Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

Ours is making sure we are spending our time in the right areas. As a small business owner it is so difficult to sit down and prioritize projects and initiatives because you want to do them all. As one person has said it is not about winning the race it is about deciding which race to run in.

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

Ours is trying to find good people and hanging on to them. Often we find someone then we lose them because we do not have the growth opportunities that a larger firm has.

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

Ours is trying to find the right type of employee. One that has not worked at a huge company and has a very narrow skill set. We often find great people but they can only really help us out in one or two areas we like to hire generalist but it is often hard to find these type of people because most people typically focus on one type of function.

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

Ours is managing our cash flow it always seems our business is on a feast or famine cycle we are either getting so much business that we do not know what to do with or we have none. I know we need to do a better job at building up our cash reserves but it is easier said than done!

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

We work with a lot of big companies and our challenge is keeping up with them in all fronts. They expect us to have the resources, technology and staff to be as flexible as them and unfortunately we cant be.

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

I'd like to make a suggestion to Triton and Ace. Have either of you tried using virtual office assistance? With a virtual office assistant, they are skilled in a number of areas (accounting, marketing, administrative assistance), and by partnering with a virtual office assistant, you can use their experience to help you run your business more effectively without the headaches of a full-time employee, or struggling to find employees that can do everything.

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

I have a hard time finding quality time to spend working on my business (as it is still a part-time thing).

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

Easejennifer hi and welcome to the forum. Yes we use some of the freelance sites like guru and elance to get admin help when we need it but will keep your firm in mind for future work. Thanks.

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

Thanks Ace. I was just wondering, because not everyone had heard of Virtual Assistance before. I thought that might be something you might not know about it but would work for you.

As far as I'm concerned, my biggest problem is time. There's so much to do when you run your own business, it takes alot of planning and discipline to stick to a schedule and get everything done.

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

TMZ;29886 wrote: What is your biggest challenge as a small business owner?

to convince customer we can provide qualified service and good products.
It takes a long time

business giftware

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

My problem is that I speed big money to train people and when finished they go to my compatition.Hurts

Re: Biggest Challenge for Small Businesses

I think it is trying to hire and retain key employees. Unfortunately, many employees want stability and do not see the value and potential opportunity of working for a small company.