Tag: business plan

4 Effective Goal Setting Tips for Small Businesses
Setting small business goals is one of the best things you can do to improve the strength of your company and overall odds of success but creating goals in a way that gets results isn’t always easy. We’ll walk you through the basics and cover various goal-setting strategies on this page, so you can start creating effective goals on your own right away.

Benefits of Setting Goals

Fewer than 20 percent of people say they write down their goals in vivid detail, yet this simple step makes a person 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to reach their goals, according to research presented in Forbes. Experts say there’s a neurological reason for this.

Writing things down increases the likelihood that the information will be logged in long-term memory. By encoding it this way, we’re more likely to remember and act on the information. Keeping the visual representation of your goals where you see them daily helps too.

When you have small business goals, you also have:
- A greater sense of direction.
- Clearer focus on what’s important to your small business.
- Greater clarity in your decision-making process.
- More control over your future.
- Increased purpose and motivation to reach your goals.
- Greater personal satisfaction.
4 Effective Goal Setting Tips for Small Businesses

Once you’re ready to set small business goals, these four tips will simplify the process and increase the likelihood of meeting them.

1. Remember There Are Many Types of Goals

It’s helpful to think of your business objectives in a broad sense before deciding what goals to set. There are three main types: outcome, performance, and process. Work with all three to achieve your overall goals or big-picture goals.

Outcome-Related Goals

Most people think of outcome-related goals at first. These relate to the end of an event or the “win.” It’s usually easy to create outcome goals and identify when they’re met, but factors that lead to success with outcome goals aren’t always in your power. For example, a small business owner might set a goal of opening a second location but stall out in the purchase or financing process.

Performance-Related Goals

It’s a little easier to find success with performance goals because most of the factors involved are within your control. For example, maybe you want to increase sales by 20 percent this quarter. You can increase marketing and advertising, launch a new product, expand your business, or do other things to help ensure you reach your goal.

Process-Related Goals

Process goals relate to addressing strategy, workflow, and other areas that can help you reach your desired outcome. For example, maybe you want your sales team to close more deals. Rather than focusing on the number of deals to close, you might give them process-related goals that will set them up for success, such as contacting five additional leads per day.

2. Consider the 4 Cs of Setting Goals

Another thing to consider before starting to set goals are the Cs. Sometimes referred to as the three Cs or four Cs of goal setting, and used interchangeably, the items covered below can help you frame out goals in a way that leads to greater success.

Complexity

The number of contributing factors involved in reaching a goal impacts your success. Limit the number of working parts to increase your odds.

Challenge

Set small business goals that are a bit of a reach. If you set goals that are too easy, they won’t have the same impact, motivate you as much, or get you excited. It’s easy to become discouraged if you choose goals that are too hard to reach too.

Clarity

It’s also easy to become derailed if the goal or steps required to reach it are ambiguous. Make sure everything you envision and write down can create a clear path for someone else, even if you don’t plan to share it with anyone.

Commitment / Closure/ Completion

Create a full roadmap for your goal with regular check-ins to keep yourself committed, and what it will take to meet your goal. You may also want to consider what steps you’ll take if you meet roadblocks along the way and when to reevaluate your goal.

3. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

Short for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, a SWOT analysis helps ensure the goals you set are more strategic in nature. That way, you’re not only more likely to be successful but will conserve resources as you move forward, too.

It’s helpful to include others in your SWOT analysis as each person will have a unique perspective and may uncover things you don’t think of alone. Consider enlisting your business partner(s), key employees, mentor, consultant, or close friends and family members.

Doing a SWOT analysis is simple. Just draw a two-by-two grid on a sheet of paper and add a SWOT category to each quadrant. Then, list out items that fit within each category.

