One of the most exciting things about building a successful business is that you never quite know what’s going to happen next, but this is also one of your biggest challenges. It could be anything from a sudden and unexpected opportunity, to a cyber attack, systems failure or natural disaster that hits your business hard. The good news is that there are certain things you can do to get your business in the best shape to embrace or absorb the unexpected when it comes along. Here are a few things to bear in mind to give your business resilience when you need it most…

1. Establish a Solid Business Plan

This is the first rule of running a robust and resilient small business: sit down, think it all through, and outline your business plan. Of course you should do this when you first start out, but it is also something that you should regularly revisit so that it stays relevant and up to date. A solid business plan helps you to guard against getting caught out or overlooking something that might suddenly come back to bite you in the form of an unwelcome bill.

2. Maintain a Healthy Diversity

Make sure that you have a certain diversity of income streams and suppliers so that if one of them takes a hit, it’s not crippling for your business – for example, relying heavily on just one or two clients puts your business in a precarious position, even if things are looking rosy right now. Similarly, if a major supplier suddenly goes out of business, what will it mean for you? Even if you have one or two main clients, partners or suppliers, make sure that you have a backup list and a plan to put in place if one of them suddenly lets you down.

3. Equip Your Team

When you find that you’re onto a good thing with a certain employee or partner, it can be easy to get complacent, but what if that highly valued individual suddenly leaves you high and dry? They might be pursuing an opportunity elsewhere, or they might be incapacitated due to illness or family emergency, and suddenly you need to find a way to keep your operations running smoothly in their absence. It’s good business sense to make sure that your team is well trained and informed across the board, so that the unexpected loss of a single team member or partner doesn’t leave a gaping hole in the immediate aftermath.

4. Save For a Rainy Day

This is good advice for all areas of life, but when it comes to running a small business this could be make or break: give yourself a buffer and don’t stretch yourself too thinly. Make sure that you have an emergency pool of money that will cover your key expenses, like payroll, for several months so that you’re not suddenly caught short. This gives you some breathing room to re-group and get things in order after disaster strikes.

5. Stay One Step Ahead

It’s easy to get taken by surprise if you’re not in tune with the wants, needs and concerns of upcoming generations, as well as technological advances and marketing trends. Actively engaging with younger generations through your social media accounts will help you to keep one step ahead, and you should always be ready to adapt your sales and marketing approaches and messaging in order to stay relevant and effective.

6. Take Advantage of the Right Financing

Taking out a loan can be an effective way of safeguarding and growing your business, but you need to be smart and savvy about it. Explore the many different financing options out there and choose the right loan structure, terms and repayment schedule for you and your business. It’s a good rule of thumb to always be sure that you’re borrowing money for a specific purpose, and that it’s going to directly sow into the development and growth of your business.

7. Prepare for Natural Disasters

Natural disasters, like storms or extreme flooding for example, are one of the biggest challenges and disruptions for small businesses because there’s nothing you can do to stop them, and you get very little (if any) warning. Natural disasters can impact your buildings, infrastructure, operations and people, with potentially devastating consequences for your business. Even though you can’t know when disaster is going to strike, there are things you can do to make sure that your business gets back up and running as quickly as possible once the dust settles.

Firstly, every small business should have a disaster plan in place that outlines the policies and procedures to be followed in the wake of a natural disaster, so that you don’t suddenly have to make difficult strategic decisions at a highly stressful and emotional time. This should include a communications strategy that keeps employees, suppliers, lenders, customers, clients and all stakeholders informed and up to date. You should document all damage to buildings, equipment and infrastructure, and file the relevant insurance claims as soon as possible. It’s also worth looking into low interest disaster loans and applying for an extension to your tax filing deadlines, to ease the pressure.

As a small business owner it’s essential that you look after your employees in the aftermath of a natural disaster, from their immediate medical needs to ongoing support and counselling if necessary. Community partnerships with other local businesses, government agencies and charities also come into their own in this kind of situation. When a natural disaster hits, it’s going to affect all of you, so it makes sense to pull together and support each other to rebuild and move forwards.

