Four Things That Startups, Small Business, and Large Brands Can Learn From Each Other

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What Startups and Small Businesses Can Learn From Large Brands

Startup cultures are known for having a lot of drive and ambition. Their employees are passionate and often have fantastic work ethics that are recognized and used to propel the company forward toward growth and success. 

If your business is going to compete in a big pond, you need to do your research and reflect on how larger companies have achieved their success. Here are some things a start-up or small business can learn from large brands. 

One: Focus On Employees

As a small business, you need to focus on your employees early on so this becomes a core value before it grows. If you can build a culture that appreciates, celebrates, and empowers your employees, then you will have an easier time scaling your business. You’ll have a motivated staff working hard to grow your company. 

Employees work long hours at a startup to get the company off the ground. Management must make a healthy work-life balance part of the company culture to ensure employees don’t burn out in the early days. 

Invest in top talent. This doesn’t always mean hiring the person with the most experience; instead, it means seeking out those most driven with the proper skill set and values that match yours. 

Large brands often find it easier to focus on employees, as they already have processes in place that make running the business more efficient and make use of things like professional DiSC profile assessments to get a good picture of each employee so that they can assign them to a team and tasks that will enable them to thrive. Startups can learn from this to better manage their staff.

Two: Establish Processes To Ease Stress

The first phases of a startup can be chaotic. There are many tasks that need to be done, and it can take time to know where to start. Often, companies begin on the product or service they plan to offer and get it out to the public as soon as possible. When this happens, they often need to remember to focus on the business and operations themselves. 

Large brands will have properly documented processes that guide all operations. This helps the company stay on track and brings order to potential chaos. 

Small businesses should do the same. They should document critical business processes to organize the company from the beginning better. This reduces stress and frustration as changes arise. 

Three: Know Who You Are

Having processes and procedures in place helps you organize your business and helps a newer company define the kind of business it wants to be. 

A big company has had time to build a strong personality that people identify with. They have a clear idea of who they are and who to target. Small businesses should do the same. 

It’s important to remember that you don’t need to be everything to everybody. Trying to accomplish this is detrimental to a business and a waste of time. Know what you’re good at and who you’re suitable for, and let those strengths shine. 

Four: Invest In Technologies

Many small businesses are tiny. Budgets. Despite this, they need technology that can help them improve their processes and scale their businesses more efficiently.

Big brands understand that technology must streamline operations to grow a business effectively. If you’re a small family business, you might be able to manage your paperwork by hand, but what happens when your business doubles in size? It would be best if you were ready to innovate and embrace technology that streamlines your work to give better client experiences. 

Small businesses might aim to keep technology to a minimum to spend less, but you need to make your decisions based on where you want your business to go so your tech can scale alongside it. 

Many small companies don’t have the time or budget to research the best systems to support their business. For less money than hiring an in-house IT expert, it might be a good idea to hire a managed service provider to manage all your IT operations. 

Billing is a critical component of any successful business.  Manually billing clients takes time, taking business leaders away from the core of running their businesses.  Utilizing technology from organizations like Bill Forward will allow you to focus on building your business and less on billing.

Having the proper tech setup can save you time and money in the long run and let you concentrate on other areas of your business. 

What Large Brands Can Learn From Startups and Small Business

In the business world, smaller companies often look at large brands to learn from them and grow their businesses. While there’s no doubt that small businesses can learn from large ones, there is plenty to discover the other way. 

When large brands step back and consider their startup experiences, they may notice some valuable lessons. Here are some things that large brands can learn from startups and small businesses. 

One: Spend Wisely

As businesses grow, so do their budgets, and the desire to spend money can become more mindless. Sometimes, brands with a lot of money can find excess cash a negative thing. 

Think like a startup when it comes to your finances. Spend money in the most efficient way possible, whether you’re investing in new equipment, hiring top talent, or rewarding your staff with a retreat. Do your spending habits line up with your business goals? All the purchases you make should make sense for your company. Don’t spend money just because you have it. For example, if your construction firm needs a new fuel transfer pump, don’t automatically buy the most expensive one if all you need is a hand pump (like these: https://gpi.net/product-category/pumps/hand-pumps/). If your marketing company has a large budget, don’t overlook free programs that might do just as good an excellent job as expensive premium versions. 

As your brand grows, take the time to audit your processes. Think like a small business, make sure your priorities are correct, and stay aligned with your goals and the company culture. 

Two: Don’t Forget Who You Are

Large brands can easily get caught up in the day-to-day operations and need to remember the passion they had in the company's early days. As years of operational changes, stress, pleasing investors, and turnover go by, many businesses can lose their connection to their original goals and values. It’s essential to maintain a sense of your roots and to remember why you started your company in the first place. 

If you can keep the passion alive, big brands can keep energy in the company, and their employees will be motivated to keep the company growing. 

Three: Take Risks

Startups take risks to know if their company will reach the next level. As a business grows, however, there is a lot more at stake, so a company can become much more averse to taking risks than it was at the beginning. 

As a business grows, it’s easy to become stagnant. Processes have been set up, and everyone follows the organization's rules. Big businesses may forget to keep working on their business as they grow. The evolution of business requires taking a certain amount of risks. 

To keep taking risks, a prominent business ought to test all its processes, eliminate anything that is not working, and change it for something that does. Just because something has worked for you in the past doesn’t mean that it will continue to work as well for you. Continue to test out new processes, procedures, and technologies to make sure you stay on your toes and continue to improve.

Four: Focus On Employees

As a prominent brand continues scaling and growing, the primary focus often shifts to getting results and making stakeholders happy. If this is allowed, company culture and employee satisfaction can suffer. One of the most important investments any business can make is its employees. A business can only exist or grow with its employees, so you must ensure you care for them. 

No matter the size of your business, there is something that you can learn from the companies at the other end of the scale. Make sure whether you’re just starting or a household name; you’re always willing to learn and make changes to your business where you need to grow, remain successful, and maintain your vision of why you wanted to start running a business in the first place. Always be open to lessons from companies who do things a little differently from how you’ve done things in the past, and be open to adjusting any areas of your business that no longer work for you.