If you haven't started a small business yourself, chances are that you know someone who has. While most citizens like to support local, unfortunately it doesn't always pan out for everyone. Today we're discussing two major pitfalls that small businesses face in the first two years.
No matter how well run the company, the first few years are always a learning process. Within that learning process, two of the main focuses should be to keep your focus and process feedback. These two tokens of advice may seem like a given. However, putting them into practice is the tricky part. Let's break it down for you.
1. Lacking Focus
From time to time, everyone struggles with keeping focus. When it comes to a small business, it's easy to get carried away with five different ideas that you could incorporate into your plan. In those moments, it's important to keep in mind your main focus within the company.
Let's take the example of opening a boutique. If you decide to open a boutique focusing on teen trends, it might be tempting to also incorporate trends for all ages and all genders as well. This is where small businesses could lose their focus by over-generalizing. In these instances, the boutique has taken on too much all at once.
It'd be better to set one end goal for your first year and evaluate at that year mark how you're doing on your main focus. If at that point in time you see that you're successful, you would be more likely to succeed in an expansion of some sort.
Everything in moderation as mom always said!
2. Not Listening To Feedback
No matter who your clientele is, their feedback is essential to the success of your business. If you have a toy store, the three year old girl who wants a wider variety of dolls is quintessential. If you own a salon, the overbearing blonde is your target market. While these customers might not always be the easiest to deal with, your success is reliant upon their feedback.
When you lay out the groundwork for your business in the beginning, you have the foundation. However in life, change is always necessary. Even if the input is not something that you thought to be important in the beginning, it is important now and it must be put to work.
That's not to say you should change the principle of your company because one customer doesn't like it. This advice is to say that you must always be aware that people view things differently and that doesn't make one viewpoint wrong. Always be open to constructive criticism as a small business owner.
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