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A small business has a fair chance of success, but there’s no denying that they experience any number of struggles along the way to success. Some of these struggles are manageable while others are preventable with the proper training before, or after, starting a small business. Unfortunately, these same problems that training could be resolved are the ones that can sometimes be overlooked as being a small issue.
Difficulties of a Small Business that Shouldn’t be Overlooked
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Depending on the Few: One of the most common problems for a small business is attracting new customers. It is easy for a small business to become reliant on one or two consistent customers that make up the bulk of the business’s profits. All businesses, whether big or small, believe that they will attract more customers in time, but until that happens being stuck relying on that one consistent client can become problematic.
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Online Visibility: Another common problem is transitioning from the physical to the online world. It’s good for a small business to start with a physical location to make their entry into the world. At some point though a transition needs to be made to the online world where a majority of people do their shopping. Without having an online presence a small business is limited in the customers it has, flexible payment options offered to customers, and making it possible for some employees to work from home depending on their role.
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Founder Dependency: Lastly, this last problem small business owners are aware of, but have a hard time adjusting to doing something about the problem. It is very easy for a small business to fall apart if something were ever to happen to the founder of the business. This is especially true if the founder is incapable of training employees to work autonomously taking on the full responsibility of their role without the founder being there to make sure the business is running smoothly. A small business should never be overly reliant on the founder for it to succeed.
With the proper training for the founder and employees all three of these problems can be a thing of the past.
3 Trainings That Will Benefit Any Small Business
It is highly recommended to participate in training that is available via in person, or online, to prevent any problem a small business is facing from hindering business. This is especially true for small automotive businesses where any of the three most common problems can lead to ruin. It is best to tackle these problems before they occur by taking these 3 trainings online to know how to address these problems.
1. Managerial Training
This kind of training is a step above customer service training where the focus shifts from you to the customers themselves. The best managerial training is in person and takes days rather than only a few hours. It may seem time consuming, but the knowledge and skills developed are worth it. Learn how to treat each customer that they are valued by building a personal relationship with them. Every small business, especially automotive businesses, can quickly gain or lose customers based on the quality of their experience in trying to contact a business for their needs. This training teaches how to respond quickly, and professionally, while putting an emphasis on the customers’ needs. One thing to keep in mind is that this training can have different names, so be sure to read the description before bypassing training courses. For example, if you’re in the automotive business, then the training can often be titled as automotive service advisor training. As a business owner this is an important training to take to also effectively supervise the employees under you ensuring that they are providing outstanding customer service.
2. Customer Service Training
Ensure that you have the skills and knowledge to engage with your customers productively giving the best customer service you can provide. By taking customer service training you will have the skills you need to respond professionally to your customers and represent your brand in a positive way. This training is also a great way to learn how to use how to train your current, or future, employees in customer service passing along what you learned to delegate some of the responsibilities.
3. Marketing Trainings
As a small business it is quite possible to hire someone to take care of your marketing needs, but then again why not learn how to do it yourself? By learning how to market your business a small business can gain more attention, and as a result more customers. There are several marketing trainings available that are broken down into subsections as everything that is needed to know about effective marketing can not be fit into one training. The main marketing trainings that are great to start with are those that focus on making a marketing plan, target marketing, understanding the role of marketing for your business, and how to advertise the uniqueness of a small business to gain an edge over the competitors. These are great starting points for building the foundation of your knowledge for marketing, building on it, and using what you learned to market your small business.