A common mistake we regularly come across is SMEs using outdated approaches and following time-warped business processes that they’ve used for years on end. This approach is not sustainable, particularly if these approaches/processes aren’t giving you the return on investment you’d expect. As a small but growing business, you need to establish what mistakes you’re making and learn from them. After all, you need to recognise where you’re going wrong before you can move forward positively in the right step.

Stop trying to find excuses!

We’ve worked with plenty of SMEs in our time, and one thing we hear far too often are excuses, excuses, excuses. And believe us, we’ve heard it all; “I’m too busy to think about selling online” or “I don’t have the right resources to change my systems”. We’ve even had businesses say that they wouldn’t consider making changes to their processes because “the rest of the team wouldn’t like it”. Are you really going to jeopardise the success of your business just because someone in your team doesn’t like the idea of change? A closed-minded approach from you or your team will ultimately lead to a closed business.

We get it – SMEs are time and cash-poor. But it’s absolutely vital to take a step back from time to time to evaluate where your business is now, and where you want the business to be within the short, medium and long term.

Solutions to help you succeed

Now that you’ve realised you may need to change your mindset, it’s time to undertake some valuable research and evaluate the facts – what are other small businesses in your industry investing in? What software are they using to make their processes more efficient and mitigate the problems they currently face, and what steps are they taking now to improve their sales and marketing processes? To remain competitive, you need to stay ahead of the curve and not fall behind your rivals.

When you become more open-minded to change, you’ll discover the range of affordable solutions out there which can help manage your business processes more efficiently. Lots of solutions designed for small businesses will have a Free Trial or complimentary demonstration that you should take advantage of. Oh, and don’t forget to look out for those which offer a more personalised experience. After all, solutions for SMEs are best evaluated when they’re set in the context of a customer’s own business.

We mentioned earlier about being cash-poor too – if this is the case, consider some solutions with a per user, per month pricing model. These are more common in cloud-based solutions, and allow your business to spread the cost. Plus, you can access the information you require any time from any device, and all the other benefits that cloud offers like security, flexibility and scalability to name a few.

With the right mindset, your SME can definitely become the success you want it to be. A motivated, “can do” attitude towards your business and staff is within your reach – you’ve just got to believe it!