Strengths

Create a list of your business’s strengths. These can include things your company does well, resources you possess, tangible assets, or qualities that set you apart from competitors. For example:
- Better pricing.
- More features.
- Bigger network.
- Larger team.
- Loyal customers.
Weaknesses

Create a list of things that make it difficult for your small business to be competitive. This may include resources you don’t have or things your company lacks. For example:
- Lack of capital.
- Low brand awareness.
- Inadequate supply chain.
Opportunities

The opportunities section should include external things your business can take advantage of to gain a competitive advantage. For example:
- An emerging need for your products or services.
- Lack of competition.
- Underserved markets.
Threats

List things that have the potential to harm your small business in the threats section. For example:
- New regulations that impact your small business negatively.
- Changing economic conditions.
- Changes in consumer behavior or attitudes.
4. Use the SMART Goals Framework

The SMART Goals framework is one of the most popular methods for setting goals. The letters stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound. Use it in conjunction with the above steps to build out goals to increase odds of success.

Specific

A goal that’s specific includes a variety of details such as:
- What’s being accomplished.
- What steps are involved.
- Who is responsible for each step.
Measurable

Make sure it’s clear when you reach the finish line by quantifying your goal. For example:
- Boost sales by 20 percent.
- Open a second location.
- Have each sales rep reach five new prospects per day.
- Have each sales rep close one deal per day.
Achievable

The Cs are helpful when you consider what’s achievable. Is the goal you’re setting within your reach and control? If not, select a different goal.

Relevant

Consider your big picture. How is the goal you’re setting now contributing to it? If it’s unclear or doesn’t flow into the big picture, select a different goal or adjust it so it does.

Timebound

Decide what the cutoff point is for your goal. It’s a good idea to have both short and long-term goals. Your big picture is likely a long-term goal or several long-term goals. The short-term goals feed into it. Apply strategies for staying focused on business goals, like breaking these down into smaller milestones, to help ensure you reach your goals on time.

Get the Working Capital You Need to Meet Your Goals

If a lack of working capital is holding your small business back from meeting its goals, invoice factoring can help. It’s like getting an advance on your unpaid B2B invoices. To learn more or get started, request a complimentary rate quote from Charter Capital.
April 1, 2022
7 Ways Business Leaders Can Prepare for Success in 2022

7 Ways Business Leaders Can Prepare for Success.

Business leaders face challenges unlike anything else seen in the past. From absenteeism related to COVID-19 through supply chain issues and morale, what it means and what it takes to lead effectively has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. As you prepare for the upcoming year and beyond, addressing these seven areas will help you carve a path to success.

1. Nurture Relationships with Your Team

One-in-four employees quit their jobs last year, according to a CNBC report. Often dubbed “The Great Resignation,” the massive shift is causing businesses across the country to lose their most tenured employees. Unfortunately, researchers say companies are treating the losses as they did before the pandemic, with recognition programs and compensation reviews. Today’s employee isn’t dealing with the same challenges. They want work-life balance and flexibility at a micro-scale, researchers say.

Exit interviews can help business leaders gauge what’s happening on a larger scale and implement helpful programs, but it’s essential to be tuned into employees and their needs. Leaders must have the flexibility to accommodate before losses occur as well.

2. Invest in Development

More than half of all employees consider career growth and opportunity more important than salary according, to Forbes research. However, just one-in-five would recommend their company’s learning and development opportunities. Creating a solid learning plan for employees with clear progression paths can be a serious game-changer for businesses today.

However, it’s important to note that leaders require development too. Given the large shifts in the workforce, it’s essential to home in on skills that can help stakeholders lead through inspiration and address areas like diversity.

3. Forecast and Be Ready to Pivot

Constant economic shifts mean businesses must be running their numbers far more often and be ready to pivot as new information emerges. This ensures the business is agile enough to reduce budgets quickly as needed, yet can also seize opportunities to gain a competitive edge in stronger times.

4. Evaluate Your Client Experience

Customer loyalty has taken a nosedive in recent years, and outlets like Gartner say the single most important thing businesses can do to improve loyalty is focus on the customer experience. That doesn’t necessarily mean giving customers all kinds of bells and whistles or rewards, but simple things, like ensuring each connection with customer service delivers real value. Because of this shift, more than 80 percent of brands are increasing their investment in loyalty by five percent or more this year per Forrester.

While Forrester leans more toward the use of loyalty service providers and big data to help companies identify their weak points, smaller businesses can run their own internal surveys to identify what their customers want, areas in which they excel, and areas for development. It’s helpful for leadership and employees to go through various customer processes as well, as this can help your team identify friction and opportunities for improvement.

