Category Archives: Business

Business

Natural Resources scene in Guatemala

The country where the entrepreneur and nature lover, Juan Luis Bosch Gutiérrez, is from, is one of the places with an incredible culture and landscape. However, it also has great natural resources, Read on, here we will tell you about the scene of Natural Resources in Guatemala.

Learn about the Natural Resources scene in Guatemala

Guatemala’s natural resources come from its especially fertile soil, its highlands, and valleys. Fruits, minerals, and other resources can be found there.

Plant species, vegetables, legumes, fruits, and cereals are commonly found in Guatemalan territory. There is also petroleum, nickel, lead, zinc, iron, and small amounts of uranium, mercury, gold, silver, and jade.

siembra de vegetales en Guatemala

Guatemalan soil

Only 13% of Guatemalan soil is used for the production of natural resources derived from agriculture. More than 25% is rich in rare, high quality woods and timber for the production of household goods.

The remaining percentage of land includes urban areas, rugged terrain, deserts, and lowlands that are eroded or unsuitable for agriculture or grazing.

Resources to strengthen the country’s economy

Although Guatemala is a country rich in natural resources, these have not been adequately exploited. It is believed that non-metallic minerals and other natural resources would have the potential to strengthen the country’s economy. However, lack of technical knowledge and investment has limited these possibilities.

Agriculture as the basis of Guatemala’s natural resources

Natural resources derived from agriculture represent the backbone of the Guatemalan economy. Agriculture has been important within this region since Mayan times. Corn is one of the resources whose cultivation has been given since this time until today. Corn is one of the resources whose cultivation has been given since this time until today.

Minerals

Certain natural mineral resources found in Guatemalan soil are exported to foreign markets as raw material without processing.

In Guatemala, the most consumed minerals are gravel and sand, extracted from the hills located throughout the country. These are used for domestic purposes.

Livestock

With population growth and the demand for food, cattle and pig farming has become common. Poultry farms and fish hatcheries are also common.

All of the above makes Guatemala a country rich in natural resources, and its economy depends on the exploitation of the land.

Business

Steps to achive profitable growth

Many mid-market executives worry about being behind the trend when it comes to data analytics. In fact, it has great potential to improve decision making and therefore performance, profitability and value. We also see a lot of excitement around data analytics, making it easy to jump without a deliberate and flexible approach.

Data analysis is the transformation of information into practical knowledge that can lead to competitive advantage. There are three types.

Descriptive analysis answers questions like, “What happened and why?”

Predictive analytics takes a step into the future, answering

“What if …?” Prescriptive analytics goes one step further and targets specific actions to take based on the outcome you are looking for. Google Maps is a good example here. Enter your destination and, based on your current location, traffic, available road network, and previous preferences.

All three types of analysis reduce the personal biases and preferences that we so often use to make decisions. As good as our instincts are, analytics reduces uncertainty. They can also lead to increased efficiency and revenue. Businesses use analytics to experiment with real-time pricing based on demand, inventory, and data on how much different customers will pay.

Manufacturers use data analytics for preventative maintenance to reduce downtime and avoid shortages. Others use it to understand absenteeism patterns and predict plant changes that may be insufficient.

Align questions with business strategy

Any project or initiative must align with your profitable growth strategy. This ensures that the questions you ask and the answers you discover directly contribute to gaining a competitive advantage or solving a particular problem. What are your key performance indicators (KPIs)? When investing in a data analytics program, you need a systematic way to measure progress against your business goals.

Organizational infrastructure (people and processes) is the biggest challenge for many companies. The results of your data analysis projects will drive a change in the way people work. Old spreadsheets and processes disappear and this can make people uncomfortable. Leadership commitment and participation are critical to smooth transitions.

The cost of undertaking data analytics initiatives is often a concern, but the investment does not have to be prohibitive. The amount to invest should be based on the type of business.

Reduce focus to start

We recommend that companies start with a pilot test. Focus on one aspect of the business and identify specific questions to answer. To find that suitable first project, look at your internal and external stakeholders: shareholders, customers, staff, suppliers, and others.