All of this contingency planning is not about being negative or expecting the worst, but it’s about getting prepared now so that you don’t find yourself having to make quick and sudden decisions at a stressful time. A little bit of forward planning will shore up your business so that you can ride out the storms and emerge stronger in the long run.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, it’s harder than ever for small business retailers to stay up on the latest trends and work to outpace eCommerce stores. With these constant-changing factors, it’s no surprise research shows that half of all retail businesses close in their first two years.

In this cutthroat environment, it can seem as if one mistake can cause a small business to close up shop. Luckily, we’re here to help. Everyone makes mistakes, and that’s okay. We just want to ensure that none of your mistakes affect your small business. Whether you’re experiencing problems in your business or not, here are the 10 most common retail problems and how you can solve them as an entrepreneur.

Problem #1: Neglecting Store Operations

One of the biggest mistakes many retailers make is neglecting their store operations, which in-turn causes them to neglect their customers. The worst thing about this problem is that many entrepreneurs don’t even realize they do this.

Too many retailers have their minds in the wrong place, and instead of focusing on the success and growth of their business, they worry too much about personal accomplishments with the company. They start off with a strong work ethic, but when they see small successes, their motivation lessens, and they begin to coast.

The best businesses strive for upward growth and don’t stop, even when they receive praise and admiration. So if you feel like you’re starting to coast as a business owner, it’s time to get back on track.

The Solution

To improve store operations, entrepreneurs can work to take a more hands-on approach to their management. They should be present at the storefront and work to engage customers and employees. Retailers should strive to be aware of their business in all aspects and work on progressing, even if it seems as if they’ve hit their peak. When business owners are actively involved with business operations, they can create a positive culture for their employers and consumers.

Problem #2: Declining Quality Customer Service

The sad truth of the 21^st Century is that if customers don’t have a positive experience at a storefront, they can just purchase the product they want online. This is why poor customer service is such a serious retail problem. It’s important that businesses make an effort to accommodate their customers’ needs because if customers don’t feel appreciated, they will stop visiting physical stores.

The Solution

You can improve your company’s customer service by showing customers that you respect and value them. Be aware of their wants and needs and show them that you pay attention to detail. You can offer personalized services, unique offerings, or even just a smile and conversation. A little will go a long way. Just think about how you would want to be treated as a customer and what would positively stand out to you during your shopping experience.

Problem #3: Forgetting About the Data

Numbers can sometimes be confusing or unappealing, but to a business owner, you have to be aware of what numbers your business is driving and what they mean. You can’t just sit back and hope that you’re generating a positive cash flow. You must be hands-on and know where your money is coming from and where it goes.

It’s good to be passionate about your business and start a company because you care about it, but you also need to take the next step to help it succeed by being data driven. Many entrepreneurs make decisions only based off emotion, but you also need to take trends and statistics into account.

The Solution

If you know about data but aren’t applying your knowledge, work to make your decisions more number driven. If you aren’t comfortable with numbers or finances, educate yourself by reading, taking a course, or asking someone for help.

When you gain knowledge and insight, work to make decisions based on a mix of logical and emotional reasoning. Don’t rely solely about how you feel about your business but use your passion to learn about the data you’ve collected and make strategic, smart decisions with both elements together.

Problem #4: Failing to Adapt

You’ve probably had to adapt a lot within the past few years as new technology and trends have emerged. But businesses have been adapting since the start of time, and positive change is a good thing so don’t push it away.

Being outdated can be the demise of a small business, so make sure to stay current with the latest trends. Small businesses are already a big trend, so you’re already partly there!

The Solution

To continue adapting, ask yourself and the people around you questions, and take time to think about the answers. Ask “what if” and “why” more often and be open to input. If your company is very outdated, it might be time to reevaluate your business. It can also be beneficial to see what other small businesses are doing to adapt. For example, you might want to update your company’s website or create a social media presence. Whatever you decide to do, just be ready for what’s next!

Problem #5: Underestimating Commitment to the Store

Some small business owners forget that opening a retail store comes with many consuming tasks such as a nonstop cycle of buying, marketing, displaying, and selling products. This process can sometimes be very overwhelming and demanding for some entrepreneurs. It also means that business owners endure long days or nights, nonstop ordering, and bill paying. Even though this can be tiresome, the minute you put it on the back burner, your small business can start to fail.

Of course, you can hire more employees, but it’s not always that easy.

The Solution

You need to make your storefront a priority, because if you’re not looking after it, no one will. Take the time to get organized and create a schedule for taking inventory, ordering stock, and selling products. It’s going to be a lot of work, so hire team members if you need extra hands on deck. But remember the importance of being committed to your store, and know that if you are committed, so will your employees and customers.

Problem #6: Trying to Do It Alone

With a lot of responsibilities as a small business owner, there does come a time when you need to delegate tasks and onboard more team members. Your business won’t be able to grow and develop if you spend all your time bogged down by stressful tasks and don’t leave any room in your schedule to brainstorm or reflect. The time will come when you finally need to take a step back and ask for help.

The Solution

When you’re finally ready to ask for help, hire and train a carefully selected staff who want your business to succeed just as much as you do. Delegate responsibilities to your new team and have them help with selling, organizing, marketing, inventory, accounting, or any other tasks you need. While they are working, take time to focus on bettering your business and put your effort into doing what you love.

Problem #7: Having an Undeveloped Brand

Sometimes I’ll walk into a store that clearly has an undeveloped brand. Maybe they’re selling too many items and I’m not sure why there are so many random things, or it could be too niched, and I’ll be turned off that I don’t fit the store’s targeted audience.

It’s important that small businesses find a happy medium between these two poles. Don’t have too large of an inventory and overwhelm customers, but also don’t turn customers away by being too niched.

A good rule of thumb is that each item in your store should make sense and contribute to your store’s overall vibe.

The Solution

To develop your store’s brand, you should first decide on your store’s look and feel. Think about what your store’s personality would be like: how does it talk, what does it wear, what music does it listen to? Ask yourself all those questions and more to establish your branding. Next, curate your merchandise to reflect that brand. Your products should tell a story about your company, and that story should be understood by your customers from the minute they walk in.

Problem #8: Being a Bad Employer

Being a business owner is a tremendous responsibility, but sometimes the recognition and power of owning a business can get to the head of many entrepreneurs. This can create a negative power dynamic and create tension among leaders and employees. The jobs of business owners are to help manage and train people to be better. Thus, everyone should be working collectively for the betterment of the company. If you’re experiencing problems with your team, it might be time for you to take a reality check and see if it’s time to improve your employer-employee relations.

The Solution

You’ve done amazing things in your life and have reached great successes, but sometimes it comes time for you to humble yourself and reassess your leadership strategies. Don’t be the boss. Be a leader. If you don’t invest in people, then they won’t invest in you or your company. Similarly, if you have a negative work culture, you need to change it. It is your responsibility to set a great example, listen to, and be supportive of your employees. Set an example by being kind and caring about people, but also make sure to separate your work and home lives. Get off your phone and work hard, and your employees will follow suit. Ultimately, you are responsible for your company culture, so work hard to be a good leader and your team will follow.

Problem #9: Ignoring the Market

Many business owners can sometimes turn a blind eye to the market, which can ultimately damage their company and decrease their revenue. Business owners make this mistake by selling items they want to sell rather than selling items their consumers desire. However, it is important to keep updated with new and developing trends and be aware of which items sell and which don’t.

The Solution

First off, you should take an inventory analysis. An inventory analysis is a way for you to determine which products are worth keeping and what needs to be removed from the shelf. This can help you figure out what items are most popular so you can know what items you need the most of. Sometimes it can be hard to put your feelings aside and remove an item you like, but ultimately you need to focus on the consumers’ demands because their purchases determine the revenue for your business.

Problem #10: Overlooking Business Basics

Time to go back to business 101. As a business owner, it is imperative that you know the business basics and how they apply to your company. It might be hard to believe that this is a common mistake, but trust me, it is. Many business owners try to take short cuts because they think they can, but short cuts don’t get the job done. Proper planning and strategizing are crucial for any successful business and they can’t be avoided.

The Solution

It’s okay to take time to refresh your basic business skills, but don’t forget or try to bypass the necessities. You need to know how to write a business plan, prepare for hiccups along the way, and handle your money and investments.

Many small business owners make these mistakes, and that’s okay! We want you to learn from your mistakes and continue to grow your business to be the best it can be.

We hear a lot these days about ‘Millennials’ and ‘Gen Z’ – often in the context of selfies and hipster brunches – but what do these labels actually represent and what do they mean for your business? Every savvy business should be looking to the future, and this means understanding the upcoming generations, adapting and evolving to connect with them on their own terms. After all, these are both potential customers and tomorrow’s employees, so you really can’t afford to ignore them!

Who Are Millennials?

Also known as Gen Y, the Millennial generation is made up of people who were born roughly between 1980 and the mid-‘90s. Today, Millennials make up more than a quarter of the population of the U.S, which represents a vast pool of talent and consumers to tap into if you are proactive and strategic enough about engaging with them. The great news is that there is a definite trend in this generation towards small business and entrepreneurship, rather than big names and corporate brands. Let’s take a closer look…

Millennials as Consumers:

• Getting There First. For Millennials, there is a certain kudos that comes with discovering a new small business or being an early advocate of an emerging brand, so if you put in the effort to get noticed in the right places, you can tap into this.

• Making It Personal. Millennials love a personal experience, and feeling like they are individually valued, rather than simply a face in the crowd or just another customer. If you can connect with them on a personal level, customizing your service, products or experience, this is a great way to make yourself stand out and show your value. What some may see as self-centered or self-involved is, for you, an open invitation to build a loyal customer base by making every Millennial feel special.

• Community & Loyalty. Millennials like the idea of supporting each other, doing good, and being part of something, which means they’re more likely to root for the underdog than support big brands, and they can be a fiercely loyal bunch. If you’re smart and proactive about getting them on side, keeping them there is the easy bit!

• Social Conscience. Millennials tend to pride themselves on being highly engaged, informed and conscious consumers, who want to feel good about their purchasing decisions. They value ethics and authenticity, and are wary of faceless corporations – especially as this generation is still reeling from the reverberations of the recession.

• Social Media. Millennials are also the social media generation, and so much of marketing strategy these days is about making yourself share-worthy: if you get that bit right, your followers will pretty much do the rest for you. Word of mouth (or the online equivalent!) and personal recommendations carry a lot of weight with this generation as they tend not to trust traditional advertising, so once you start to build up a loyal base of brand advocates, you’re flying.

Top Tips for Engaging Millennials:

• Connect with Millennials primarily through your social media platforms. Meet them where they are and engage in discussions about the things that matter to them. Making an emotional connection lays the foundation for brand loyalty.

• Develop a really strong and well-defined brand personality that translates across all of your social platforms and interactions, as this personal and authentic connection is so important for this generation.

• Think Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube for stunts and gimmicks that will get attention and get shared.

• Engage with a social or environmental cause in a creative way. For example, the World Wildlife Foundation ran an #EndangeredEmoji campaign, encouraging Twitter users to donate every time one of the endangered animal emojis was tweeted.

• Make good use of data analytics to provide an increasingly personal and customized experience to your users and customers.

The bottom line is that Millennials might be suspicious, wary and harder to reach through traditional methods, but they represent a solid and loyal customer base if you can connect with them on an emotional level.

Millennials as Employees:

• Millennials trend towards working for small businesses because they see a lot of opportunity for progression, the freedom to be creative and make their mark, and they are attracted to the idea of doing something new, innovative and exciting. Ultimately, they care more about doing something that matters, something that they care about and see the value in, than having a fancy job title or earning a top salary.

• This generation tend to be fans of a casual, relaxed and flexible working environment, where they are trusted rather than micro-managed. The option for remote working appeals because they believe in a healthy work/life balance. Create the right culture, reach the right people, and you will likely find that your Millennial workforce are more productive and work longer hours because they care about their work, they love their jobs, they feel valued, and they enjoy the independence and flexibility you can offer as a small business.

• Millennials appreciate a sense of personal responsibility and achievement, and the opportunity to express their opinions, so you should cultivate less of a top-down structure in the workplace, with accessible and approachable senior leadership and an open door policy. This kind of culture is empowering, and it therefore tends to encourage more innovation, creativity, collaboration and – ultimately – loyalty.

• To appeal to this socially conscious generation, it helps to ground your business in values that look beyond the company itself. Integrating charitable or community-focused activities and programs into your culture instantly makes you attractive to Millennials.

• Health and wellness are high on the priority list for Millennials, so think about your culture and your employee benefits. Consider things like flexible working, breakout spaces, employee wellness sessions, and gym membership to set yourself apart as an appealing prospect to this valuable talent pool.

Looking Ahead to Gen Z

Although Millennials, and the massive market share they represent, aren’t going anywhere, it would be foolish and short-sighted not to start looking ahead to the generation that’s following rapidly on their heels. The oldest of Gen Z are just starting to graduate from college, so this is your future workforce, and this demographic is likely to make up about 40% of the consumer market by 2020.

Much of what we’ve said about Millennials is only stronger and more acute for Gen Z, but there are also some important differences. Here’s a quick run-down of what you need to know…

• Know Your Audience. You will probably find that Gen Z don’t respond particularly well to a hard sell, but are interested if they think you can help them in some way or solve a problem for them. As ever, it pays to get to know them and engage with their world, their conversations and the things that they care about.

• Be Socially Conscious. Even more so than Millennials, this generation is highly engaged with politics, communities and the environment. They prioritize being eco-friendly, ethical and socially responsible in their purchasing decisions, so these values need to be at the heart of your brand personality and you need to clearly communicate them at every opportunity. This also means being authentic and putting your money where your mouth is; for example donating a percentage of your sales to a good cause, or actively engaging with community social action.

• Know Your Platforms. Gen Z have pretty much moved beyond Facebook and prefer more immediate and personal platforms, like Snapchat. Make sure that you’re reaching out on platforms that are relevant, using images and videos that are instant and accessible. Instagram is important for getting your brand out there and establishing your identity, but Snapchat makes more of an instant, real life connection. For Gen Z and brands alike, Instagram is all about projecting a certain polished image but your potential Gen Z customers, brand advocates or future employees will appreciate the authenticity and relatability of Snapchat.

• Get To The Point. Gen Z tend to have even shorter attention spans than Millennials. They’re always on the go and prefer videos, GIFs, and quick, clear messaging, so it’s best to use snappy, short form content on Snapchat and Instagram Stories.

• Prioritize Mobile. You only have to look at the Gen Z representatives around you to see that mobile content is pivotal. If you neglect this, you are already showing yourself up as out-dated and irrelevant to this generation.

• Use Influencers. Gen Z offers some unmissable opportunities with influencers on platforms like Instagram and YouTube because this generation responds strongly to personal recommendations. They don’t really want to hear what you have to say about your own brand; they want to know what someone they follow, like and respect has to say about you. Connect with relevant influencers who have a significant following and reach out with free samples.

Loyalty is less of a pull for Gen Z than for Millennials, so you will need to work a bit harder to retain them as customers. This means plenty of connection and interaction through events, competitions, campaigns, feedback or suggestions. This group does tend to be pretty vocal and opinionated, online at least, which presents both an opportunity and a challenge: make a good impression, start to build some brand loyalty, and you’ll reap the rewards.