The truth is that a lot of small business owners cannot wait to see their business flourish and become a big establishment. With hard work and determination, your business will grow to the level you desire but in the meantime, you have to enjoy the pros of running a small business.
Below are some of the advantages of a small business:
Creating a Company Culture
Crafting a great company culture is a tough – but important – task for any business. Culture impacts employee engagement, and employee engagement impacts everything – companies with higher engagement have higher staff retention, higher customer engagement and an average of 21% higher profitability. The good news is, maintaining the right culture will likely prove easier for a small business compared to a corporation.
Company culture has to start at the top – but as a company grows, getting that to filter down becomes more difficult. It can be much easier for a smaller organization to maintain the values and beliefs of the founder, because in many cases, the founder still works there.
Most of all, at a smaller company, employees can avoid the feeling of being a tiny part of a massive structure. They are more likely to be able to directly see the difference their work makes – that’s great news for company culture and employee engagement, and it’s a great advantage for small businesses over big businesses.
Quick Response to Customer Needs.
In a small company, it is less likely that difficult customer problems will fester because the owner will know sooner and take action. Big businesses often take an extended period to react to customer complaints. With no lengthy chain of command, complex bureaucracies filled with all sorts of policies and procedures common to big businesses, you can respond much quicker to your customers’ concerns.
Faster Decision-making Processes
The big corporations have a complicated hierarchy. It takes a lot of effort to get the approval for every major decision that needs to be made, which can be time-consuming and can make the business cumbersome. Having creative, innovative ideas and the ability to act on these ideas fast are some of the great advantages, which small businesses have over big corporations. The decision-making processes are much faster in startups, which is not only saving time, but also giving the chance for the leadership to create better action plans without having to waste extra hours on it.
Flexible and Open to Change
Smaller businesses have more control over their interaction with clients and general output than larger corporations. Overall, clients of smaller businesses who regularly have one-on-one time with its owner/operator are more satisfied than comparable clients working with larger businesses. This is because clients working with larger businesses rarely or never get such a level of interaction with those calling the shots.
Smaller businesses are also very flexible and open to change because the decision-making process rests on fewer shoulders. It is also much easier to make major changes to a smaller company’s operations. This is a clear bonus when it comes to time-sensitive decisions, the need to react quickly to opportunities or risks, or to respond to regulatory or industry changes.
Cost Effective
Small businesses requires less funds to invest, market and innovate, thus making them more cost efficient. But you need to stay on top of your finances to come out ahead!