5. Leverage Tech, but Stay Human

Certain forms of technology improve the customer experience. For example, 46 percent of shoppers confirm inventory online before going to a store, according to Google research. Almost 60 percent say they research online first to ensure they’re making the best possible choice. Yet, 70 percent want the ability to shop in person too. These statistics show how important it is, not just to be both online and in-person, but for both experiences to work hand-in-hand to help the customer. Known as omnichannel, it’s one example of how technology can benefit your business.

On the flip side, sometimes technology can be a major flop for businesses. Such was the case for a major telecom company that leverages sophisticated tech to help gauge the seriousness of a customer’s concern before attempting to assuage. As reported by Forbes, the company ignored the long-term customer’s requests to match a competitor’s offers until the customer was already changing providers. Had a human been responsible for making the decision the first time, the story might have had a much more positive resolution.

6. Take Care of Yourself

Executive burnout is being referred to as “The New Pandemic.” Two-thirds say they’ve suffered from burnout in the past year, according to research presented by Digiday. More than three-quarters say managing their people has made them feel overwhelmed. While most employers recognize this upward swing in mental health concerns with their employees and have enacted policies to alleviate it. Unfortunately, 84 percent say they feel at least partially responsible for employee burnout rates per BenefitsPro. Furthermore, experts say leaders often don’t have the permission or language to ask for help when needed. If you’re the one at the top, you have the right and obligation to put these systems in place for yourself and your managers.

7. Become a Visionary Again

Chances are, you got where you are today by dreaming of the impossible and painting that picture vividly for those around you. It works! Inspired employees are more than twice as productive as their counterparts and the ability to inspire consistently ranks among the most important leadership traits, according to research compiled by Inc. magazine. But, between the burnout and the constant pivots caused by the pandemic, you may have, understandably, lost some of that spark.

Take some time to consider what ignites you most about your company and career. Get it in writing and spend time each day meditating on it. Make this year your year to dream again and share that passion with your people. They’ll start to dream alongside you again too.

Be Ready to Seize Opportunities by Accelerating Your Cash Flow

At the end of the day, all these lessons for business leaders require working capital. If your business is experiencing rapid growth and it’s impacting your ability to seize opportunities, invoice factoring can help. It’s like getting an advance on your B2B invoices. Your customer gets their standard payment terms, and you can get cash as quickly as the day you send your invoice. To learn more about invoice factoring and find out your rate, contact Charter Capital for a complimentary rate quote.

January 19, 2022
Are You Prepared for Your Peak Season? How to Ensure Your Business is Ready

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax,” Abraham Lincoln reportedly said. While the source of the quote is debatable, the wisdom is not. As a small-business owner, your peak season is an opportunity to shine. You can reach a wider audience, attract new customers, and build lasting relationships that will carry you through the slower months of the year. However, there’s little margin for error, and you’re likely contending with an array of unique challenges, including inventory shortages and an influx of temporary employees. Whether you run a warehouse or are in e-commerce, transportation, personal services, or something else entirely, the sooner you start “sharpening your ax,” the smoother your busy season will go and the stronger your business will become. Use this guide to prepare and make the most of the time you’ll have.

Make Alterations to Your Operational Strategies

Preparation is key to success during busy periods. Start by examining your metrics from the previous year and prior peak periods to identify trends and any shortcomings you faced. You can also gather stakeholders for a discovery session to see if they see potential issues. Staffing is a big one that must be carefully weighed with labor expenses. Raw materials, inventory management, and equipment are also common concerns. Can you ramp up for a busy day or accept a large order with ease? If not, adjust your strategy or create contingency plans that will give you the boost you need.

Ensure Temporary Staff Are Properly Trained

Last year, UPS alone had to hire 100,000 temporary workers for the holiday season, according to Transport Topics. As the largest transport company in the U.S. by revenue and third-largest employer of seasonal employees, it certainly knows a thing or two about gearing up temporary help. The company’s gone so far as to install an artificial ice patch in its training facility to give delivery drivers practice walking on slippery surfaces. All drivers undergo extensive training before hitting the road. Those taking on 18-wheelers have three weeks.

