Survey: Small business owners see long road to recovery

With COVID-19 cases surging and a new wave of restrictions looming, challenges persist for small business owners according to data from the Q4 Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. While the index score rose 12 points for the second straight quarter, overall optimism levels remain just over half of what they were in late 2019.

For the third consecutive quarter, respondents most frequently ranked the loss of business or closings because of the impact of COVID-19 as their top concern. Attracting new business, worries about financial stability and reduced cash flow were the other top concerns.

“With COVID-19 numbers hitting new high-water marks across many states, small businesses are facing another steep round of challenges,” said Steve Troutner, head of small business at Wells Fargo. Read more.

Why Small Business Owners Need to Reconnect With Their Mission

My business partner and I have operated a college admissions consulting firm, Top Tier Admissions, for almost twenty years. The first few months of 2020 were business as usual as we prepared a new class of applicants for the admissions cycle ahead. Then came March.

You know too well what happened next. Standardized tests were canceled. High schools closed. Colleges closed. Students were sent home. Sports, clubs, and every other activity were canceled. What would this mean for both our business and our students? Was college even happening in the fall? Given how radically the landscape had changed, was it time for us to pivot? Read more.

Your small business may need a ‘makeover’

Whether you’ve been operating 10 days, 10 months or 10 years, it’s time for a “makeover” for your small business. If you’re going to survive and thrive in the COVID-19-dominated economy, it’s time to think of your small business as a startup.

Remember what it was like? You had an idea, a dream. You didn’t know how it was going to turn out but you seized any opportunities that came your way, continually changed as you learned more about your business, and worked long and hard. But you believed in yourself.

It’s time to do that again, given that customers’ buying habits and needs have changed. It can be scary, but it can also be exciting. And most of all, it’s necessary. Read more.

Get Back to Basics with These 10 Small Business Improvement Tips

Running a business can get complicated. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details and forget the basic strategies that got you there. But staying strong in those areas is a must, as members of the online small business community can attest. Get their top tips for going back to basics in the list below. Read more.

The True Failure Rate of Small Businesses

Have you heard that 90 percent of new businesses fail? Or that 50 percent of new businesses fail? Stick around in the entrepreneurial community long enough and you’ll likely hear a wide spectrum of claims, mostly falling between these two extremes.

But what is the true failure rate of small businesses? And should it influence your decisions as an entrepreneur? Read more.

3 Choices for a Better Business Year: Plans, Goals, and Resolutions

There is a difference between plans, goals, and resolutions. We use these words somewhat interchangeably, but maybe we shouldn’t.

• A plan is a strategy or identified steps, and possibly includes a list of available or dedicated resources and costs.
• A goal is about the future, an aspiration, what we hope will happen if it goes well.
• A resolution is a purpose, something determined, approved, a decision, a commitment of time, money, and energy.

A plan can take the form of a standard business plan or marketing plan. It can also be a more individualized funding, HR, security, disaster, continuity, or operations plan, for example. It seems odd, but many plans have no specific goal to measure; their purpose is merely “to plan,” check a box, and be able to say that “I planned…” or “we planned to…” Read more.

The 13 Biggest Small Business Technology Stories Of 2020

Every week I round up the five most important technology stories for small businesses and give an explanation why. This week, I’ve selected the 13 technology stories that stood out for me. Why? Because they’re about technology trends than not only affected small businesses in 2020 but will continue to have an enormous impact in 2021. Read more.

4 Entrepreneurship Lessons That Will Help You Grow in 2021

New year and new learnings. The key for this 2021 will be to respond to what knowledge and capabilities did we acquire or develop during the past year that we can use to our advantage to continue operating?

According to the study “Entrepreneurship ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean against COVID-19” by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), technological enterprises are those that can better enhance their capacities to be more agile; something that we have verified over the last few months of working with Justo, a startup that, together with my partner, we created in Chile in 2018 and now we have expanded to Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

We share these four lessons that, like us, will help you to be prepared in this new year: Read more.

A Message from Acceler8Success Founder, Paul Segreto

Walking away or trying harder is a very precarious proposition that many face quite often in careers, relationships, etc. Basically regarding anything that requires a commitment for an undetermined length of time. Sometimes it appears easier to walk away, but I’d argue that wouldn’t be the case if you consider why you were there in the first place and recall your original goals and objectives. Trying harder may work but not without evaluating what needs to change to produce different results. In any event, if faced with this decision, definitive action must be taken. Act swiftly. Act decisively. Make it happen. Make it count.