7 Reasons Your Small Business Will Fail (or stay mediocre at best)

Let’s face it, the majority of small service-centric companies right now are having great difficulty staying afloat and the reason is obvious; they cannot sell.

This is the cold hard truth for most of us responsible to drive B2B sales.

Lead acquisition is getting more-and-more watered down and the hoops that buyers are making sellers jump through to close deals are getting higher-and-higher now that the dust from Covid-19 is settling and companies are back on their feet.

Acquiring business and onboarding clients over the past years has taken a new face with the ever-expanding global digital workforce.?

Gone are the days you could count on your name, your friends or your ‘brand’ to magically bring in new business without having to truly work for it.

I have seen many small companies these past few years fall down as their management team is just not ready to take on a true sales discipline, leave their comfort zone to make 50 cold calls a week and treat marketing and lead generation with the respect it truly deserves.? ?

It seems that cutting corners with shoestring budgets to win clients and completely neglecting weekly R&D are bad habits that are still very engrained in the strategy of ‘old school’ business owners and the stakes are high as things will most likely only get harder.

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, staying competitive and scalable is essential for all small business owners.

In our experiences over the past couple of years, we've witnessed many small companies teeter on the brink of failure or sadly, succumb to it.

While the primary issue lies in the absence of a robust revenue-generating system and a management team who rigorously refuses to leave their comfort zone, a deeper examination reveals something even more concerning: a business operating model devoid of crucial digital infrastructure.

This deficiency results in notable inconsistencies with each seemingly 'routine' task commenced offering little to no room for improvement as each iteration presents new challenges.

If you find yourself in this predicament, you may well recognise the classic conundrum of 'working in your business' rather than 'working on it'.

The aim of this post is to emphasise how digitising your business operations and wholeheartedly embracing a continuous improvement culture will lead to transformative results throughout your entire company.

By doing so, even unseasoned decision makers without extensive sales and marketing expertise can implement a systematic approach reducing daily deviation and freeing up time for growth efforts.

This framework not only introduces incremental discipline into sales and marketing efforts but also empowers them to conduct essential R&D comprehension activities in their industry and uncover the critical steps needed to propel their business to the next level.

7 Reasons Your Small Business Will Fail

(or stay mediocre at best)

We've identified seven critical operational areas decision makers often neglect when considering digital transformation consequently leading to their company's demise

1. Organisational & Functional Reporting: Digitising your functional landscape & reporting hierarchy ensures clarity and efficiency when engaging internal & external stakeholders.?
2. Process Cataloguing: Are you drowning in paperwork when trying to explain your value proposition to clients or train staff? If so, it's time to digitise your process catalogue to become more transparent about what you do and where the bottlenecks are.
3. ?Workflow & Leadership Standard Work: Are recurring tasks and activities anything but standard & consistent? Fix that with simple automation! If you are a business leader living in the 21st century it is your obligation to your company.
4. Strategy Deployment: Is your business strategy scattered or unclear? Can every staff member summarise in 5 minutes or less your strategic improvement initiatives and how their contribution supports them? Digital strategy tools can help you define and execute a cohesive vision at all levels of your company.
5. KPIs & Metrics: Managing KPIs and metrics in spreadsheets is error-prone and unproductive. ?Not having a standard management reporting strategy at all levels of management is downright irresponsible. There are countless digital solutions in the market to help you with this even if you are a small company. Find one and make it work!
6. P-D-C-A Project Management: Using spreadsheets and excessive slide decks to drive bottleneck-fixing change projects will lead to more bottlenecks. Switch to a digital P-D-C-A project management & process waste management solution for better execution governance and smoother operations.
7. RACI Accountability Matrix: Ensuring accountability in a paper-based environment can be challenging. Use digital tools to define roles and responsibilities clearly leveraging the RACI matrix and giving visibility in real time into role definition to those who need it.

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Now more than ever small businesses need to start treating their operating model with the same level of attention that multinationals organisations do.

Failure to address the above-mentioned areas can result in slow growth, inefficiency, and missed opportunities.

By addressing each of these steps, you'll grow together with your team and position your business for success in a digital age.

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JOIN US THIS TUESDAY

1-HOUR PROCESS EXCELLENCE OPEN-MIC WEBINAR!

This Tuesday at 2pm UTC we are hosting a free 1-hour webinar featuring special guest including Allied Motion Technology OpEx Director Pedro Monteiro and Managing Director of UK-based Adastra Group Chris Wellard .

During this open-mic formatted event we'll be reviewing a case study and performing a software demo of our process management solution PRESTO P-D-C-A. ?

Don't miss this opportunity to learn how a small company achieved ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 certification using our platform and speak up with your thoughts.

JOIN US THIS TUESDAY AT 2PM UTC

Special Offer!

Additionally, our powerful business management software PRESTO P-D-C-A provides a holistic solution to address all seven of the above-mentioned challenges effectively.

It's not just about surviving as a small business but thriving and prospering.

If you are interested in using PRESTO P-D-C-A to jump start your small business’s digital transformation program now is your chance!

This month we are delighted to offer you a 50% lifetime discount and three free-of-charge 1-hour consultation/training sessions to assist you in capturing your operating model and putting daily discipline into your business.

2 Explosive Offers

OFFER 1

Jumpstart your PMO!

For $4.99 per month, you can buy a PRESTO P-D-C-A 'Scout' license to support:

• Project, OKR & Strategy Deployment
• Process Cataloguing & Process Waste
• Document, File & Knowledge Management
• Leadership Standard Work & Recurring Task Management
• 14-day free trial

as well as:

• three 1-hour sessions for coaching & training

Visit THIS LANDING PAGE TO START IMMEDIATELY

OFFER 2

Jumpstart your KPI Management Program!

For $9.99 per month, you receive all features of the 'Scout' license PLUS:

• Hoshin Kanri X Matrix
• Balanced Scorecard KPI Modelling & Reporting

(Contact [email protected] to redeem your 50% discount coupon used on checkout)

VISIT THIS LANDING PAGE TO START IMMEDIATELY

LETS WORK TOGETHER!

If you have any questions or need further guidance, don't hesitate to reach out to us directly at [email protected].

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Here's to your business's digital transformation and future success!

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Andrew Lenti