Develop a plan about what information you will retrieve to answer the question and how you will apply the results. The pilot you carry out must be important to a key group and will allow you to move the needle on the KPIs, in alignment with your strategy.

Formalize your program by involving the right people, including leadership. Your IT staff and many other functional areas should be involved, but not lead the charge. Data analytics is not “an IT thing.” Create a litter box, make mistakes, learn, and then expand the scope to tackle more.

Business

Growth or profitability: what is best for your startup?

It is important to differentiate the type of entrepreneurship in order to answer that question. What is the right path? It depends on the business.

When entrepreneurs realize that the pace of the business will not be enough to meet profitable growth targets and money is about to run out, it is just when they are faced with the dilemma of choosing between reaching the breakeven point or continuing to grow rapidly. What is the right path? It depends on the business.

When you have a consolidated business, the strategy is to make significant profits and grow at moderate rates. However, in the case of an undertaking, the decision is somewhat more complicated.

It is important to differentiate the type of entrepreneurship. There are traditional SME-type businesses that seek to break even and obtain profits in the short term. On the other hand, there are high-impact initiatives where the strategy must be to reach its full potential by growing exponentially.

In the case of a disruptive venture, added the manager, what is sought is to become the next Unicorn or something close. There you get there with big growth in sales, not by cutting back and spending less.

That is, if the business model is high-impact and the unit economics are profitable (each operation and transaction generates profits), the option is to continue growing rapidly. Despite the fact that in the short term no profits are generated for investors.

For this, it is necessary to go out and find investors to keep the company alive and to be able to follow that path. Some investors are waiting for quick returns and others have the patience to wait for the company to explode its potential. These investors prefer that a company continues to grow, they do not want conformity and they look for companies that have the potential to be relevant in their market, despite the risks that this entails.

It should be noted that if you do not have the ability to get money from investors, it is necessary for entrepreneurs to learn it because they will do it all the time. Understanding the needs of investors and knowing how to choose them is essential for high-impact ventures. The leveraged growth curve per investment will depend on the ability to obtain funds at each stage of the company’s development.

It is not about undertaking to lose money. Startups go through a stage in which growth requires a continuous investment in expenses that are seen as losses, until the volume of the company is so important that it allows its consolidation and, with it, turns towards a profit generation strategy optimum.

Companies like Amazon and Facebook were in losses for a long time, but business was good as a unit, so it came to a point where revenue outstripped expenses, in a big way. Uber, Airbnb or Rappi are startups that have not generated profits so far. However, given the profitability of the unit economics and their high impact on the market, investors are encouraged that they will be able to achieve very high returns in the future.

On the other hand, choosing to break even means stop raising capital, make a profit, survive, and move on. These concepts translate, in the short term, into profitable operations and greater peace of mind for conservative investors and even founders, but the future value of the company is possibly being sacrificed.

The main disadvantage of this choice for startups is that the day will come when the competition will appear which, with a growth strategy, will end up taking your customers and eliminating you from the market.

Entrepreneurs need to think about things that are truly transformative. If they really are, they will find investors willing to help them until they reach the desired breakeven point.

Business

Key factors for the profitable growth of your business

When talking about business growth, we can think of increasing sales, improving prices, increasing market share; But when the equation includes profitability, you may be surprised that there are variables that are more important.

Although, the business sector in Mexico presents a positive outlook due to the investment of 3.5 trillion pesos in the sector this year, and the sustained economic growth rates for 7 consecutive years that show an average record of up to 2.7% (INEGI) It is important to ask ourselves: What are the keys to the growth and profitability of a business? Why the importance of these issues?

Taking into account the growth variable, the what, who, how and where that concern the business must be taken into account to establish profitable growth strategies following the next objetives:

What? Value proposition offered to the market and what needs it seeks to cover.
Who? Who serves customers and who are customers.
How? How the company operates and how the competition operates.
Where? Where the company operates.
To this equation is added the variable that concerns us in this article, profitability. According to experts in strategies and business models:

“On many occasions, the company grows but profits are not keeping pace and neither is profitability in terms of return on assets. The situation is that the expenses, both fixed and variable, increase in such a way that the increase in the gross contribution of the company is not reflected in the operating profit ”.

