In the US, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) make up a whopping 90% of the US business population, according to Salesforce. As it turns out, these companies are some of the leading contributors to global economic growth. They provide over 64% of new jobs in the US, promote sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation — leading to technological breakthroughs. Managing your SMB, however, is far from a simple task
Over 20% fail within their first year. A staggering 50% of SMBs fail to make it past year five. One of the primary reasons for this is that many SMBs operate with a limited budget. This means that owners make the most of what little resources they have while trying to outcompete the larger, more established businesses.
With this in mind, business owners must identify ways to maximize their most important assets: their employees. Putting strategies in place and leveraging the tools at your disposal to ensure that your SMB team is happy, engaged, and productive are essential if you want to achieve success and scale your business up to the next level. On that note, we compiled a list of four top tips for managing your SMB. Let us get into them.
1. Offer Remote Working
We have the pandemic to thank for the rapidly rising new remote working trend. Ever since people remained indoors to prevent the spread of the virus, businesses worldwide began to roll out flexible and remote working agreements to help overcome the obvious logistical challenges that the pandemic presented. Fortunately, there are various for businesses that offer remote working to their employees, such as lower overheads, increased productivity, and a reduction in absenteeism.
On top of this, a Buffer survey found that 97.6% of people choose to work remotely for the rest of their lives, even if it is just part-time. This clearly shows that remote working is one of the key demands of the talent pool. In addition, giving your workers at least some opportunities to work from home likely boosts morale and increases employee retention.
2. Promote Effective Communication
One of the most critical factors of business success is communication. If you and your personnel cannot exchange information in a timely, organized, and accurate manner, serious problems likely arise in the near future. You must foster effective communication throughout your organization to prevent this from happening.
The first and most important step you must follow is to make open communication a key component of your company culture. This entails listening to your staff and creating an open forum to express their ideas and concerns with you regularly. Second, keep in mind that lectures, monologues, and ramblings are ineffective communication methods with your staff. Instead of dictating to them, attempt to collaborate with them and solicit their feedback as needed.
Finally, it is critical to invest in communication tools that allow you and your team members to stay in touch. Whether it is email, video chat, or an online collaboration tool, pick a medium that your employees are comfortable with that has the functionality necessary to satisfy your business’s demands.
3. Consider Allowing a “Gaming Break”
By now, offering your employees more breaks is a well-documented effective means to boost productivity and increase morale. In fact, studies have shown that more breaks during working hours help boost creativity, improve memory, and reduce feelings of stress and anxiety, all of which lead to a happy and healthy workforce.
If you need a way to incorporate more breaks into your employees’ schedules but do not know where to start, then consider offering a gaming break, maybe once or twice per week. Whether it is organizing a game of table tennis, playing online video games, or playing online mahjong, there are plenty of cognitive and prosocial benefits for companies that adopt a “pro-gaming” attitude. In addition, the beauty of it is that it will not cost you a penny!
4. Empower Your Employees
If you ever worked for a large corporation, you understand how easy it is to feel anonymous, as if you are just an easily replaceable cog in the wheel. For many people, this is one of the core motivations for working for an SMB, as they see the direct impact of their hard work and get more job satisfaction. As a small to medium-sized business, you recognize this by taking every opportunity to empower your employees. After all, their success is your success.
In addition to this, employee empowerment has many benefits to your business, such as increased motivation, improved creativity, and a greater trust in leadership. All of these benefits lead to a stronger bottom line. Here are a few tips for empowering employees in the workplace:
- Show employees that their feedback matters;
- Recognize their hard work;
- Provide support for professional growth;
- Make empowerment part of your organization’s culture;
- Provide great benefits;
- Provide networking opportunities; and
- Offer mentoring.
Final Words for Managing Your SMB
In many ways, your employees are your greatest assets. Thus, finding ways for managing your SMB team effectively are imperative to the success of your business and to ramping up your operations in the future.
As we mentioned, employee empowerment and communication are two vitally important aspects of boosting happiness and satisfaction within the workplace. That said, if you want to keep your employees on your side, then offering things such as regular gaming breaks and remote working arrangements ensures that they feel valued, motivated, and productive.
