Do you want to start a small business or maybe you’re already running a small business and wondering what advantages being a small business avails you? Not to worry, as you’ll see shortly the advantages of being a small business.
It is easy to get lost in the struggle of running a small business, keeping late nights, and working long hours just to keep your business afloat. And forget or not even know the benefits you enjoy as a small business.
Knowing the advantages of being a small business will not only encourage you not to give up in the face of the numerous challenges you may face but also help you better channel your efforts to maximize these benefits.
Here are my top 7 advantages of running a small business:
1. Speed of Implementation
While big businesses are still passing the idea through the different departments and waiting for approval, a small business would have implemented the idea and is already reaping the rewards.
Being a small business affords you the opportunity of making and implementing decisions quickly. You get to quickly take advantage of whatever situation that may require a quick response. It might be new government regulation or an opening in the market.
2. Better Customer Service
While this may not be the case for all small businesses, running a small business affords you the chance of offering even better and quicker customer service than bigger businesses in the same niche.
While bigger businesses are being overwhelmed with complaints, a smaller business may have more time to attend to customer needs.
The process customers have to take to get their requests attended to is usually short and usually less tedious when dealing with small businesses.
3. Flexibility
A small business is more flexible with its decisions, implementation, and strategy especially with a new piece of information. While a bigger business will have to go through long bureaucracy to get an idea implemented, a smaller business can easily pivot to whatever direction to save their business.
As a small business, you are better positioned to navigate challenges as you have very few attachments to protect when navigating these problems.
4. Ability to Offer More Personalized Offers
A small business is generally closer to the customers, has more time to listen to their complaints, and takes action. These actions can lead to more personalized offers to specific customers which would have otherwise been almost impossible in bigger businesses.
Customers tend to trust businesses that offer more personalized offers to cater to their needs and as a small business; you can grow your businesses by giving specific customer segments more focused products.
5. Lower Cost of Running the Business
The cost of running a small business is generally smaller with less capital needed to run and manage. Most smaller businesses are bootstrapped by their owners while larger businesses may have to seek investment from outside sources to keep their business afloat.
Overhead costs like staff salaries, inventories, and rent are greatly reduced and sometimes eliminated in some types of small businesses, keeping the cost of running the business low while making profits.
6. Smaller Outside Control
In a small business, the control is smaller and more focused as most times the owner is in charge of making the decisions alone. This can lead to a faster, and sometimes more effective response to the situation.
It can also allow for a riskier, more rewarding approach that cannot be taken in big businesses because of the outside influence.
Most big businesses have numerous investors that must be consulted before major decisions are taken. These investors are risk-averse and would prefer a more careful and rigid approach to protect their investments. While this may be a good thing sometimes, it stifles innovation many other times and slows the business down.
7. Satisfaction
The satisfaction of helping your customers solve nagging problems is bliss in a small business as you are closer to the customers and their joy is easily felt.
A smaller business is a more closely knit unit with workers having a more personal relationship with each other and customers seeing their complaints tackled more efficiently.
With each big win in the business, euphoria is felt everywhere in the business. While in a bigger business, the leaders are mostly cut out and insulated from their customers.
Summary
While it may seem those big businesses have all the advantages when it comes to loans and accessing credit facilities, these advantages set small businesses apart. You get to enjoy these and more if you run a small business. If you’re looking for small scale business ideas to kick start your entrepreneurship journey, there are several ideas you can choose from.
