Regardless of the field or industry it is in, if you have a small business, growth and expansion needs to be one of the top priorities. In order to make this happen you will need to focus on levers you can drive for continuous improvement. Spending time studying your competition, learning what you can change, and finding the resources you need to make the changes all can help you to drive business growth and improvement. While you won’t need to know every little minute detail, here are a few things you will want to research.
Who is stronger than you?
Let’s face it. No matter what we do or how long we have been doing it, 99 percent of the time there is going to be someone out there who is a little better than we are. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, if you have a small business with the potential to do more, this is a great place to start.
Not only do you want to identify the competitors who are ahead of you, you want to identify the exact areas where they are better. By doing this, you become aware of both your assets and liabilities. If you are wanting to increase your sales and profits, you will need to recognize where the majority of your attention needs to be focused.
What can you change?
Once you have spent some time researching the areas where your small business could use some improvement, what can you do to create a difference? Is there more training your customer service reps need in order to better serve? Are there areas in the market where you would be better served advertising your name?
Change doesn’t just happen. There is always more action that needs to take place. When it comes to a small business, improving what you do should be a never ending cycle. Until you can honestly say, “Yes, the numbers show we are better than everyone else,” you need to be working on something.
Even if you are one of the few business owners who can say this, if you are not focused on continuous improvement, the rankings and numbers will not last long.
What do you need to be able to change?
If you are the owner of a small business, chances are you’re already fully aware of how limited resources can be. For starters, regardless of how you to try to schedule it, no matter how long and hard you work in between breaks, you are only going to have twenty four hours in a day and seven days in a week. This simply will not change.
Possibly even more frustrating than the shortage of time is a lack of funds. Despite how much planning and saving you do when starting your business, if you are constantly seeking ways to improve and grow, there is going to come a time when the money simply isn’t there.
Situations will come out of nowhere and blind side you in ways you didn’t know were possible. Equipment will fail. Able bodies will be pushed to the limit. There is always something else you could be working on.
Because of this, you should spend some time reviewing the possibilities of a small business loan in your state. If your business is growing at a fast pace, a lack of funds could be what sets up roadblocks you are unable to push through. Don’t allow a lack of finances to be what keeps your business from reaching its full potential.
Keeping focus on the levers you can control for continuous improvement of the the business, both external and internal, drive growth, performance, and value creation.
