Trying to Fit in All of Your Small Business Tasks
Small business owners have to do everything themselves. If you own a small business, you’re not just doing all the work of your business — whether it’s washing boats, making jellies or writing blog posts — you’re also doing all the other small business tasks. Everything falls onto your shoulders when you own a small business. There’s no rest for the hopeful.
You may have started your business because you had an idea, you saw a need in the marketplace or you had a particular passion for a product or service you knew you could sell. But you may never have considered all the other small business tasks you now have to do:
- Bookkeeping
- Taxes
- Marketing and advertising
- Payroll
- Hiring and firing
- Facilities and equipment
- Website
- Time management
- Customer acquisition
Small Businesses by the Numbers
According to Forbes Magazine, 80 percent of all new small businesses in the United States survive the first year, but only half make it past Year Five. Only a third make it to 10 years. Those are sobering numbers.
Given these statistics, it’s a wonder anyone starts a small business. Is it the allure of growing something out of nothing? Or do small business owners buy into the Microsoft model of building an international corporation out of their parents’ garage?
The Small Business Administration reports that 240,000 small businesses started in the third quarter of 2016 — the latest figures available. During the same period, though, 215,000 businesses closed. That’s a net gain of just 25,000 businesses or just over 10 percent.
Why Small Businesses Don’t Succeed
Because you have to do so much — all those small business tasks — to keep your business afloat, you may think that burnout is one of the reasons small businesses fail. Maybe you love what you do, but you still have to be a manager, accountant, advertising executive, search engine optimization (SEO) expert and information technology professional. It’s a lot to juggle.
But it’s not burnout that causes most small businesses to close their doors, according to the Forbes article. The top five reasons most businesses fail involve:
- Not enough money to sustain the business
- Not enough customers who want what you’re selling
- Too much competition in your field
- Wrong pricing point for your market
- Wrong team or skill sets
If you fail at any one of these reasons, your company may fail. You’re already facing long odds to make it. Consider these common shortcomings and compare them to your own business.
How to Juggle Your Small Business Tasks
If you can solve the first four points above, your business has a fighting chance to last. Finding the right team is both an internal and external problem for small business owners. Knowing what you’re good at requires self-reflection and an objective assessment. Also, hiring the right people for the right job requires good judgment.
What sets successful small businesses apart is their willingness to admit what they can and can’t do. Hiring someone to do your books seems like a no-brainer when you have no head for numbers. Hiring someone to do your marketing is time-consuming even though it’s an investment in your business.
And if you’re not a writer, writing your website takes enormous effort away from your core business. But your website’s where business takes place. That’s where you persuade visitors to contact you. Landing pages and blog posts have major implications for the success of your business online. To increase your odds of success, learn to farm out those small business tasks, like content, to professional contractors, like Ray Access.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.