A study carried out on 132 Latin American companies listed on the stock exchange (study carried out by Sintec Customer and Operations and published in the ProMagazine magazine), reveals that more than 60% of businesses do not achieve profitable growth due to not taking into account strategic management .

There are commercial partners willing to support and facilitate the profitable growth of a business, a clear example is the company TIP México who, in addition to having more than 24 years of experience in the vehicle leasing market, supports companies to:

Optimize their expenses and operating costs through the leasing and value-added services of vehicle fleets, that is, companies can begin to improve their expenses and operating costs by stopping buying assets that depreciate and beginning to acquire assets that lean the financial balance towards a profitable business.
Improve the return on assets since within the benefits of the lease, the tax deduction plans are 100% both in monthly payments and additional services.
Generate business opportunities for companies, since thanks to the leasing they are not decapitalized, allowing a greater cash flow available to invest in their growth, increasing profitability.
Offer value-added services such as speed of response, quality and costs. By having a vehicle fleet at the moment and in optimal conditions you can always offer your customers the best service.
To grow in a strategic and sustained way in any economic climate in our country, offering flexibility according to the needs of each client. TIP Mexico has proven to be the best commercial ally for Mexican companies to achieve this.

Business

Growth with profitability: the great challenge for companies

The massive amount of information and more demanding consumers have driven companies to operate a more complex business, especially those that do not have the necessary tools. Sintec offers consulting focused on growth with profitability, through the design of a specific strategy.

Business people having a meeting in office with laptop

Many times companies make the mistake of thinking that the growth of their sales and gross contribution will translate into greater profitability, however in practice this may be different, so it is important to support customers to grow in a sustainable way This was stated by Fernando Espinosa, Frank Maes and Thomas Shimada, partners of Sintec, a Mexican business consultancy with 28 years of experience in Latin America.

 

The three partners of the Mexico City office shared with Forbes Mexico that over more than two decades, the firm has worked on more than 300 projects with leading companies in 17 countries, which has positioned Sintec as a leader in the region .

 

The Mexican firm has established itself in Monterrey, Mexico City, Bogotá and São Paulo offering a value proposition based on the profitable growth of its clients’ companies, through the design of a specific strategy.

 

“We seek to help our clients grow profitably. In the past we have observed that very few companies manage to grow profitably, because their operation becomes much more complex and what we do is help them manage that complexity that occurs when they grow ”, says Fernando Espinosa, partner Sintec.

 

Among the tangible benefits that Sintec has achieved in these years, is the impact on sales growth of between 20 and 50%, an increase of between 5 and 15% in operating profit, the increase in asset utilization of between 10 and 15%, the reduction of working capital of between 15 and 25% and the improvement in the level of service of between 5 and 15%.

 

The partners explain that the model that has been successful, both for the companies and for Sintec, has been to go from the design of a strategy to an implementation, that is, to indicate to the clients what to do and accompany them during the process, ensuring that the companies develop organizational capabilities.

 

“The most successful projects have been those in which there has been a diagnosis, a design and an implementation,” they detailed.

The crucial moment in decision making

 

Currently, companies are exposed to large amounts of information, which makes it difficult to operate a business, therefore, it is vitally important to have tools that provide companies with specific information when making decisions.

 

Sintec has implemented the Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) tool, which specializes in predicting the different possible business scenarios and suggesting courses of action.

 

In this regard, Thomas Shimada, Sintec partner explains: “Although today there are highly trained people in companies, the reality is that many decisions are still made by intuition. What we are looking for is that our clients’ decisions are made based on hard data and with BAO we use technology for that data exploration ”.

Business

Profitability or growth? That is the question

When managers, board members or even company owners are asked what they prefer between profitability or growth, almost automatically a large majority would say that both, however, the answer is not obvious.

It depends on multiple variables and elements to consider about what is best. Here are some reflections on the correlation between the two concepts and how it applies depending on the type of business.

1. Profitable growth

Profitable growth refers to the joint achievement of profitability and growth goals. This is the case of companies that achieve a balance between concentrated and diversified clients, with organic and inorganic growth models and exposure to high-margin, high-growth businesses. They are companies with business models in which the linearity between the new number of clients and the costs and expenses that are activated for their attention is broken. Very few companies manage to maintain sustained profitable growth.

