfully take them on without a key differentiator or two.
Finding your niche in an existing market lets you present your business as an alternative to the existing players in the market, and offer it to a marketplace increasingly looking to know more about where their money goes and support smaller businesses where possible.
Read more: 10 Things All Startups Need to Do
Are you ready to scale?
The processes set in place at the start of your business journey are the key to growing – whether your plan is for a global expansion or manageable turnover.
Hub Australia has a global network, meaning members have access to not only the 6 locations across Australia, but the entire LEXC network across Asia, Europe and America.
Scaling may also mean growing your team – hiring your first employee is a major milestone in every business. Focusing on hiring the right person for each role and bringing them on board with the culture and journey of the organisation is an important step to make sure you can keep offering your customers consistent service and keep the heart of the business alive.
Read more: Want to Grow Your Business? Get the Basics!
How’s your service?
As a small business, you’ve likely got a big benefit over the market leaders in the industry – your team. Even as a solo operator, you’re likely to operate support and sales on a small scale and with a personable touch. Nobody likes their call being diverted overseas when they need help, or asking for help from someone who wants to move you through the queue to save their KPI’s.
Odds are you’re working alongside (or as) the team keeping your company ticking and customers happy, which means you can keep an ear to the ground and continue to identify your customer’s needs, and develop solutions to repeat issues.
Who’s in your network?
The people you meet when starting out on your adventure are invaluable – they can become brand advocates, tellers of your story, and assets as you grow. If you’re looking to grow your network (which you always should be), heading to local business nights, joining online communities and working from coworking spaces are all ways to meet people who can offer support, insight, friendship and motivation.
Coworking spaces provide great opportunities to network with other growing businesses in a range of other industries, with coworking spaces like Hub Australia offering in-house networking and professional development events, as well as online portals allowing you to search other members based on special skills and connect to their expertise.
Read more: The Art of Networking in a Shared Office Space
