Small businesses have always been—and still are—the backbone of our economy. They account for 44% of U.S economic activity and generate two-thirds of the country’s new jobs each year.

Small business owners take on the heavy burden of keeping the blood pumping through the U.S economy.

However, in the past 10 years, small business growth has declined almost 10%. In fact, in December of 2020, 800 small businesses were closing each day.

It’s more important than ever for entrepreneurs to hold on to their bootstraps and keep marching forward—improving their businesses, increasing profits, and keeping their customers happy.

Here at CoCaptain, we know the value of small business owners, and we also know their struggles very well.

So, we gathered top tips and suggestions from our business coaches to help business owners who are looking for ways to improve themselves and their odds of success.

Here are the top 4 business coaching tips:

1. Focus on and Strengthen Your Existing Client Base

Always remember, happy customers, are loyal customers.

Some business owners focus a lot of resources on reaching new customers, but they forget to focus on the needs of their existing customer base—which should be a top priority.

Besides, for most industries out there, it’s much less expensive to retain an existing client than to get a new one.

Discover what your niche clientele looks like and find ways to stick to your brand and cater to your existing customer's needs.

If you steer too far away from your brand or logo to attract new customers, you will lose the sense of your initial vision and lose your existing clients.

You can do this by asking for your clients’ feedback about their customer experience or their thoughts on your products.

Feedback will show you how you can improve your products and services and create a more personalized experience for your client base.

A pleasant customer experience will create brand loyalty; it will get your clients to keep coming back and make them more likely to recommend your services and products to their friends.  

2. Be Efficient with Your Time and Resources

One small business owner does the work of 6 people. It’s part of being an entrepreneur to wear different hats to keep every area of your business running smoothly.

The most recurring advice from most business coaches is that it’s important to work smarter, not harder.

Make it an active priority to organize your time efficiently by creating plans, schedules, and tasks—ranging from most important to least important.

Introducing the Functional Monthly/Weekly Schedule…

At the beginning of the month, sit down and create different goals, outline what needs to be done to reach said goals, and jot down any extra tasks and important dates to remember.

Then, every Sunday, sit down and create a comprehensive schedule for every day of the week, carefully allotting daily time blocks to service each area of your business—financial, daily operations and management, sales and marketing, and customer service.

A good tip from life coaching is to remember to set aside time for rest, recreation, and exercise to keep yourself physically and mentally healthy.

Lastly, every morning make sure to look at your daily schedule, make needed changes and additions depending on how you feel.

And most importantly—hold yourself accountable to follow through on each task to reach your monthly goals.

Effectively managing your time will help maximize work hours and make it easier to complete tasks and goals.

3. Incorporate Tech Tools into Your Business

Another way of taking the weight off your shoulders and lessening your workload is implementing new technologies into your business model.

If you aren’t up to date on software and other technological advancements, then you run the risk of being outdone by your competition. 

Time Management Software

There are countless calendar apps and software to help you keep track of deadlines, reminders, and tasks.

Software like Calendly integrates your calendars into one place and facilitates appointment-making. It takes the back and forth of setting up appointments with customers and lets them look at your available time slots to book themselves independently.

There are also different time tracking apps that help businesses record time spent on different tasks in real-time. It’s also a great tool to use for businesses that bill their customers hourly.

These apps can help you with personal time tracking and productivity or make your business more streamlined and profitable.

Up to Date Payment Processing Tools

At the end of the day, if it’s difficult for your customers to make a payment in-store or online, they will probably take their money elsewhere.

Having an easy payment processing system will allow for smooth transactions, track sales, easy returns, and an organized invoicing process.

Keeping all of this information in one place in a modernized platform will help make it easier to do your taxes and keep track of profits or losses.

Data Analytics

A fancy way of saying “software that analyses complex data.”

Even small businesses have big data coming in, either from their online website, Twitter page, in-store purchases, online customer engagement, changing industry trends, weekly sales, etc.

A data analytics software system basically reads all of the data coming into your business; it organizes it so that any entrepreneur can understand it and implement everything useful into their business plan.

Making sense of your data can give you insights into reaching more customers, reducing overhead, increasing profits, etc.

Data analytics comes with its challenges and can seem daunting at first, but it has the potential to revolutionize any small business.

4. Fill in Marketing Gaps

Whether you're running a new business or have decades of business experience, your marketing approach needs to be modernized.

To maintain long-term success, it’s essential to incorporate up-to-date strategies to revamp your entire operation or simply fill in the gaps.

SEO (search engine optimization)

Nowadays, everyone uses a search engine to look for anything. The best way to reach potential customers is by popping up in their search results when people search online for services and products like yours.

Business leaders and executives, Fortune 500 companies, and marketing experts everywhere are making SEO their primary area of focus to increase profitability and expand their market.

Business coaches with a marketing skill set can help you create content on your website optimized to be picked up by search engines and shown to potential customers.

This is a foolproof practice to help take your business to the next level and increase cash flow.

Social Media

Creating an online following for your business is an invaluable marketing tool because, essentially, it’s like free marketing.

Successful business plans incorporate Social Media as a pillar of their marketing approach because these platforms give entrepreneurs direct access to their new and current customers.

Social media sites like Instagram, for example, have features that allow you to link customers to the sales page of specific products directly.

These platforms allow businesses to promote their products, vision and even test new ideas while creating a community around the logo and increasing visibility.

Email/Text Message

Almost 95% of text messages are opened, so although it may seem a bit old-fashioned, using a text message marketing strategy is one of the most successful ways to increase sales and grow your loyal customer base.

Emails can work well to grow your customer base also.

Advice from experienced entrepreneurs is to gather emails from your customers by placing an email address sign-up sheet at your business or website.

Include things like discounts, answer FAQs, and business announcements in your emails to build trust with your customers while creating an email path for them to return to your site.

How to Know if You Need a Small Business Coach

All of these tips and information may seem daunting, and for a busy small business owner, these strategies may seem impossible to try and implement on their own—without a business coach.

If you’re already wearing too many hats and spreading yourself too thin, then it may be time to hire a small business coach to help guide you through implementing these tips or through creating a customized business approach suited for your specific goals and client base.

Despite their demanding job, small business owners must avoid burnout at all costs. Don’t overstress your resources and mental health because when you get overwhelmed—so does your business.

Apart from growing your business, small business coaching can offer much-needed peace of mind by helping you carry the weight of what it takes to actually run a successful small business.

Bottom Line

Instead of taking a blind stab at improving different areas of your business, a small business coach or coaching program can take the blindfold off and personally guide you through the process.

If you’re unsure where to start, sites like CoCaptain offer vetted, small business coaches and go the extra mile to handle the booking and administration, so you don’t have to add more things to your to-do list.

Business coaches can help you in the pursuit of achieving your business goals, whether it’s increasing revenue, ensuring longevity and stability, streamlining your business model, or expanding your reach to new customers.

To invest in a business coach is to invest in your small business.

As a small business owner, have you invested in any small business coaching services that have helped your business reach success? Comment below on your experience with small business coaching: