1. Finding Customers

This first one isn't just a small business problem. The marketers at well-known companies like Apple, Toyota, and McDonald's don't just sit around waiting for the leads to come in — even the biggest, most successful companies have people working hard every single day to find new customers.

But, for small businesses, the challenge is even more significant. How can you find customers when you’re not a household name? There are so many channels to focus on for acquisition, but how do you know what to prioritize?

In addition, acquisition costs are incredibly high, and small businesses may not have the same spending power as larger, more established businesses. In fact, the cost of acquiring new customers has increased almost 60% over the past six years. If this is something you’re struggling with, you’re not alone: 49% of companies report that customer acquisition is their primary marketing objective. 

2. Increasing Brand Awareness

If your customers don't know who you are, how will they buy from you? Statistics show that, in terms of success, 70% of brand managers say that building an audience is more valuable than direct sales, and, because of this, marketers in 2021 say that their primary goal for running marketing campaigns is building brand awareness. 

This focus is largely because building brand awareness helps generate trust with your audience, helps them associate your brand with your products and services, and those factors combined help drive sales and build a base of loyal customers. 

As a small brand, it can sometimes seem like today's biggest names seemed to have popped up out of nowhere. How did they become a household name? How did they grow that quickly? Can your business grow like that, too? Of course, most of these companies' hard work, failures, and rejections happened behind the scenes. But, there are strategies for spreading the word about your brand and building an excellent reputation that you can start using right away.

3. Building an Email List

To move prospects along their buyer's journey to eventually become your customer, you need to build trust through consistent nurturing, staying top of mind, and continuously providing value. Marketers say that one of the best ways to do this is by getting prospects on your email list. Email marketing is still ranked as the most effective marketing channel, and for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. In addition, 59% of consumers say that marketing emails can either directly influence their purchasing decisions.

Despite these statistics, the average email marketing database degrades by about 22.5% each year. As a marketing team, it is your job to find ways to maintain and constantly add fresh, new email contacts to your list. 

But, what many people call "building an email list" is buying an email list — and buying an email list is never a good idea. I repeat: Never a good idea. Not only will your email deliverability and IP reputation be harmed, but it's also a waste of money. If your current strategy is to buy or rent email lists, it's time to regroup and find better places to put those resources.

4. Lead Generation

Another problem most small businesses share is lead generation — specifically, generating enough leads to keep the sales team happy. Marketers also report that this is a top priority, but, at the same time, 58% also indicate that lead generation is a key challenge that business leaders face. 

Given this, generating leads that are both high quantity and high quality is an important objective. A successful lead generation engine turns website visitors into prospective customers and provides a steady stream of sales prospects while you sleep.

5. Delighting Customers

Customer satisfaction is a great goal, but customer delight is even better: 

• Positive service experiences entice customers to make additional purchases and repeat loyal customers spend more,
• Satisfied customers engage in word-of-mouth marketing, helping you with free acquisition,
• It’s cheaper to retain an existing, satisfied customer than it is to acquire a new one.

Unfortunately, as a small business, it can be tough to delight customers in the way they desire. A lack of employees or dedicated service teams to help customers can make it challenging to keep up and solve their issues. A lack of capital can make it challenging to create programs that customers enjoy, like loyalty programs. 

To achieve true customer delight so that your customers become promoters of your business, you must surpass expectations and deliver an unmatched experience.

6. Hiring Talented People

52% of respondents to a CNBC study stated that the most significant problem facing small businesses was labor quality. This is a tough statistic to consider, especially since most of the challenges on this list can’t be overcome without a fantastic team that understands business goals and can work together to meet them. 

To begin with, 76% of hiring staff say attracting quality candidates is their biggest challenge. In addition, the cost of onboarding can average more than $4,000 per new employee, which is troubling for those operating with smaller budgets. If you have high employee turnover, you’re spending more money hiring talent than you would like.

7. Managing Workflow

Once you have the people to make the magic happen, the next challenge is managing workflow. You want to ensure that your team has the processes and tools to do good work and do it efficiently. 

At the same time, you can't be everywhere at once as a business leader. So how do you focus on the business while ensuring that everyone working in the business has what they need? This is why a common challenge for small businesses is effectively managing workflow, especially as your business scales. The good news is that, when done right, it does pay off: marketing automation can bring more than 400% revenue increment.

8. Financial Planning

More resources increase ability, efficiency, and quality. Unfortunately, access to many of these resources comes through having capital, but small businesses reported that a lack of capital or cash flow was their number one challenge. 

In addition, small business loan approval at big banks is significantly low - 13.5% as of March 2021. Given this, financial planning with limited resources and a budget can be complex for small businesses.

9. Scaling

This is a tricky one, especially since every situation is different. You'll see this problem arise in all areas of business: in product development, in marketing and content creation, in hiring, and so on.

For example, many business executives will push growth at all costs. But if you grow your company too quickly, you'll find yourself having to hire quickly, which directly feeds into the small business challenge of finding and hiring top-quality talent. 

In addition, you may land a large client that makes you feel hopeful for the future, but it then becomes difficult to keep up with their needs. Because of this, a small business challenge is being able to scale and managing the side effects that come with scaling.