Challenges Small Businesses face in US

How do we define small businesses? Small businesses are private corporations, partnerships, or sole traders that have a smaller number of employees than bigger businesses.

According to the US and Canada, Federal Securities interpret a small business to have less than $25 million annual revenues and also has a publicly-traded stock of $25 million.

3 Challenges Small Business Face in the United States

Forecast the Challenges 

Before starting a business, proper planning is very important. An Entrepreneur should plan realistically and carefully. He or she should predict all the possible challenges that can arise. The owner should do thorough research on the subject matter and should dig deep into successful businesses.

Careful budget planning is equally important when it comes to starting a business. We should have a revised plan on cost-cutting methods and should weigh the benefits of investments.

Integrity among the workers 

Right jobs for the right people go hand in hand in any business. What people don’t talk about is integrity among the coworkers. When hiring, education, and intelligence is easily evaluated but integrity is something hard to define.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 40% of the employees change jobs in a year’s time frame, and only 20% stick to the job for five or more years.

A comfortable working atmosphere is very important. The boss should be approachable and easy to communicate with. The employer should keep sessions of training and also let his team acknowledge the goals that are needed to be accomplished in a day, week, month, and even a year.

HealthCare Cost should be considered 

The US has made it compulsory for businesses to have health care. This is a challenge for the small business exceeding the number of 50 employees working together. In history, millions of Americans did not have health insurance coverage because it was unaffordable, the state would not enlarge Medicate, or it was not documented. Like in 2016, 25 million Americans were reported of such cases.

Healthcare costs are increasing because of the rising administrative expenses. too many authorities exist in the US healthcare system that doctors are struggling to restore claims with insurance companies. 

How to Overcome Challenges 

An intelligent businessman is at the top of bringing improvement in profitability in the business. There are many ways to put this into action in any business.

First, get rid of the small portions of the business that don’t give any gain as in money and waste time and energy. This will make the owner focus on the business activities that give profit and hence over time, bring improvement in such portions.

Second, Streamline the cost. This is an effective way to improve profitability without compromising quality. This is accomplished by outsourcing certain costs of a business. By assigning, certain tasks and responsibilities to a third party, it will save time and unnecessary cost. Researchers have pointed out that proper outsourcing can cut down 80% of the operating cost!

Lastly, always keep a lookout on partnership opportunities. It is difficult for a startup business to be cost-efficient. So, it is a wise decision for a partnership with another company. The partnership will benefit the business in many ways like combining the suppliers or pool recourses and buy larger quantities at a lower cost.

Staying up- to- date 

We are in “the age of acceleration” meaning change in technology is constantly taking place. Investing in technology is beneficial and will make it easy to control all operations. In addition, it is crucial to have excellent communication among coworkers.

If technology is used correctly, it could save money. For example, if meetings could take place virtually, then there is no need to spend money on furniture or warehouse rent. 

Conclusion

It is clear that a small business faces many challenges one after the other.  Winston S. Churchill used to say, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

The most crucial thing to overcome the challenges for small businesses is to keep on going and face the challenges as they come.