Small business success usually owes a lot to the personal qualities of the individual or partnership that starts the business. Successful small businesses are started by entrepreneurial types who are noted for their drive, physical stamina, good judgment, positive attitude and their ability to turn over large quantities of hard work.

In the start-up phase, an entrepreneur might be carrying out every job a business has to offer - from writing a mission statement to taking out the garbage. When a business has a few team members, the CEO may still be able to monitor everything closely. While the CEO does not have direct contact with every aspect of the business, they can still have very close indirect control.

However, when your business reaches a certain size, say about 10 team members, matters simply become too complex for you or your founding team to keep track of. At this point you face a choice - to continue trying to run things directly, and risk spreading yourself too thin, or to adopt another management style.

Taking the first choice is actually a decision to limit the growth of your business. It means that your business will be run by a CEO who is overworked, stressed-out and likely to be making bad decisions, which is a recipe for disaster.

Taking the second decision used to entail setting up some sort of pyramid structure within the business - a hierarchy with the CEO at the top. Under this system, decisions would filter down from the top and be implemented by obedient employees. Layers of middle management would separate the CEO from the people who carried out day-to-day operations.

Over the last twenty years, this structure has gradually fallen out of favor. It’s now seen as a slow and inflexible way to run a business. It’s slow because it takes time for information to flow up and down the hierarchy and for decisions to be taken. It’s inflexible because the people involved in the detailed running of the business are remote from decision-makers and are not authorized to modify policy, even when it seems sensible to do so.

Another problem with this structure is that different parts of your business may fail to communicate with each other. For example, the marketing manager may have very limited contact with the customer service manager. For information to flow, it needs to go all the way up the chain and then back down again, with opportunities for misunderstanding at each step. This can be disastrous. For example, suppose that sales and marketing start making promises that the customer service people don’t know about or can’t keep.

Many businesses now favor a less hierarchical, team structure that is especially appropriate for small and medium-sized businesses. Middle management levels have been thinned out, with the management role being carried out within a team that has the skills and expertise to handle not only management issues, but also technical, marketing and customer service issues. Such cross-functional teams allow the different areas of your business to work closely with each other.

The teams can take some of the decision-making load off your back, as they have the collective expertise to consider all aspects of an issue and take broad decisions. Yet you may also have more direct contact with the day-to-day running of the business, because middle management ranks are thinner.

This team-based structure allows your business to play to its strengths and to be competitive against larger businesses. Small businesses can generally not compete with big businesses on price. They don’t have access to big business economies of scale. They don’t have a big business marketing budget or distribution network, so their market is generally narrower and more localized.

However, small businesses have an edge over big businesses in other areas. You may be able to offer a more flexible, personalized service and can react to changing circumstances more rapidly. You can offer clients direct contact with decision-makers. Clients who want products or services customized to meet their own specific needs are much more likely to get satisfaction if they deal with a small business like yours.

So running a small business on a team structure can maximize your competitive advantage. While you may not be dealing directly with clients, they can deal with a team member who has the power to initiate decisions that are well-informed, effective and carried out in a timely way.

You may find that setting up a team can be a problematic affair. It involves using or acquiring an unfamiliar set of management skills. It can also be emotionally difficult to step back and delegate, because effective delegation means giving away some of the close control that you would have had over your business. It means allowing your team members to use their judgment and discretion and being able to say, “Well, I wouldn’t have done it that way, but the result looks fine.”

A number of steps are involved in setting up a team. Firstly, you have to ensure the team has the right mix of skills to do a job. Team members must have the personal qualities that will enable them to work well together. It’s then necessary to help get the team up and running, and to make sure that clear goals and milestones are set, so that everyone will be working in the same direction. The team must then be guided through a phase where roles and rules are sorted out and possible interpersonal conflicts are managed.

You also need to know when to start stepping back and let the team function on its own and become productive. An appropriate level of ongoing reporting will be required. You also need to be able to spot signs that a team is going off the rails and know how to intervene. You will need the skills to be able to resolve issues and perhaps even disband or reconstitute a team.

Do you get stage fright when you have to make a sales presentation to a potential client? The following tips can help you create and deliver a better sales pitch.

Research your client's company

It is vital that you have a solid understanding of your (potential) client’s business. You can start by having a look at the company’s website, which should give you an overview of the business. Other ways include using the Internet to research the company (just type the company name into a search engine) or talk to the decision maker within the company.

“Tell them that you want to make the meeting as meaningful as possible so that their time is used most efficiently,” says Bill Steele, business trainer and executive coach with Brody Communications Ltd. You can ask them what they expect from the meeting and who will be attending.

Find out about the essentials

Find out how much time you will have for your presentation and where it will take place – in someone’s office, a meeting room, or in a different place. You also need to know which equipment you will be able to use for your presentation. If you’re preparing a PowerPoint presentation, for example, you will need a data projector. Does the room have one or do you need to bring one yourself?

Use your audience

According to Ron Karr, president of consulting firm, Karr Associates, getting your audience involved will make your presentation relevant and more interesting to participants. You can ask each participant for suggestions on what they would like you to cover and refer back to these individuals when addressing their questions.

“Now you go through your presentation,” Karr says. “You get to the issue of quality. You say, “John, you raised an important point about quality. Here's how we are going to address that.” Make eye contact with John as you talk about quality.”

