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Make Money, Save Time For Your Small Business This New Year
Small Business Loans
Are you familiar with our #BizTipSixty and #LoanTipSixty video series, featuring lessons for entrepreneurs in 60 seconds? For tips on getting started, small business financing and more in the New Year, follow us on our YouTube Channel.
New Year’s is a time to reflect. We take pride in successes from the year before and re-evaluate things that challenged us. Perhaps we even decide to embark on a new path.
It’s the same for small business owners. That’s why we asked several CDC Small Business Finance experts to come up with some suggestions for changes and adjustments entrepreneurs and more established small business owners could consider as they begin the New Year.
Their advice covers a number of tips, whether via a holistic approach, or by delving into the nitty-gritty of financing, marketing and other key components of any business.
Focus in the New Year
As Chuck Sinks, leader of our Business Advising Services team, says: “Small business owners are crazy busy … from time to time things get overwhelming. When those moments happen, stop and focus your energies on things that make money, save money or save time. This simple rule will reset your priorities to those that will move your business forward.”
What you can do as a small business owner to jumpstart your success in 2020? Here are other words of advice from our CDC experts:
Headshots Add Value
David Dobreski, Multimedia Marketing Specialist: “No matter what industry you’re in, having professional headshots of your employees is a must. Use them on your website with bios, and post them on social media with a couple quick and fun facts about that person. Now point your camera a bit lower and look for any furry friends around the office. We have a series called #WoofWednesday highlighting our employees’ dogs that has been a hit – we even create fictional job titles for them and adorn them with a job description.”
Time to reflect
Ray Hivoral, Senior Small Business Adviser: “At the end of the year, it’s important to reflect. Try to review the past 12 months’ performance of your business, and assess yourself too. What were you good at, what would you take from these strengths? What were the weaknesses that would require your time and monies to invest in, and the ROI? Don’t do it alone, get feedback from your team or seek a business adviser potentially connected to a lending institution should you require repairing your credit or to seek out growth capital. Take a weekend, or even a week to reflect and jot it down on paper. Create a checklist and complete each item one at a time by a certain date. You won’t regret doing this.”
Watch Margins This Year
Eddie Landeros, Senior Business Adviser: “I would caution business owners to watch their margins very closely. Salaries and wage expenses have been increasing every year for the past few years, so the cost of raw materials, supplies, inventory, etc. keep going up and many business owners fail to adjust their prices or change their business model (for example, by reducing labor costs by introducing new technology or just downsizing). Keep in mind that our recent trade policies also add to the cost of products in the U.S. It’s a lot tougher to export as well.”
Identify Adjustments
Rich Kraus, Senior Business Adviser: “Assess your current status, and identify three adjustments that could have a significant impact in 2020. Based on that, consider price changes, vendor changes, hour changes, new services or products to bring on and old ones to drop. What products or services are the most profitable? What are competitors doing, offering or charging?”
Define Your Top Customer
Lauren Layman, Marketing Specialist: “Get to know your ideal customer and spend time developing a social media strategy for the social networks that they are already on. Your strategy and content needs to be customer focused. Share content that will resonate with and provide the most value to that customer.”
New Year, New Strategy
Marsel Watts, Senior Business Adviser: “Revisit your marketing plan. I encourage business owners to get on board with digital media marketing. If they are not actively using social media to market their business, they are losing out on opportunities. If they don’t have the knowledge to start a campaign, they should find the tools to learn how to use social media for business or hire a social media specialist.”
In case you missed it:
- Best-selling books the experts at CDC Small Business Finance couldn’t put down
- Small business owners: Ask these 5 essential questions to put you on the right track
- Your 2019 small business forecast from CDC Small Business Finance
Do you need help launching or growing your business? The experienced loan experts at CDC Small Business Finance are here to help you reach your goals. And for qualified borrowers who need financial guidance, we can connect you to our Business Advising Services Team to help you get loan ready – for free.
Tell our experts about your business, and they’ll match you with the financing or assistance that best suits you. Let’s talk! Reach us at loaninfo@cdcloans.com or (619) 243-8667.
