They say as you get older time flies and I certainly feel this today, settling down to write this article. It feels like only yesterday that I was talking about celebrating RIMU’s 10th business birthday. A lot has changed over the last year and as always there are highs and lows. The highs are, that as a team we won the Maidenhead Chamber of Commerce “Best Micro Business” award last November, a significant achievement in my world. I am also delighted to say that Polly has joined the team in a more established capacity.
Research shows that 70% of small businesses fail by the ten-year mark, I feel hugely proud to have survived past this and achieve this significant milestone. Looking back over the last 11 years, I wanted to reflect on some of the key learnings from being in business and share some small business marketing tips for those just setting out or for more established businesses not seeing the results they want.
1. Do some research
If you are thinking about setting up your own small business, being clear on what you wish to do and who may need your product or service is critical. Before investing too much time, budget or energy into the idea, it is important to conduct some research. Talk to your target audience both formally and informally to see if there is a need for the product or service you offer.
Once you have a clear idea in place, the next step is to create a well-thought out business plan, this will be your roadmap to success. Things to include are:
- Defining your mission, vision and business objectives.
- Define your target audience and in particular, clearly understand their pain points or challenges.
- Think about your pricing and packages.
- Create a marketing and sales strategy that outlines how you are going to connect with your audience and what channels you plan to use.
- Know your numbers, track monies in and out; set aside some money for tax or unexpected costs and as soon as you can hire an accountant to do this for you. (unless you are an accountant or LOVE numbers, of course!)
Whilst some may say it is not necessary to create a big document, actually I think the action of writing it down and capturing your thoughts in detail, so you don’t forget is a really valuable part of the process. It also serves as a useful tool to regularly check in with to monitor progress.
2. Put customers at the heart of what you do
This sounds straight forward and obvious, but this can have the biggest impact. We know from our 2025 trends research that consumer buying behaviours are changing. As small business owners we have the biggest advantage in being able to personalise what we do. We are not a large organisation that is beholden to huge processes and lots of stakeholders. By delivering great, personalised service we can make a different.
If you are in business already, take a moment to review your processes and to enhance how your clients engage with you. What extra touches can you add to your working relationship? For example, sending a hand-written card, sending flowers on a birthday or work anniversary and regularly checking in with them, can make a big impact. By focusing on happy clients and building strong relationships, it will help you to drive referrals and recommendations.
3. You don’t have to do everything!
This is one of the key lessons I learnt really early on. When I first started RIMU Marketing, I was keen and hungry to do everything. Actually coming out of a corporate role I had been doing for some years I actively wanted to do 12 different projects over a year. I did. But then when I got busy I started to feel a little overwhelmed.
I had always intended to work with an accountant as I knew this had the potential to be an area of huge stress for me, I found Sarah and she has been brilliant in helping me since the beginning. I then started to look for others that could help me with new projects. Several years in, I now work with an amazing team, all talented and passionate at what they do and I pass as much onto them as I can.
4. Build a support network
It can be lonely running a small business by yourself. One of the best pieces of advice I received when I first started out was to fill my diary with network events. It turns out it was great advice, because from there I connected with lots of great local businesses.
Not only is networking important to help grow your business, but it is also important to create a support network around you, to help you when things get tough. I am really lucky that I have a couple of great colleagues I can always turn to, to brainstorm things or help me overcome a challenge.
5. Master time management
As a small business owner, you’ll wear many hats. To stay productive, crafting the art of effective time management from the begging is important. There will be the temptation to offer your time to suit others in the beginning as you will be hungry for work. Take some time to think about your boundaries and define what your ideal day or week looks like when you will be busy (I am not very good at this).
There are many tools out there that help with time management. I use Asana because it can help me manage the multiple client projects with a number of different stakeholders, but there lots of other project management tools out there such as Trello or Monday.com.
Try to think about how you can automate repetitive or admin tasks as far as possible. There are so many tech options out there to help with this. The key is capturing these tasks and then thinking about what you might need help with in solving, some examples might include:
- Xero for book keeping and managing accounts.
- Capsule CRM for managing your NBD projects and tracking conversion.
- Calendly for managing your diary and setting up meetings.
- Mailchimp or MailerLite for managing your email deployment and database.
- Social Pilot/ Hootsuite or Buffer for scheduling your social media activity.
It can be hard to set up all of these systems and processes at once, especially when budgets are tight, often these tools offer a free trial or offering so you can see how the system works first. If you are a little more established then it makes sense to be checking in on these regularly and working out how tech could help. Focus on working smarter not harder where you can.
6. Look after yourself
Running a small business can be exciting but also exhausting. Burnout and mental ill-health is a real challenge, we talk about this quite a bit as it is so important to keep on top of. To help you maintain a positive mental wellbeing as a small business owner, try to remember to:
- Set clear boundaries between work and your personal life, clearly define what your ideal week/ day looks like for you.
- Take regular breaks to recharge, that could be during the day or perhaps even plan on a taking a day off per month.
- Seek support, outsource or invest in tech to help with the admin tasks where you can.
- Create a network of colleagues you can call on to help when you need it, seeking support from a mentor or coach might also be an option.
- Ensure you eat well, drink lots of water and include movement in your day.
A healthy, well-rested small business owner is much more likely to succeed, than one running on empty, remember if you are not well then this will impact your business.
Final thoughts . . . .
The business landscape is continually changing, especially this year with the evolution of AI and the environment being two key trends that we are seeing. It can be overwhelming sometimes to keep on top of things but keep learning, stay curious and when you need to reach out for additional more experienced support.
As a final thought, sales is often an area that many people get a bit stuck with. If you can reframe it in your head and get comfortable with the new business development side of your business that will put you in a good place. Get help, support and training where you can.
If you are just setting out to establish your small business, or a few years along the way and things are not quite going to plan, please get in touch to arrange a no-obligation discovery call to see how we can help.
Good luck!
