15 Small Business Tips for 2022: Take Your Business To The Next Level

We believe that 2022 is going to be the year for small businesses. The steps you take in the next months will set the stage for the entire year. To help you get off to a flying start, we’ve compiled a list of small business tips based on the trends we’ve seen emerge in the entrepreneurial sphere. Business owners everywhere can apply these tips and come out stronger than ever.

How To Make a Small Business Successful

Not everyone has the budget to hire for growth. However, don’t let this stop you from pursuing your passion and business goals. Here are 15 small business tips to help you get more customers and gradually expand your business. 

1. Get Organized

​​You only have so many hours in a day, so use them wisely.  Start each day by creating a to-do list of tasks you need to get done and prioritize the most critical projects based on when you’re the most productive. 

For instance, you can work on challenging tasks in the morning and answer emails in the afternoon when you’re less focused. Tools like Wrike or Asana can help you organize your schedule and track your deadlines. 

It also helps to:

• Plan the tasks you’ll do each day the night before.
• Create a consistent schedule to follow for which hours you’ll work.
• Find your most productive hours and schedule essential tasks for those times.

2. Narrow Your Focus

Large companies like Amazon can afford to sell in various markets. The reason being they have a great deal of capital to invest in branding, marketing, and customer service. As a small business owner, you don’t, so it’s best to be hyper-focused if you want to stand a chance of being successful. 

For example, if you’re interested in selling women’s clothes online, you could narrow down your focus to women’s formal dresses, women’s party clothing, and so on. Niche research free tools like Keywords Everywhere can help you find high-potential niches to explore for your business.

3. Make It Easy To Buy From You 

Consumers are insanely busy people, so you must do everything in your power to simplify your buying process. 

Start by reducing the number of form fields, eliminating unnecessary steps, and displaying the order summary on your checkout page. For payments, offer as many options as you can, as different customers have different preferences for how they want to pay.

You also want to ensure that your product or service pages are clear and easy to navigate. Make your call-to-action buttons visible, add zoom or pan functionality on images, and display shipping fees within the pricing section of the page. Sometimes, a great browsing experience is all that’s needed to attract and convert customers.

4.  Find Ways to Cut Costs

Cutting costs is a quick and easy way to improve your small business finances. Find out where your money is going and evaluate what areas could use a little trim. Good accounting software like Wave can help you categorize expenses to see where you are spending your capital.

Perhaps you can save by cutting down on unnecessary software subscriptions, switching to shared office space or renting, leasing, or buying used equipment. Run an online store? Finding a wholesale distributor for your business is an effective way to reduce overheads. Marketplaces like Handshake have made it easy for small businesses to find wholesalers for different items.

Remember, every dollar counts when you’re a small business, so cut or adjust whatever you can to develop a healthier cash flow and financial standing.

5. Stay On Top of Marketing Trends

Your business won’t grow if nobody knows about it, so you’ll need to run at least a few campaigns to get the word out. Staying up-to-date with the latest marketing trends will help you create promotions that actively engage your target audience. 

There are several ways to keep up with developments in the marketing world. Consider:

• Following marketing thought leaders on LinkedIn.
• Read marketing blogs like HubSpot, Yoast, and Moz.
• Listening to podcasts like Marketing School.
• Attending marketing conferences such as Yoastcon.

It’s also a good idea to connect with marketing professionals in your community. The discussions you have with them will give you an insight into the type of promotions that resonate with local audiences. 

6. Start Networking

Networking is crucial for building a successful business. It helps you learn from what’s working for others and identify best practices. Plus, the contacts you make when you strike up conversations can open doors for new opportunities.

Start by joining online networking forums and groups related to your industry. Participate in conversations by commenting on other people’s threads, or start your own thread in areas that are a good fit for your skills and interests. 

It’s worth remembering that networking is a two-way street, so offer something valuable to people when they have a conversation with you. For instance, if you are in the advertising business, you can make your best prediction on how Facebook Ads will play out this year in terms of ROI.

7. Build a Team

A one-person business might be cost-effective and easy to manage, but it’s also extremely limited. No matter how talented you are as an entrepreneur, there will likely be some gaps in your skillset that need to be filled for your company to thrive.

Think about the things you really can’t afford to handle on your own. For instance, if you make an error while doing your taxes and accounts, you could end up facing huge fines and have time-consuming audits to worry about. The right team will take some of the pressure off your shoulders and ensure you can focus on what you do best.

Tips for building a team:

• Use sites like Upwork and PeoplePerHour to find relevant candidates.
• Create onboarding strategies to set your new hires up for success.
• Be clear on job responsibilities and communicate with staff regularly.

8. Create Great Content

Looking to build an online presence? Content marketing can get people talking about your products, brand, and customer service  Your content can range from company updates to tips and tricks related to your products — diversity is the key to keeping your audience interested.

If you really want to up the ante, make sure to:

• Offer a fresh perspective on a popular topic
• Answer customer questions through your blog
• Mix it up with case studies, infographics, video content, etc.

9. Build an Email List

Did you know that email marketing offers one of the highest ROIs among all the marketing strategies to small businesses? An average return of $42 for every $1 you spend. That’s nuts!

Of course, you won’t earn anything until you have a list of people to send emails to, so start gathering those addresses from day one. 

You’ll need a sign-up form to get people on your list. See if the website platform you’re using allows you to add one from within its software. Alternatively, you can use a third-party plugin or app like Automizely to add email subscription to your site.

​10. Solve a Burning Problem

Another piece of advice for small business owners is to think of solutions to the issues people feel strongly about.

For example, shipping delays during the holiday season are a frustrating experience for most consumers. When packages fail to arrive on time, they’re left with no choice but to wait in anger and disappointment.

If you can think of a solution to address their pain points, you’ll gain long-term customers who keep coming back and spread the word about your business. For instance, if customers are facing delivery delays, you can offer local delivery or local pickup — two options that put more control in their hands and less in the hands of the third-party logistics company

11. Provide Great Customer Service

When it comes to small business tips for getting repeat business, there’s nothing more effective than delivering great customer service. Excellent customer service creates satisfied customers who are likely to remain loyal to your brand and refer it to family, friends, and colleagues.

A great way to ensure you’re providing excellent service is to keep your finger on the pulse of your target audience. Use tools like Google Alerts and TweetDeck to track sentiments customers share about your brand online.

Take time to review the feedback to identify areas for improvement and make changes that help improve your customer experience.Once you’ve done that, ask customers to review your business on platforms like Google and Trustpilot. Doing this will help you build social proof, which can be a powerful revenue driver for a small business.

12. Analyse Your Competitors 

No matter the nature of your business, you will have competitors. 

To be successful, you need to research their practices and find out as much as possible what consumers like about their products. The benefit of doing this is that you will develop strategies that will allow you to stand out from other businesses over time.

To create a winning strategy, see which companies offer similar products or services in your market. Then evaluate your strengths and weaknesses in comparison to theirs. You can use a free tool like Quick Search to analyze, track and learn from your competitors’ strategies.

13. Automate Repetitive Tasks 

Are you constantly doing things on repeat? Do you find that you have limited time to work on the things you’re really passionate about? Automation can help you break the monotony and regain freedom in your business. 

There are numerous tools for automating different tasks, but not all are productive or necessary for small businesses. For example, tools that automate tasks requiring lots of creativity are barely worth using, as AI can’t replace the imagination network of the human brain. Ideally, you want to use tools that automate the small, mundane tasks in your business.

Here are some automation tools we recommend using :

• Trello lets you track projects and collaborate across your business
• Invoicely simplifies the process of tracking billed tasks and expenses 
• MixMax helps you schedule emails and set reminders to follow-up 

14. Limit distractions

With many of today’s small business owners working from home, the chances of getting distracted and losing focus are high. 

From text and social media alerts to kids and household responsibilities, there can be so many distractions on a daily basis. Rather than letting them constantly interrupt your workflow, find ways to eliminate them or at least minimize the impact they have on your productivity. 

For example, if you find that email and social media messages are your biggest attention drainers, you can shut off notifications for periods when you need to be working. If noise is an issue, get noise-canceling headphones or install a soundproof weatherstrip to block out the sound. While it’s impossible to eliminate all distractions, get rid of the ones you can to improve your focus.

15. Look After Yourself

As tempting as it might be to focus all your time on keeping your business healthy, it would mean little if you end up sacrificing your own well-being in return. Sure, there will be periods of stress, but don’t let that stop you from nourishing your mind and body.  

No matter how hectic things get, remember to:

• Get plenty of sleep – at least 7 to 9 hours per night.
• Exercise regularly and get away from the office at times.
• Eat nutritious meals to fuel your body and mind.
• Find a work-life balance and remember to spend your time doing the things you love.

Start Growing With These Small Business Tips

The road to small business success is bumpy and full of challenges. For many entrepreneurs, the journey will have obstacles that test their patience, persistence, and perseverance. The good news? If you implement the small business tips above, you’ll find it easier to break down the barriers to growth and thrive.