Safety isn’t the company’s only concern, though. Customer service remains a priority. “The demands we have this time of year create a spike and, in order for us to do that in a customer-satisfying manner, we have to make sure they know how to do the job,” Stefon Harris, then acting Vice President of Human Resources for U.S. Operations, told Business Insider.

While your team may not need to practice walking on ice, equipping them with the knowledge to perform their jobs well and maintain customer satisfaction is paramount. Not only will it help you win over the new customers you’re seeing and turn them into lifelong fans, but it also gives you a glimpse into who might be an ideal candidate to hold onto once the season concludes.

Most seasonal employees are in place a month before seasonal sales ramp up, with some companies onboarding staff two months or more in advance. That means if your peak season is November and December, your team should be largely in place in October. It takes an average of 23.8 days to fill a position per Glassdoor research. Certain industries take longer. So, working backward, you’ll want to start planning your recruitment and training strategy during the summer and have job postings up by August or September to ensure a smooth process for this type of scenario.

Continue Marketing Your Company to Maximize Exposure

Many small-business owners stop marketing when business ramps up for the season, thinking there’s no benefit because they’re so busy. Nothing could be further from the truth. First, if you don’t attract the people looking for your product or service while they’re looking for it, your competitors will. And, they will keep them. To build your business during the rest of the year, you must maximize who you can reach during the peak period.

Secondly, consumers in many industries require longer nurturing periods. If you suddenly stop marketing to them because you’re busy, you give the relationship you’ve already built time to cool off.

Lastly, certain marketing techniques grow more effective with time, especially when you’re running digital marketing campaigns. Each share on social media, visit to your site, and even minute spent on your site can build your reputation in the eyes of Google, so it sends you more traffic going forward. Use it to your benefit when people are actively engaging in online shopping and searching for what you do.

While you may want to adjust a marketing campaign here and there to meet your current needs or capitalize on shifts in consumer behavior, you’ll lose ground if you stop altogether.

Don’t Lose Touch with Your Current Customer Base

Consider this:

50 percent of “loyal” customers have left a company for a competitor they felt was more relevant and could better satisfy their needs.33 percent of customers say they’ll consider switching companies after a single instance of poor service.A 5 percent increase in customer retention correlates with at least a 25 percent boost in profit.

These statistics from HubSpot hit home an important point. Your existing customers are valuable, and your relationship with them needs to be maintained. Whether that means offering special perks for your long-time customers, giving them a deal, or simply just checking in to ensure their needs are being met, your gesture will go a long way.

It’s also wise to take stock of what and who has been bringing your business success. Sometimes companies get caught up in trying to capture new markets that they forget who made their business. The McDonald’s Arch Deluxe is a prime example of this. If you don’t remember it, this was McDonald’s attempt to be “sophisticated.” The company reportedly spent $150 million advertising it per Mashed, releasing a series of commercials that included Ronald McDonald with golf clubs and highlighting how it wasn’t intended for kids. It missed two big points. First, people going to the restaurant aren’t visiting for sophistication. Secondly, it alienated its audience by being less kid-friendly. It failed as a high-price menu item and failed when the company tried to revive it at a lower price point. While this clearly didn’t do the company in as a whole, it certainly could have if it was smaller.

Ask for Referrals

Referrals are one of the best ways to bring in new customers. They tend to be easier to sell to because someone has already warmed them up to the idea of doing business with you. Plus, they have a 37 percent greater retention rate, and you can expect at least 16 percent more in profits from them per Extole. Use the busy season when you’re seeing more of your customers and people are looking for your services to ramp up referrals. This can be as simple as asking for referrals, but you may generate more interest with a formal incentivized program.

Stock Up on Inventory and Supplies

Early ordering gives you several advantages. First, you’ll probably have more cash on hand, so you may be able to negotiate volume discounts or other deals with your vendors. Secondly, it can save you from having to pay premium prices when everyone else wants the same thing or, worse, not being able to get shipments you need because your supplier is out or something happened to the supply chain.

Forecast the Season

As your peak season approaches, forecasting and planning ahead are critical to ensure your small business operates efficiently during the busiest time of year. Many small business owners rely heavily on historical data and customer feedback to predict peak demand and streamline their operations. This can help your business pivot quickly and avoid costly mistakes like stockouts or supply chain delays.

