​Growth through innovation for micro and small businesses

As a business, if you don’t grow or aim to grow, the business becomes stagnant, stale, just surviving and if not careful it can become irrelevant. That may seem hash, but it’s true. Having said that, some businesses want to remain small or the size they are and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, as long as they continue to reinvent, refresh and innovate and check themselves.
​
Talk about innovation in small businesses to small business owners and they say it’s for the big guys. That’s being small minded. In today’s economy, the plumber, the dog walker, high street chains and big corporates could all do with some innovation. Size does not matter. Innovation is not about doing things better, improvements, or reinventing the wheel, it’s about doing something different, introducing new things or methods. Sometimes a small change or tweak can have incredible impact.

Innovation doesn’t necessarily have to mean technology or inventing the next game-changer like Steve Jobs did. It could be a change in process making something more streamlined. Think customer service, think about methods of operation, think about value chains, etc. Easyjet recently introduced hands free travel, meaning that your hand luggage is taken to the gate for you, as well as check in from home. Now not every customer is going to take this service up but imagine a world where there was no more bag drops at the airport, but that they came to your door. That would make it more feasible to travel by public transport to the airport rather than parking your car – saving you that cost. What I’m not sure is if they drop your luggage home at the end of the trip…if they don’t perhaps they could…

That’s the sort of mind set that you need to move into. Think about the bug bears your customers face. Can you provide a solution? Be persistent and consistent in building that culture and you will discover something.

If you have come up with a great idea and want an independent business advisor to think all the aspects through with you, the team at RBSS Consulting would love to help you through that. We guarantee good business advice - we deliver real business solutions.
Contact RBSS Consulting at 0333 355 1696 or email info@rbssconsulting.com.