2. Growth first, then profitability

For certain industries, high-growth companies are often more valuable than slower-growing companies, however, this situation is dangerous because growing at exotic rates can lead the company into a valley of death. Supergrowth with low or no profits induces organizations into danger zones due to lack of liquidity, high fixed costs and difficulties to operate on a day-to-day basis. Not focusing on profitability but on growth implies that enough capital will be required to finance growth operations, until the investment actually generates new returns.

While growth is one more variable, many associate it with vain metrics, as they try to impact and focus on growth, without paying attention to what is really “in the bank” after all the corporate effort. Income growth alone rarely creates the great success that entrepreneurs dream of, and worse still, it is sometimes achieved through dangerous borrowing, high risk, or even sacrificing profits.
Indiscriminate strategies of growing just to grow have generated serious strategic errors with dire financial consequences. When organizations become obsessed with growing by excluding other objectives such as profitability from the analysis, they end up competing in markets where they do not have the required capabilities to gain an advantage and in the long term the organization ends up losing important value.

3. First profitability then growth

When a company focuses on profitability by limiting expenses, it can lead to stagnation, a condition that cannot be maintained for long if it is to continue to maintain the value and importance of the company in the market. Unfortunately, many companies find over time that ensuring profitability can be much harder to hit than the numbers associated with growth.

Mature companies understand that making decisions to abandon customers, products or even markets can involve a painful process in the face of growth, but that it is necessary and is almost a healthy practice to safeguard profitability, especially when the ultimate objective of any organization is to create and To distribute value, companies must meet their ability to grow their profits and not simply their income.

Business

4 key factors to achieve profitable growth

1. APPROACH THROUGH THE STRATEGY

The main advantage that a company must have over its competitors is focus, that is, dedicating itself to a market segment and serving it as no one else can. However, a common mistake in your intention to grow is when you go after new customers or launch products without having a clear focus. An executive must select segments in which he can really make a difference, that allow him to grow and create relevant, differentiated and executable value propositions.

You should always ask: What challenges, constraints and risks do we have to grow profitably in those segments? The answers must be transformed into the company’s strategy, its approach and actions

2. DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH KEY COMPETENCES

A competition is the ability of a company to be better than the rest. What the entrepreneur must understand is what his key business activities are and invest in that: practices, people, technology. It should be very clear to any executive that companies do not compete with their products or services but with the skills they have in relation to their competitors. That is the true source of competitiveness. Copying a product is relatively easy; replicate a competition, no.

3. EXECUTION THROUGH MANAGEMENT

Management refers to the basic administrative cycle of planning, deciding, verifying and acting, which if not done efficiently, will have serious consequences for the company. The task is to create management mechanisms that the organization can replicate. It is a fundamental and unremarkable task that requires perseverance and detail. Because it is so simple, many executives do not carry it out and leave gaps in the management of the company, through which profitability escapes. This results in excess or obsolescence of inventories, higher costs, late recovery of the portfolio, among others, which in the end result in profitability and / or flow problems.

4. DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TALENT

Talent is the most important and critical issue for the company to develop. Understand what is required for key positions, have competent people, not necessarily with a lot of preparation and experience, but with aspirations and skills for the tasks of the position. An executive cannot be the todologist; he becomes the restriction of the company and a prisoner of his own creation. There is no way to overcome this other than through the right people and, in many cases, better than the executive himself for the position that is assigned to him. The main asset of an entrepreneur is the people with the capacity to grow professionally together with the company, who receive a fair remuneration and the required training.

The main task of an executive is to create a company that has the capacity to do business; his attention should be on this. There is no hidden science; achieving this requires discipline around these four dimensions. The scarce resource is having executives who are willing to develop those disciplines and, in the process, discipline themselves.

Business

The search for profitable growth

Entrepreneurs want their businesses to grow. More products, more markets, more customers, more sales. More investments, extensions, expansion, more equity. There are many ways to measure the growth of a company; But the only thing that really counts is earnings growth. Profitable growth is the goal that the entrepreneur must seek.