Proactive Tips to Help Small Businesses Forecast and Streamline for Peak Season Success

Start by reviewing sales data and customer behavior from your last peak season. Are there clear trends in order volume, product shortages, or customer preferences? Use this insight to optimize stock levels and improve your reorder schedule. If you’re a retailer or in e-commerce, real-time tracking and an integrated inventory management system can help reduce friction in order fulfillment.

Customer data can also shape your dynamic pricing strategy or influence how you schedule to accommodate peak times. For example, adjusting pricing based on demand or promoting slower-moving items earlier can help spread out traffic and increase sales.

Finally, consider how your business runs during downtime. Investing in systems now, like automation tools or generative AI for marketing, can reduce stress when the season begins and improve your ability to deliver excellent customer service when demand surges. For some businesses, these systems also help highlight when external funding support, like invoice factoring, may be needed to handle surges in demand.

Allocate Your Resources Wisely

Periods of growth and surges are always difficult to cope with because you’re trying to meet today’s demands with yesterday’s smaller profits. Work out your budget ahead of time and determine where your cash will be going. Whenever possible, set a little aside for the unexpected too.

Address Cash Flow Issues Required to Get Through the Busy Season

If you’ve balanced your budget and see points where cash will be tight, put an ace in your pocket and set up some kind of cash flow solution ahead of time. Common solutions are bank loans and lines of credit, but if your small business doesn’t qualify for these options because you don’t have strong credit, you already have debt, or you don’t want debt, you can also get set up to factor your invoices. With invoice factoring, you sell your unpaid B2B invoices to a factor at a slight discount. They advance you the cash right away so you can cover payroll, buy supplies, or take care of whatever you need. Although approval and funding are generally quick, you can become established with one now to save time should you want to factor later when you’re busy. To get started, request a rate quote from Charter Capital.

June 8, 2021
Top 8 Reasons Why Startups Fail
It’s often thrown around that 90 percent of startups fail. Where does this number come from? Is it legit? And, more importantly, if it is, what can you do to avoid being one of them?

How Many Startups Fail

Sadly, this startup failure rate is accurate. Researchers from UC Berkeley & Stanford came together to create the Startup Genome Report a few years back, which revealed that 90 percent of startups do indeed fail, and it’s most often the result of “self-destruction” rather than competitive issues. While the scale may shift in that regard during difficult economic times, the data is clear. Self-awareness and education can go a long way in creating a stable and profitable company. Below, we’ll go over some of the biggest reasons for startups failure, so you can arm yourself with the tools necessary for success.

Why Startups Fail

1) Good Idea, Bad Business

Many small business owners and startup founders start out with a fantastic idea they’re sure is going to take the world by storm but what they envision people wanting during product development and what people genuinely desire aren’t always the same. After postmortems with 101 startups, CB Insights found that 19 percent of companies failed because their products were not user-friendly.

This is theoretically an easy fix if you’re actively requesting feedback from early customers and taking what they have to say to heart. However, 14 percent of failed businesses don’t hear their customers out, and seven percent don’t even try to pivot when they need to. A further ten percent don’t pivot well.

“Startups that pivot once or twice raise 2.5x more money, have 3.6x better user growth, and are 52% less likely to scale prematurely than startups that pivot more than 2 times or not at all,” say Startup Genome Report researchers.

The bottom line: Listen intently to your customers and be ready to pivot and compromise to meet their needs.

2) Expanding Too Quickly

It’s easy to think of expansion in terms of adding more shops or products, but the Startup Genome Report lists several areas in which businesses may expand too rapidly.
- Customer- Spending too much on customer acquisition and/or overcompensating on lack of demand with marketing and press.
- Product- Building a product that doesn’t solve a problem, focusing on scalability before product-market fit, and/or adding features that are desired, but not needed.
- Team- Hiring too many people, bringing in the wrong mix of people/ levels, and/or having more than one level of hierarchy to start.
- Financials- Not having enough cash on hand to handle expansion and/ or having too much cash, which can result in undisciplined spending.
- Business Model- Not having a business model, focusing on profit too early, failing to pivot, and/ or failing to examine goals and progress.
The bottom line: Map out your own business plan ahead of time with clear benchmarks and metrics to meet. Schedule regular progress audits.

