Small Business Owner Guide

So what drives a small business owner towards the prize? Normally they dislike large, slow moving political enviornments that drain your creative juices right out of your head. Getting up in the morning and staring at the line at Starbucks to the 3x3 cube you just got is not exactly that vision you had while in your 5th year of college.

No, you are a small business owner because you like to see results quickly and you enjoy having the ability to personally place your stamp on your success. Not your boss or his/her boss but you. It's all riding on the line and you are the only person that can make or break your passion.

You have to love this. You have to see the potential in making it big in a small pond while all around you are the sharks from the vast companies with the big brands that could swallow you up whole if they even knew you existed or cared for that matter. This is your greatest advantage. Depending on your passion and thus your business product/service you are offering you will have customers. We call them prospects at first but we aim to turn all prospects into happy customers.

Large, slow moving companies are challenged when they seek growth in the small business markets. Why? Because they are built with an overhead that cannot compete down below. Many times the large companies will actually outsource their sales departments to smaller companies who operate at lower costs to gain market share and note exceed the value of the sale (or in other words, sell something for 10.00 dollars while it cost you 12.00 dollars to produce and sell.

Leverage the very strength that small has versus large. Speed. With speed you can beat a large slow moving object to the starting line and thus finish ahead of them to the market. This is why we see so many large companies buying small to medium sized companies. The let others take the risk and build the "buy" side and then swoop in and buy out the management!

The morale here is to stick with your passion. Aim for a small piece of the pie that you can manage and build a client base that leads to increased sales (organically) and through word of mouth. Repeat buiness is higher profits as your customer base is already your customer and thus the cost of sales is much lower. Don't neglect them or they may not stay with your line long. The competition is fierce in the medium to small business pool so stay alert and study trends in your locale market and then exploit them within reason and on budget.