By looking at everyone’s body language you will be able to determine whether they are paying attention to what you’re saying. If they look bored, modify your presentation based on this non-verbal feedback.

Focus your presentation on the customer

You should always keep in mind that a presentation is not about you – it’s all about the client and their needs. Therefore focus on the benefits your product or service has for your customer. This helps you explain to your audience why using your service or buying your product will help them.

“Small business owners are proud of their companies and are very eager to convince the prospective clients that they are significant,” Steele says. “Don't forget that the presentation is about your customer and [their] needs, not yours.”

Never stop selling

Assume your prospective customer is saying “So what?” every time you state a reason why they will benefit from your product or service. Steele says you should not feel intimidated by this possible response, but instead use it as motivation to give the most persuasive presentation you can.

As soon as you have finished giving your presentation, tell everyone that you are interested in working with them and find out when they intend to make a decision so that you can follow up.

Follow up on your presentation

You’ve been running your own business for a while now and you’ve built up a sizeable client list. So far, you’ve done the work yourself and your clients have been more than happy. But now you’re beginning to wish you had an extra pair of hands to help. You’re working 16 hours a day or more and there still never seems to be enough time to get everything done.

You need someone to answer the phone, greet customers, sort the mail, do the filing, and pay the bills on time. Or maybe you’ve got so many new orders that you need another skilled team member to help you meet delivery deadlines. Whatever the reason, you’ve decided it’s time to hire your first team member.

There are some important tasks to do first: determine what kind of person you need and what you need them for. Like marriage, hiring your first team member is a step fraught with peril. It can work beautifully, with varying degrees of difficulty, or not at all.

Joan Brannick, co-author of the book, Finding and Keeping Great Employees (AMACOM, 1999), says the most common mistake made by small and medium business operators when hiring is that they don’t figure out what they need before looking for team members.

That may sound like an obvious statement, but HR consultants are constantly amazed by the number of business owners who fail to ask and answer those simple questions before rushing out to hire someone. Take for example a job ad that reads, “Person wanted for busy pool shop. Phone such-and-such a number”. Is it a part-time or full-time position? What wages do you expect to pay? Will the person be working under your supervision or autonomously, or will it be a mixture of both? What sort of work will they be doing?

Answering these questions helps you identify whether the person you’re looking for is someone who wants and needs direction, someone who can think on their feet and take responsibility, or someone who is looking to upgrade their experience.

All jobseekers have different needs and expectations that will affect their suitability for the job and how well they get on with you. If you’re having trouble deciding what sort of person you need, ask yourself what their main tasks will be. Where and how do you mostly need help?

Once you’ve done this, craft an advertisement that accurately reflects your needs and what you’re prepared to offer in return. This could be placed on notice boards in shopping centers, colleges and universities, or posted on employment and industry websites. Most high schools, colleges and universities also have student placement officers who will be only too pleased to help you find the right person.

You might also show your advertisement to friends and colleagues and ask if they know of anyone who might be suitable. Don’t overlook employment agencies affiliated with the government. Many people registered with them are highly skilled, motivated and experienced workers who have simply been victims of corporate downsizing or company collapses.

When you’ve compiled a list of suitable candidates, it’s time to start interviewing. One of the single biggest mistakes made by small business operators at this stage is being too enthusiastic about their business (or too nervous about the interview) and doing all the talking. Let the interviewees do the talking while you draw them out with open-ended questions.

If you’re looking for someone with experience, you want to find out how they handled similar work in the past and how they dealt with any problems. If you’re interviewing entry-level candidates, you need to know how quickly they can learn. You need evidence of enthusiasm and motivation and a genuine interest in the work they will be doing.

Once you’ve selected your team member, remember they are a team member, not a business partner. They are not there to share the risk with you, but to help you in return for a salary and other benefits.

On The Business Journal website, Joan Lloyd urges business owners to “nail down expectations regarding salary, work hours, sick days, holiday pay” and other benefits as early as possible in the relationship. She also warns against expecting your team member to be as keen as you are. Your business may be your life, but for your team member – no matter how enthusiastic – it is a job that they must balance with family and social lives. They may be happy to stay back late to finish an urgent assignment, but probably not every night.

The following marketing tips may be a bit unusual, but that is exactly why they are likely to work for your business. Go through the list and select one to implement over the next four weeks.

Increase your marketing budget

On average, small businesses spend three to five percent of gross receipts annually on marketing, according to marketing guru, John Hayes. Next time you determine the value of a contract, add a percentage for your marketing budget. When the customer pays you, you can take that percentage for marketing and put it aside. You may think you can't afford marketing, but without realizing it, you are in danger of losing market share to your competitors.

Regularly update your website

You don’t have to update your website on a daily basis, but try to refresh the content on your site at least once a month to make your business appear current. This shows your customers that you are on top of things and makes it interesting for them to visit your site again.

Nominate your website

Nominate your website for web awards and if you win (or even if you are 'runner-up'), post the news on your website. This will not only promote your website, but it is also likely you'll gain an external link from the site that awarded you. You can kill two birds with one stone: increase web traffic to your site and gain recognition for your excellent website.

Get your customers to grade you

While every effort has been made to provide valuable, useful information in this publication, this firm and any related suppliers or associated companies accept no responsibility or any form of liability from reliance upon or use of its contents. Any suggestions should be considered carefully within your own particular circumstances, as they are intended as general information only.

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