What are you doing to stay ahead?

Image by Angela Radulescu via Flickr

One of the things we talk about to small business owners is finding you niche. Once you find your niche, does that mean you can sit back and relax? Of course not, because we live in a constantly changing world, and your business needs to evolve on a regular basis or your business will find itself behind the eight ball pretty quickly.

An advantage you have as a small business owner is that you can respond to changing trends faster than the big corporations. Take a look at lodging facilities, some smaller lodging facilities were far ahead of everyone else when it came to offering their customers Wi-Fi service. In fact some of the big chain hotels are still behind the curve when getting an effective Wi-Fi network set up in their facilities.

However, what are these smaller lodging facilities doing now? After all, the big companies are quickly catching up so the smaller places need move the bar up even farther to improve their customer’s experience.

It is no different no matter what business you are running. If you’re small owner you can move faster than the bigger competition but you must be ready for your next move when they start catching up.

So how do you stay up with the latest trends? Research, Research, Research, and when you have done lots of research you need to do more of it. Does not sound like a lot of fun but it is the only way to see what is happening out in the marketplace and to implement new ideas before the big boys catch on.

There are many places where you can research what is happening in the marketplace. Your chamber of commerce is a good source, SCORE, magazines, Google searches, and many others.

The question is, what are you doing to stay ahead?

Bad or Good Times?

The New York Times has an article about some of the things that Small Businesses are facing during these economic times.

While the NY Times paints a somewhat down picture (isn’t this what newspapers do?), the truth is this is a great opportunities for small business owners. At the first sign of troubles corporations start letting people go even if it causes them long term harm because they are only look at this quarters financial numbers.

This is the perfect opportunity for small businesses to show that they provide the best customer service and they will not slack during the off times.

Your suppliers will be looking to move inventory and that is good you. It’s time to get better terms from your suppliers as they are going to have access inventory and that is an opportunity for you to get better merchandise for the dollar.

Don’t listen to everyone who cries doom and gloom. Look at these times as an opportunity to grow and improve your business, it is an opportunity waiting for you.

Partner with relatives?

Found this video on You Tube. Does a good job of discussing the pros and cons of having relatives as partners in your business.

Before going into the a partnership of any kind I would highly recommend you weigh the pros and cons and talk with an attorney and a tax accountant. In most cases a corporation is a better entity to use than a regular partnership.