Estee Lauder once stated, “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” Starting a business is work, and so is keeping one afloat. Despite current economic growth and prosperity, established businesses in Rhode Island continue to face challenges, and need a good grasp on current conditions, best practices and emerging technology.
Keeping up on these five top challenges will help entrepreneurs and established business owners stay one step ahead of the competition.
The evolving workforce: One of a business’s most important resources is its workforce, and it’s critical to understand how that workforce is changing. Older workers continue to be a significant component, and many want to continue to work at a company beyond the traditional retirement age. To retain these valuable sources of institutional and industry knowledge, employers should consider strategies such as flexible work hours, part-time employment and restructured job descriptions.
The “help wanted” section of the newspaper has long since been replaced by a flood of new avenues for recruiting, including social media, LinkedIn and online job-posting websites such as Indeed.com and Monster.com. It is critical to use these resources to reach potential employees and highly qualified individuals who may not be actively looking.
Changing technology: Another top challenge – and opportunity – is the massive growth of technology. It’s important to understand both how your customers currently use technology and how they would like to use technology to communicate.
And increasingly, people are using their mobile device to access the internet and make purchases. A “responsive” website will reformat itself to the size of the device it’s being viewed on, allowing the user a positive experience no matter how they access your site.
Marketing: Because of technology and the internet, marketing is becoming much more complex. This is due to the increasing number of options available for marketing, and the ability of customers to purchase goods or services at all times and all places. To be found easily, your business needs to rank highly with search engines and appear high in search results.
Another major benefit of the new channels for online marketing is the ability to better track return on investment. Use these results to make data-driven decisions on where to invest future marketing dollars.
Customer service: While the internet leads to less face-to-face customer interaction, customer service is still vital in gaining new customers and generating repeat business. No longer is it enough to meet customers’ expectations: Companies need to exceed expectations on many levels. This includes constant communication, such as notifying a customer by text message when an order ships or when the service is completed, or following up with customers after a sale. Numerous social media sites also allow customers to provide ratings and feedback. Potential customers then consult these reviews prior to making a purchase. All feedback needs to be monitored and responded to quickly.
Managing growth: For future growth and profitability, it is critical for businesses to manage and monitor operational levels. Managers need to evaluate the impact of long-term growth on the business by knowing where and when certain parts of the business – such as production or shipping – reach capacity. It’s also important to understand how sales growth could impact future cash flow, and the possible need for financing – for additional working capital, inventory, equipment or more.
One way to tackle these challenges is to take advantage of Rhode Island’s no-cost resources – the Small Business Development Center, R.I. Commerce Corp. and the R.I. Department of Labor and Training.
Paul Harden is Growth Hub director at the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center. Growth Hub provides no-cost growth-oriented workshops and counseling for established small businesses in the Ocean State.