5 Things You Must Do To Run a Profitable Small Business.
The goal of every business owner is to run a profitable business and not just a business for the name of it. Running a profitable small business is not rocket science. However, many small business owners struggle with profitability for a number of reasons.
- Too much expenses
- Mixing personal finance with business finance
- No time management
- Unaware of useful business tools
Despite the hard business realities in Nigeria, many businesses have been able to navigate the difficult terrain and found a perfect position for their businesses and consequently on a path of steady profitability and business growth.
Profitability is simply about the relationship between cost of expenses and revenue generation. Having a well informed position about this relationship as it is unique to your business is the beginning of your journey to business profitability.
Here 5 things you must do to run a profitable business:
- Get organized
A solid organizational structure is the bedrock of every successful business. To achieve success as a business owner, you must place a premium on being organized.
This will help you prioritize and get things done. As simple as having a daily, weekly and monthly to-do list can make all the difference for your business. Simple tools like Google sheet and Byte’s all-in one business suite can help you become more efficient and organized. - Know your costs
You are in business to make profits. Knowing the cost of your service or product comes first before profit as it will inform your pricing.
Some business owners make the mistake of not factoring every expenditure into the cost of a product or service before placing a price tag.
You must consider both quantifiable factors like cost of logistics, cost of product from supplier etc and non quantifiable factors like your time and skill before placing a considerable and profitable price. - Keep proper records
It’s very easy to be lost in business activities and even so bad that it can naturally become a norm as a small business owner.
Keeping detailed records of business activities especially financials and customer data is key to running a successful business. Just from your mobile phone, you can save or store your records in the cloud using a tool like Google drive - Track and measure important things
It is often said that what can be measured can be managed and what can be managed can be improved on.
Don’t just make sales and expenditures, go the extra mile to track and measure. This will help you make important projections and business decisions.
Byte makes it easy to monitor and track your sales and consequently make informed business decisions from the simplified analytics provided. - Be Creative and forward thinking
Creativity and foresight will keep you ahead of the curve. Continuously look for creative ways to serve your customers, optimize results and run your business. This will help you stand out from competitors.
Recognize that you don’t know everything and be open to new ideas and different approaches to your business and tools that will help increase your efficiency. Byte helps you optimize your efficiency as a business owner.
Conclusion
While the above mentioned points are key to running a profitable business, focus and resilience are important traits of every successful business owner. Focus is needed to stay on course and resilience is needed to surmount the inevitable hard times that accompanies running a business.