In his company, the businessman tries to get everyone involved in the process. Growth is everyone’s business, it is something every day, every decision that is made and every step that is taken. Every day something happens in companies, and those things that happen will lead the company to success, or failure.
Entrepreneurs want to be successful in their businesses. Success is profitable growth.

Expanding the operations of a company, a larger size of the organization, more products, more square meters, more machinery or more sales, is not always real growth. All these elements can dazzle both people and others; but they are not always accompanied by profits. Worse, they are sometimes achieved through dangerous borrowing, high risk, or even sacrificing profits.

What works in the real world?

For almost 10 years I worked as a financial and accounting consultant; then 10 more years I specialized in financial reengineering, supporting companies facing terrible financial crises. Then I decided to specialize in utilities, and I now dedicate my consulting almost entirely to that. Why? Because I determined that many companies grow impressively; but without profit. This growth with debt –or risking the profit margin–, causes businesses to end up bankrupt in a short time due to lack of liquidity, high fixed costs and difficulties to operate on a day-to-day basis.

True profitable growth is made up of several components. Entrepreneurs do not always have sufficient control that they should over each of these elements, nor over the connections that exist between them. It is in this lack of control that the problems of low profitability in business originate.

The whole thing starts with taking over where it really should be held.

Some of these components are:

• The ability to effectively understand what the customer wants, and even to know if the company is in its right market niche.

• The ability to innovate and develop new products or services.

• The ability to have a truly competent sales force.

• The ability to accurately know the costs of each product or service.

• The ability to control and modify the production costs of each product or each service.

• The ability to adapt the structure of the company to your needs and get the most out of fixed costs.

• The ability to modify or negotiate the leverage structure and cost of capital.

All these knowledge are capacities in which the entrepreneur must invest time and money. They are related to growth indicators that should appear on the radar screen of every entrepreneur, and that must be looked at every day.

Business

5 strategies that will help you boost your business growth

Business growth is necessary to sustain itself over time

In 2019, for the fourth consecutive year, the number of companies created in Colombia increased. According to the statistics of the Colombian Confederation of Chambers of Commerce (Confecámaras), 309,463 productive units were constituted, with an increase of 2.1% compared to 2018, when 303,027 were born.

This creation figure is encouraging and according to the president of Confecámaras, Julián Domínguez Rivera, it reflects the good economic moment in the country and the growing interest in formalization.

However, not all new companies are guaranteed to stay in the market. According to a recent study by Confecámaras, after 5 years of operation only 34 of the 100 registered firms survive. And the death rate is highest among small businesses.

Consequently, the future of these businesses will depend on their strategies to be bigger. But what does it mean to grow up?

“A company grows when it is able to give back more and more to shareholders, generate more jobs, gain market share and increase sales.” President of the Private Competitiveness Council (CPC), Rosario Córdoba Garcés.

Business growth is not just about increasing sales
According to experts, a protifable growth is the ability of organizations to generate value, therefore, it goes beyond increasing sales and implies providing differentiated offers to customers, generating quality employment, profitability for shareholders and sustainability.

There is a group of companies that have very high growth rates in certain periods of their life. The Organization for Economic Development Cooperation (OECD), to which Colombia belongs, defines high-performance companies as those that achieve year-on-year growth in employment and sales greater than 20% for at least three consecutive years.

“In that definition is the subset of companies called ‘gazelle’ that, being young (five or less years), achieve the same high growth rates,” adds the head of the CPC.

We ask ourselves then, what does it mean to grow?

According to the book Emprendedores en Crecimiento, derived from research carried out in 2015 by the Universidad de los Andes for iNNpulsa and Confecámaras, for a company to grow it is essential:

Change of mind: the manager needs “open mind and ambition to look beyond its borders”. This first challenge involves overcoming fears, wanting and believing that you can grow.

Networking: it is also key to be linked to support networks, such as the programs designed by the Chambers of Commerce of various cities to boost growth. Valle E and Valle Impacta, from the Cali Chamber of Commerce, and Crecer es Posible, from the Medellín Chamber of Commerce for Antioquia, are an example of these initiatives to promote the growth of entrepreneurs and businessmen, but there are also calls for entities such as iNNpulsa or non-governmental organizations such as Endeavor.

