The first three years of your small business are definitely going to be the most important in your business life. Business success and small business growth statistics paint worrying signs for many new companies, with over half of all new businesses failing within the first 3 years. What this means for you as a new small business owner is that these are going to be critical years and you must stay focussed on the right aspects of the business.

Quality

Before you even consider growth or the future of your business, it must be rooted in high quality. Whether you are providing products or a service, you must ensure that it is of the highest possible quality for your customers. Beyond the product and the service, you must ensure that your customer service is up to scratch too. Whilst you will need to look at aspects such as marketing and in-house issues, you are trying to build a successful business and in order to do that, you must be able to count on the high quality of your product and services.

Reputation

In line with the level of quality which you need to offer, you must be conscious of your reputation. Naturally you will not have a reputation yet, and this is why it is so important that you think about the business from a reputation stand point. This will help the business two-fold, not only will you be able to create a company that has a good reputation, in giving this aspect of the business some heavy thought, it will positively influence the decisions which you take about your business.

Spending

One of the most common reason why many businesses will fail is because they are over spending in the wrong places. Without realizing it, many companies arrive in year 3 with so many areas of overspending that it can be hard for them to trim things down. The best way to avoid overspending where it isn’t necessary is to simply scrutinize every aspect of spending in the business, and making sure that you are constantly getting value back for what you are spending.

Great Staff

A great business is only as good as the team which works inside it and from this early stage you should be looking to bring in top level staff. Whether you are looking for a cleaning lady, a customer service assistant or someone in a managerial position, you must give this the attention which it deserves in order to ensure that you get the right staff first time. You need staff that will share in your vision for the company and who understand what it takes to make the business operate in a dynamic and profitable fashion. Sometimes you can make the wrong judgement call with hiring a new member to join the team, however you can rectify this by investigating the issues further. If you suspect they are not the right fit or even doing something inappropriate, like stealing, and you are not able to do your own investigations, you should consider hiring a Private Investigator team to undergo a detailed investigation to discover if the new hire is causing any issues. You can learn how to trace someone with Bond Rees (or another reputable PI company) so that, should any issues arise, you will already know how to track someone!

If you are able to focus on what is going out of the business whilst ensuring that everything in-house is productive and of a high quality, your first 3 years should give you a launchpad for success.