Top Trends for Small Business Owners in 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:39AM Admin. The New Year is quickly approaching and small business owners can expect 2012 to present just as many opportunities as challenges. The Institute recently identified six trends small business owners are likely to face in 2012 as well as six actions owners can take to prepare for likely challenges in the coming year.
1. Continued economic volatility in 2012.
- Action: Develop and deploy integrated action plans. Dynamic, flexible and proactive short-term and long-term plans make it possible for a business to deal with immediate challenges.
2. Access to capital will continue to be tight, and lending practices even tighter.
- Action: Consider where borrowed money can do the most for your business. According to The Institute’s data, business owners responded that the best thing to do with borrowed money is upgrade equipment (91.2 percent), cover short-term cash flow (81.3 percent) and invest in marketing (81.3 percent).
3. Significant numbers of marginally successful businesses will be pushed to the brink
- Action: Improve productivity. A difficult economy presents an opportunity to right-size a company for long-term success. Small business owners should ensure they have the right people in the right positions so they can focus on growing the business.
4. Larger companies will aggressively market to prospects considered “too small” in the past.
- Action: Look for ways to meaningfully differentiate. Big businesses are vulnerable to the more responsive, localized and personal way of doing business that smaller firms can offer.
5. Election-year campaign rhetoric will create an atmosphere of tension and negativity.
- Action: Be optimistic! If small business owners exude a sense of confidence, optimism and focus, their customers and employees will feel it and respond accordingly.
6. Trade-offs and deal-making will characterize 2012.
- Action: Cut deals that create certainty for vendors, customers and the business. Now is the ideal time to reconsider and revise business approaches and rethink how each dollar spent helps or hurts the business. Sit down with vendors and larger customers and offer to make commitments in return for price reductions or better payment terms.
For more information on each of the trends, visit The Institute website here.
Find out what the media are saying about The Institute’s predictions for 2012: