What Are the Benefits of Small Business Management?

Small business owners are often dreamers.

There's an expression for a small business owner: "CEO and bottle washer." This phrase encapsulates the fact that a small business owner is likely to be involved in every phase of the business, and could likely be the one staying late and washing the bottles after all of the employees have gone home.

Knowing Your Business Intimately

Unlike the owner of a Fortune 500 company, as a small business owner you will most likely be intimately involved in every aspect of your business. Although this may put you in danger of micromanaging, this hands-on familiarity also puts you in an excellent position to make thoughtful, informed decisions about daily matters, as well as big picture priorities. For example, if you wash dishes yourself and you see the sink leaking, you will be in an ideal position to assess the severity of the leak and decide whether repairing it is an immediate priority.

Employee Management

Because you are closely involved with so many aspects of running your business, as a small business owner you will be closer to your employees than the manager of a large corporation. If you work hard and care about your workers' needs, they will likely go the extra mile for you when you need them the most. Unlike managing a big company, running a small business is intensely personal, and your employees will respond on a personal level to your commitment and your enthusiasm.

Customer Relations

If you are closely involved in the daily operations of your business, you have the opportunity to get to know your customers and shape your company to meet their needs. Customers choose to support a business because they like its products and services, but they also develop loyalties based on the personality of a company and their relationship to its owner. Small business management gives you the opportunity to make your company more human, individualizing it and differentiating it from bigger, more impersonal businesses.

Financial Management

Small business management provides you with a solid familiarity with your company's finances. This detailed knowledge enables you to prepare financial statements and projections based on first-hand observations. A larger company is more likely to employ an accountant who bases his paperwork strictly on numerical data, but your company's financial picture is more nuanced than a cash flow projection, depending also on intangibles like your staff's morale. As a small business owner, you are also in a unique position to present financing requests to bank officers and potential investors, adding a personal dimension to your paperwork.

References

• Entrepreneur: Empowering Employees
• SBA: Managing a Business
• Small Business Management: Small Business Management and Starting Your Own Business