July 17, 2017
Issues Facing Small Businesses
I decided to make a list of the challenges and issues that small business owners tell me about. Here it is:
| Issue | Category |
| I can’t get my staff to work the way I want | This is a problem of people management and leadership |
| I can’t keep good staff | This is a problem of people management and leadership |
| I have a “difficult” member of staff. What should I do? | This is a problem of people management and leadership |
| I can’t get my customers to pay on time | This is a problem of customer relationships |
| I don’t know how to deal with “difficult” customers | This is a problem of customer relationships |
| I keep getting chased for payment by suppliers | This is a problem of cashflow and supplier relationships |
| I can’t manage my cashflow | This is a problem of cashflow |
| I don’t know how my business is doing | This is a problem of management reporting |
| I want to get more business, but I don’t know how | This is a problem of sales |
| I want to expand but I don’t know how to organise it all | This is a problem of management |
| I want to take on staff but don’t know how | This is a problem of management and employment |
| I can’t respond to customers as quickly as I would like, and it’s losing me business | This is a problem of management |
| I can’t manage all the demands on me | This is a problem of management |
| I have too much to do. I’m constantly chasing my tail | This is a problem of management |
| I can’t manage my time effectively | This is a problem of management |
| My work-life balance is a mess | This is a problem of management |
| I don’t really know where I am going with the business | This is a problem of leadership and management |
It seems, then, that these 17 challenges and issues can be boiled down to eight areas of focus:
• People Management
• Leadership
• Management
• Customer relationships
• Supplier relationships
• Cashflow
• Management Reporting
• Sales
You could argue that “people management” and “management” are actually one category but I’ll leave them separate – people management is very important in its own right.
Small business success, therefore, hinges on getting eight areas of activity right!