5 Harmful Tips For Small Business Owners
When you create a business, you will have no shortage of free advisers. It seems that absolutely everyone, even those whom you just met, have an authoritative opinion on how you should develop your product, what marketing strategy you should choose, how it is better to manage finances and much more.
Below are the top 5 harmful tips, without which you can do well.
Hire people you know
An unlimited number of people insisted that it is always better to form a team consisting of friends, colleagues or former employees whom you know and trust. However, the best decisions regarding hiring are based on specific positions that you need to fill in at a particular time. In other words, you need to focus on the specific expertise and recruitment skills of the candidate, needed for the company, rather than understanding how Jill, Sally and Joe fit into the new business.
In addition, if there is no synergy between the employee and the company, you need to part with it, and as a rule, the sooner the better. In addition, it will be much more difficult to fire friends, even if you know for sure that they are in no way suitable for this position.
There is no place in the market for you
Business success does not always depend on finding a completely free niche, rather it depends on how you define your company and its place in the market. Starbucks was not the first company to sell coffee on the market, but it organized a revolution in this segment of retail, adjusting the level of caffeine to a specific customer. By the way, a huge number of boutique coffee shops can open today and successfully trade despite the fact that Starbucks already has this market.
Instead of struggling to invent something completely new, carefully look at the target industry and find out what it lacks. Think about how to meet this need, and go forward. It is not always necessary to create new ways. The main thing to remember is who you are.
You need to be cheaper than others
Many young companies feel pressure and, giving in, greatly reduce prices to develop their business. Moreover, although attracting customers is important, too aggressive reduction will lead you to failure. It is necessary to try to give the consumer more value in your products or services, rather than just to give him something cheaper. In the end, there will always be someone else cheaper than you.
You will need to find other ways to gain a foothold, and work at the limit of your abilities to be unique even in some small things.
Social networks = free marketing
Over the past few years, more and more people have proved that it's much easier to start a business today than it was ten years ago, and all thanks to free marketing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Of course, in order to start an account on Facebook and Twitter or start a blog, you do not have to spend anything. However, it seems that social networks are free, like puppies. Puppy will cost inexpensively, and even for free, but the farther away, the more you will spend on food, toys, workouts.
In addition, social networks are far from free, given how much blood, sweat and tears are spent on them. From creating content to maintaining a conversation - social networks require constant participation from the very moment you first entered them. If you do not consider your time or the time of your employees worthless, then social networks are truly costly.
In order to earn, it is necessary to spend
It's risky to think that throwing money into the problem will be a panacea for solving it. Sometimes creative thinking and strategic work are much better than a puffy wallet. We need to understand the difference between spending money and investing in business.
Of course, money can help to scale the business faster, but a refund is possible only if you invest rather than spend.
Outcomes
People will always come to you with advice - sometimes good, sometimes bad. The main thing is not to forget that you are in the head of the parade. The opinions of other people should always be seen through the prism of your experience, beliefs and value system. The ultimate solution is always yours, so there's no point in blaming someone for bad advice.
About the author: Alison Brown is a professional CV & resume editor and former resume writer at a prosperous online resume editing service. She worked in the sphere of career building and HR strategies for several years, which now successfully helps her to assist job seekers with their career concerns, resumes, and interview tips. Emma is also fond of writing, psychology, and personal development.
