Using All the Tools Available The spirit of entrepreneurship and the emergence of small business with their own ideas, products, and services is what has driven the modern market into the thriving machine that it is. Small business owners the world over have seen their companies grow and expand to become industrial giants and corporate success stories. Others, however, have seen their enterprises fail at a remarkable rate, decaying and crumbling under the capitalistic pressures of modern business. Both have their place in the industry and both can be experienced by the same individual or group of entrepreneurial go getters.
Motivating your business The point is, no matter what the outcome or no matter where on the spectrum of success a small business finds itself, the desire and motivation to open one’s own small business is a good and worthwhile pursuit that should not be crushed by any pre-perceived notions of failure. Success in the world of small and enterprising business depends greatly on the use and allocation of resources by the managing parties. Sadly, however, most fail to see the importance, and honest need, of one free resource—the World Wide Web. The modern and public internet has been in existence now for around two decades. With it has come a fundamental change to the way in which business are run. Major corporations have all accepted this fact and have aligned themselves with the practices of the internet or else they have faded into obscurity, so why should small business be any different? The ability that the internet has of reaching billions of potential consumers of the small business product, or at least its ability to market locally to all within an area of the small business, is a tool that cannot simply be ignored.
Social Media Social media sites are a prime example of this marketable wonder provided by the internet. By using social media as a marketing campaigning resource, the small business owner has the capability to reach all of the local market for his product with a simple (and typically free) social media account.
But the available resources of business available online are not limited to just online marketing. With the capabilities offered online, a small business can conduct their daily operations with little more than a screen, keyboard, and wireless hotspot. Everything from sales to shipping can be accomplished with the help offered by online services and other business. Equally crucial to an expanding small business will be the proper management of employees and customer relations. This field is generally referred to as the human resources department in larger corporations, but smaller expanding business have little need , and less committable resources, to fund a whole department with this dedication. Yet the services and certifications offered by human resources departments are required by even a small company. Again, the services available online come to the aid of the small business owner. Online compliance training such as sexual harassment and customer relations are both offered and certified by online compliance training organizations. By using all of the available tools that the online community offers, a small business will be able to one day add its name on the list of small business success stories and find its niche in the modern global economy. Photo credit: Et Han Hein, Dok1