Research shows that 70 per cent of small businesses fail within the first two years and 80 per cent fail within five years. These statistics are quite troubling.

Asquith Brown, manager of Small Business Banking at Scotiabank, explained the logic behind the statistics. "Jamaicans are very good at coming up with a concept or a great business idea, however, they often don't have the requisite management skills needed to take the business beyond a certain point."

How to beat the odds..
As a small business entrepreneur, you may ask yourself how can I beat the odds?
It takes commitment to follow these guiding principles of maintaining or growing a small business.

1. Recognising you need help - After the initial two or three years of starting a business, you will need to recognise that you need a different set of professional management capabilities to grow the business.

2. Hiring the right skills set - You may need to seek outside help and hire smartly.

3. Be more financially savvy - Know where to go for the right type of financing on the terms that are suitable for your business. This also means knowing when to pay debts and when to collect from your creditors in a timely fashion.

4. Track sales - This simply means being able to know what are your fast moving items while determining what sells at a slower rate. This will help you decide what you need to purchase more and the amounts to buy at any given time.

5. Expense control - This is critical in the process as it helps you to buy smartly and eliminate waste or any unnecessary expense. Seriously think about all the processes involved in your business and then cut or keep expenses to a bare minimum.

6. Carving a niche for yourself - Ensure you create a customer base that can maintain/sustain the business. You need to ensure that you will have customers to support the business during busy and slow periods.

7. Pricing correctly - Many small businesspersons have problems with this and may be accumulating losses without knowing. It is critical that all costs must be accounted for when you are pricing the product/service. A reasonable mark-up should be added to this to ensure that you can continue to purchase stock and make a profit.

8. Market research - While this is very important it is often scoffed at as a "big business thing". You need market research in order to keep in touch with the needs of the market, the profile of your customers and their changing tastes/desires. This will inform how you develop and improve your service to ensure you remain viable.

9. Location, location, location - It is simply putting the business in the right place to make sales. This is where your customers can reach you with ease, the person in and around the area are willing to pay the price for your product and the environment best suits your service.

10.Support network - It is important to utilise the advise from the right persons that can help you to grow your business. Many associations, business development groups and other government and non-government agencies exist who can help you to develop and improve your operations. Research them and utilise their services well.

Simone Hull is the public relations
specialist for Scotiabank.
E-mail:asquith.brown@scotiabank.com
or sbda1@hotmail.com

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