Relevant and sustainable strategy: business growth implies having a clear, solid and long-term business strategy that includes options if any of the tactics used does not give the expected result on time. According to experts, to take a leap in business, companies must also be highly productive and efficient, have a viable financial strategy and hire highly skilled human capital.

Use of new technologies: according to Córdoba, they must also use frontier technologies – renewable energy, biodegradable plastics, artificial intelligence and electric vehicles, among others -, know customers deeply and adapt quickly to the reality of the market.

You may be interested in reading: How to increase sales? Data analysis is the key

5 strategies to boost business growth

1. Design a business model that is scalable

To grow, it is essential to have a business model that can be replicated in other cities or in other business segments, in such a way that once the effectiveness has been proven in a certain place or with a particular customer niche, another can be reached. geographic market without having to make major adjustments. Digital applications and franchises, for example, are a sample of this type of strategy. If your knowledge and presence are essential in the business model, it will not be so easy to grow when opportunities arise unless you dedicate yourself to transferring knowledge to the work team and create a system that allows the standardization of production processes and customer service .

2. Focus on solving the need for massive audiences

This refers to choosing a market that offers a significant size because if the focus is on micro-niches it will be difficult to scalar the business. In these cases, growth would be generated by a high price of the product or service with the risk that this entails.

3. Integrate into powerful supply chains

In this case, it is about becoming a supplier to companies with a presence in different countries or with a very powerful distribution network, such as the D1 or Justo & Bueno type ‘hard discount’ chains, which will drive growth based on their own growth. . In these models, the risk is not having enough funds to leverage this accelerated growth that can be generated in a short time.

4. Have a high-performance management team

Although you must have high-level employees, it is key to set up boards of directors with people who have experience in internationalization and can contribute their ideas and knowledge to the company’s expansion plan. If the board does not already have this experience, it is feasible to have at least one mentor with the ability to guide growth strategies.

5. Incorporate innovation into the DNA of the organization

In the 4.0 economy, innovation is the key to overcome challenges, expand borders and meet customer needs. From day zero of the company, it is essential that innovation is on the table and allows creating effective communication networks with customers to detect changes in their preferences that can provide new business opportunities. The best source of information to innovate is your customers, so it is with them that you must dialogue on a daily basis to establish the next challenge.

Business growth is necessary to sustain a business over time. This growth exceeds the fact of selling more and implies that you incorporate innovation in your company, that you integrate into wide-ranging supply chains or that you focus on solving the needs of mass audiences.

Business

4 strategies to counteract declining growth

It is imperative that when economic times get tough, small businesses are flexible enough to adapt to shrinking markets and shifting consumer preferences.

Small businesses in retreating industries face a real challenge. In recent years, there has been a negative shift in sales growth for many traditional businesses – department stores, bookstores, and newspaper publishing, to name a few.

It’s tempting to blame e-commerce competition alone for the decline in popularity of traditional brick-and-mortar stores. While that is a factor, there are other issues affecting struggling industries that have also contributed to their decline.

Some of the reasons for this regression are:
Dependence on trends and consumer spending: For many companies that sell discretionary (non-essential) products, sales depend on consumer spending. If your products are not considered essential, consumers can abstain or buy less expensive alternatives during tough economic times. Trends and fashions are also behind the demand for discretionary items and can even give a business an old-fashioned appearance. This is a common challenge for department stores.

Inability to implement economies of scale: fixed merchandise prices make it difficult for retailers to maintain sufficient margins, as they do not have the necessary volume to develop economies of scale. For example, maximum prices are set by publishers (in the traditional model), so bookstores must rely on higher volume or lower discounts to maintain profitable growth. Fierce competition from Amazon, whose prices can be set through individual book sellers, has resulted in increasingly unstable growth.