3) Lack of Market Demand

It’s easier to have a disconnect between product and consumer than one might think. “We had no customers because no one was really interested in the model we were pitching. Doctors want more patients, not an efficient office,” reported a patient communicator in a CB Insights postmortem. In all, their analysts found that 42 percent of startup failures involve a lack of market demand.

The bottom line: Get to know your audience before launch and identify their pain points. Don’t ever assume you know what they are.

4) Poor Marketing

Many startups are so passionate about their product or service that they expect word-of-mouth marketing to create sales. The reality is, their audience may never even learn they exist. Others recognize the importance of marketing, but don’t have the systems and people in place to effectively handle marketing strategy, eventually hitting a wall they can’t overcome. Per CB Insights, issues like these contribute to 14 percent of startup failures.

The bottom line: Have someone with marketing expertise on your team even at the early stages to help identify your target audience and how to reach them.

5) Lack of Passion

There is no denying entrepreneurs are a passionate group, but this passion can become all-consuming and kill work-life balance. Harvard Business Review reports that virtually all entrepreneurs say they experience some degree of burnout, and a full quarter define it as “moderate burnout.” As burnout sets in, passion dies down and so does the small business.

Other times, business pivots take the startup in a direction the founder never expected. As the creator of a blog commenting system explained to CB Insights, “We didn’t really care about journalism, and weren’t even avid news readers.” This light-bulb moment occurred only after the product was launched, leaving the team to run a new business they had no interest in.

Issues like these are present in nine percent of failures, per the postmortems.

The bottom line: Pace yourself and be ready to move in new directions or bring on people who are passionate about what you do if it shifts.

6) Poor Management Team

Nearly a quarter of startups fail because they don’t have the right team, while 13 percent fail because of disharmony among the team and/ or investors, per CB Insights research. All too often, this comes down to the management—people placed in managerial roles who may not have the skills and experience to manage teams but do so because startup culture requires team members to wear many hats. Unfortunately, bad management spreads poor morale and damaging practices, which can infect the entire company.

The bottom line: Ensure your managers have the skills and experience necessary to lead a team. Invest in training if you’re promoting from within or bring on external help if your existing team is unprepared for the role.

7) Not Placing Enough Emphasis on Customers

Ignoring your customers and what they have to say is a huge contributor to startup failure. User feedback is a vital part of the startup journey and should be prioritized throughout your business journey. Whether the feedback you receive is good or bad, you should always take it seriously. Good feedback tells you what you should keep doing within your business, and bad feedback gives you insight into what needs to change within your business. By keeping an eye on what attracts customers to your business and what deters them, and adjusting your business strategy accordingly, you can improve your potential client base and create a network of loyal, repeat customers.

The importance of customers is not just about retaining and attracting new clients. Another common reason for startup failure is that business owners assume that, because they build an interesting website and have a good product or service, customers will come flocking. They forget to take into consideration the trust cost of acquiring the customer (CAC). Contrary to what many people assume, the cost of customer acquisition is actually higher than the lifetime value of that customer (LTV). You need to figure out a realistic CAC and then determine an actionable strategy to ensure that you acquire your customers for less money than they will generate.

8) Running Out of Cash

Close to one-third of businesses run out of cash, CB Insights analysts say. Some of this boils down to not having enough cash to begin with or failing to recognize the high costs of business development, but other times, it’s simply mismanagement of cash or struggling with cash flow issues, like slow-paying customers.

The bottom line: Secure the funding you need in advance and have a backup plan to bridge the gap in case cash issues emerge.

Get the Cashflow Your Startup Business Needs

Whether your startup is light on working capital, is coping with growing pains, or needs funds to pivot, Charter Capital can help and contribute towards a profitable business. By leveraging invoice factoring, your company can get paid for its outstanding B2B invoices instantly—no more waiting on customers to pay their bills. Learn more about how invoice factoring works or contact us for a complimentary rate quote.
September 28, 2020