More than 70 percent of business done in America is by small businesses. If you are a business owner longing to make it to the Forbes 400, your goal should be growth.
Does that mean you'll be the next Bill Gates? Likely not, but at least your ability to grow and sustain your company should be paramount. Even with an excrutiatingly slowly improving economy, most business owners are still reeling from a recession that has pounded the nation for the past couple of years with all estimates that improvement is not going to be quick in coming back. What to do in the interim?
Far too many business owners let fear affect them and their choices, according to business consultant Jim Muehlhausen, author of "The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them", quoted in a previous article.
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Times are not great, but people still have money and companies are still spending. For every business that is closing, 10 more are surviving. So, relax, focus and get smart about how to navigate the tough times. You may find you wind up doing even better than before. Here are a few tips about surviving:
Focus: Pay more attention to your business model and your business, and pay less attention to the economy. Keep your eyes on the road, and not the landscape, and you'll get where you're going.
Don't Throw the Hail Mary: Don't make dramatic changes. Work on the tactics already in front of you. Keep moving and keep working at the tasks that have traditionally helped your company succeed. Don't count on that big order or some other source of instant salvation.
Stop Fretting: This is a terrific time to tune up systems. Make large time investments in future products/services that you just did not have time for when times were good. Rather than lamenting bad times and wasting time on activities aimed at making things better right now, focus on two years from now while everyone else is short-term focused.
Buy a competitor: Now is a great time to buy weaker competitors. Prices are low. Rolling their business into yours can add valuable employees and sales at bargain prices.
It's not the economy, it's your model: The weak economy has hit businesses with weak business models MUCH harder than those with solid models. If the economy has hit you hard, this is not bad karma. It is a sign that you need to tune up your business model.
The next few years will mark a new phase for the U.S. economy, characterized by accelerated job growth and increased opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly in international trade, according to TD Economics. The American economy relies heavily on small and medium sized businesses. The sluggish economic recovery is partly attributed to the fact that SMEs have been hit on two critical fronts. One, they were highly concentrated in the hardest hit industries of the recession. And, two, tight credit conditions have been made worse with collateral tied to real estate.
Times have been tough, but you can be tougher. Now is the time to gear up and get ready for new business. Shake off what has been the dust of defeat, and wake up to the new reality. Your company may be leaner, but losing extra weight is a good thing. Putting a game plan in place to get across the goal line should be constantly reviewed and revised. You can win in the new economy. Remember, it's your business. So, make it work.
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