Speed in technological innovation: Demand for certain products can also be driven by technological innovation. To survive in a highly competitive market, companies must constantly develop new items and functionalities. For example, the demand for print advertising dropped substantially with the advent of Facebook and Google Ads. Newspaper publishers have lost an important source of income and have struggled to make a dent in the online advertising space.
Rise of Automation: The usability improvements and cost savings that businesses can achieve by automating certain tasks has led to a decline in demand for many human-provided services. Businesses and individuals that provide these services, such as travel agencies, language translation, accounting, secretarial, employment agencies, customer service, postal services, and even agriculture feel the impact of this process as demand shifts towards a service. faster and more efficient.

In these difficult times, some brands have disappeared and others have emerged willing to meet the challenge. Those who survive pay close attention to the market, are flexible, and implement creative solutions to keep up with changing demand.

In times that demand more flexibility, being small has its advantages. Lower costs can help small companies fill the gaps left by larger competitors that have cut back or exited the market. Smaller companies tend to be more agile, able to adapt more quickly to market conditions and implement new ideas with less negative impact. Most importantly, you know your customers better than anyone. A small business owner is much more likely to be in personal, day-to-day contact with his clients than a large corporation owner.

That said, adapting to changing times, digitally or traditionally, requires creativity. By combining the opportunities explained below with the advantages of being small, you can increase your relevance and stand out in the market.

Offer a unique experience
While many large bookstore chains have faced big drops, small independent bookstores are making a comeback, growing year-over-year since 2015. Why? Because they can provide an experience that Amazon cannot. The smell of a new (or used) book, a unique selection of titles that you can explore and discover on your own, a coffee shop that offers never-before-tested own mixes.

Small businesses, especially retailers, can often provide a type of personal experience not found online or in a chain. Take advantage of what it does to you e unique and make it a key point to create a memorable experience for your customers.

Meet customers where they are
Despite the fact that Nordstrom is a great company, it started as a small family business and considers its customers part of that family. He was an early driver of the discount department store trade with his Rack department, while aggressively developing his online business from the start. Now, your customers can buy your merchandise while browsing Instagram or Pinterest. Barnes & Noble was able to compete with Amazon by offering to deliver its products the same day customers place the order. What do your customers value in a shopping experience? Find out how to sell in your small business and invest your resources accordingly.

Empower your employees
Small local newspapers have not recorded the drop in readership that some large national media have suffered. One reason could be that your employees often live in the same communities in which they work. In this way, your staff often access unique details and information on local, provincial or community issues that national newspapers do not have. Small newspapers also tend to have limited staff resources, so they tend to hire cautiously to avoid the costs of hiring someone new.

Hiring quality employees and training them to access customers without asking for permission is an added value for the consumer as it improves the service and offers personalized content.

Provide better customer service
Have you ever called a company for help, only to feel stuck on the phone for hours with an automated system that doesn’t understand you? It’s not fun. Good automation saves time and resources while facilitating the user experience, but automation that frustrates the customer is often counterproductive.

Providing excellent service can really strengthen customer loyalty and increase the chances of being referred. Prioritizing the customer experience is a great way to demonstrate the value of your company to your customers, differentiate your business from the competition, and attract new customers from companies that offer a less pleasant and less personal experience.

Of course, all of these strategies require proper marketing to truly be an asset to your business; many small businesses are pushed out of the market by larger companies with huge marketing budgets. However, if you take small steps and focus your efforts in the right place, you can go a long way with a relatively small investment.

As mentioned above, an advantage of being small is that it allows you to have a more personal relationship with customers. Talk to them about their consumer experience. Find out how they found out about your business and what they like. This can help determine whether marketing efforts should be directed towards social media or face-to-face contacts and what type of incentives (such as discounts or opportunities) might be attractive to our target audience.

Smart differentiation strategies can help a small business counter declining growth. As competition intensifies, creating strong differentiators and advertising them effectively can help you stay competitive. The above strategies can help not only retain existing customers, but also attract new customers who value atmosphere, service, experience, and personalized attention.

Every company is different, which means that there is an opportunity to highlight your distinctive qualities and catch the attention of consumers. Whether it’s the location, the employees, the type of customers or the service provided, it has its benefits to hone and emphasize your best qualities, personalize your customer experience and fight declining growth with authenticity.