As small business owners, it can be difficult to focus on future goals when there is so much activity occurring around you. From handling HR responsibilities, marketing, and administrative tasks, being a small business owner can have you wearing multiple hats.
By focusing on these everyday responsibilities you can lose focus on strategic growth. While juggling these important areas of business, it is going to take thoughtful discipline to start finding the best solutions to offloading tasks so that you can begin focusing on the growth of your business.
One way to reduce your responsibilities is by strategic shearing. Business owners should target the less profitable areas of their business and eliminate these so they have more resources to spend improving their profitability. By taking a comprehensive look at your business, you can identify parts that may need to be pruned.
Some businesses also find value in client pruning. There are times when a client base can become too large and unruly, which can waste your resources and make you feel overwhelmed. By having too many clients, small business owners can struggle with keeping up with the demand of their customers which can cause them to miss out on exciting opportunities. If you do not feel comfortable letting go of clients, you can also solve the capacity problem by increasing your prices. With the higher cost of service, some will decide on their own to leave.
Another strategy you can use alongside pruning is rebooting your Human Resources department. Small business owners can enhance their HR approach which can help increase their revenue. If your business is low staffed then you will not be able to meet the supply of your clients, therefore not meet your full potential. You should be investing resources in HR so that they can focus on attracting and maintaining qualified staff. Don’t be afraid to use outside recruiters to assist you in your journey or to look for nontraditional sources of talent.
By following these few strategies, small business owners will notice that they will have additional time they can put towards planning their company’s future. Owners should not be afraid to eliminate dead areas of their business to provide more room for better opportunities. You should also start to lean into HR so that you can devote resources to retaining key employees so that your business can remain successful.
