What do you consider as the top 5 needs of small businesses today?

As a small business owner, very small, I would say:
1. Access to more readily accessible capital
2. Get rid of this self-employment tax or at least make it more reasonable. The tax burdens on small businesses make an assumption that we are like large businesses with lots of cash/earnings.
3. If there is anything the government could do it would be to restrict companies from excessive payment terms. Small businesses live and die on cashflow. So many of our clients force us into 45 or 60 day payment terms--because they are big and can.
4. If the government wants to stimulate hiring, make it easier for small businesses to get health benefit coverage and to reduce significantly our tax burdens on new hires. Not just a tax credit--but reduction in our other tax costs so that we can put money into business development.
5. Access to reasonable health care coverage - group plans are exorbitant anymore and personal plans are worthless.

Some great responses to this. My list would be:
1. Cashflow - manage it well!
2. Managing Costs
3. Driving sales on a daily basis
4. Clarity about target market, and how you differentiate
5. Clear business plan that is monitored and reviewed very regularly.
6. Drive and resilience.

Great question to follow!

The top needs we see with small businesses are:

1) Capital. Most SMBs are used to tapping their home equity to fund growth. That's gone now, and there's nothing to replace it. Bank financing isn't available if you don't have liquid assets to repay immediately.
2) Demand. Because of the recession, many smaller businesses lack the demand for their products and services. If you don't see an opportunity, what do you do?
3) A motivated labor pool. We hear of jobs going unfilled because people can get by on their extended unemployment benefits. Why work for $10/hour when you can sit at home for $800/week?
4) A competent labor pool. A partner of ours tried to onshore his operation, but had a lot of trouble finding people with the proper skills.
5) ROI. Prices have been driven down for so many businesses, it's not worth it to take the risk.

How'd I do?

Solid, serious MARKETING is definitely in the top five needs — determining how to DIFFERENTIATE your product/service from the other guys and then COMMUNICATING that differentiating message consistently and repeatedly to your target audience.

A lot of smaller companies seem to think marketing is optional or something that only bigger or more established companies have the "luxury" of doing. But marketing is very fundamental for EVERY company, large or small. Before people can buy what you've got, you need to TELL them what you've got — and why they should choose yours rather than all the other alternatives.

Al Shultz
www.alshultz.com

For American businesses and corporations, even in an age when the internet has dramatically changed the structure of commerce on so many levels, the quality, talent and security of people still make all the difference. Technology alone does not drive the success of American business—people do.
Today’s businesses are more dependent than ever before on top talent to innovate and provide services that differentiate a company from its fierce competitors. In other words, corporations are reliant upon their human capital to survive and thrive.
According to the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD): “A high-knowledge, multi-skilled workforce is the most important competitive resource available to organizations today. Instead of an economy organized around mass production, recent years have witnessed the rise of an economy dominated by technology and service industries that emphasize innovation, speed, cross-functionality, and strong customer relations.” [2]
I know this does not address the top 5 but I feel it is the number one most important factor that makes or breaks any organization. Bill Gates said that his success all had to do with a handful of key players in his organization and without them he wouldn't be where he is at today.

The most important thing to know is what your customers want, where they are, and the best ways to reach them.
1) No one wants a drill. They want a hole.
2) Don't open an Italian Bistro in China Town.
3) What age group(s), and how each age group gets their info is critical to how and where you advertise. Older people usually use print, like Yellow Pages, while younger people may favor the internet.
Look at advertising ,especially print, and see what catches your eye first on each page. Is it color? Children? Animals? Product? Key Words? What is your demographic?
Recommend S.W.O.T analysis.
S = Strengths
W = Weaknesses
0 = Opportunities
T = Threats

Not to be considered as BIG when paying fees for insurance, taxation and other obligations :)

Depends on whose definition of small business, but Census has 60+% employed by companies of 25 employees or less.
Per Census/IRS Small Business is 1 to 25(50) employees. At the low end ranges from one person office of a professional (Lawyer, Doctor, Accountant, Consultant, Professional Engineer, Architect, etc. Incorporated or not) and can probably do billing and accounting through Quicken. "Brick and mortar" (non information worker) like restaurant or construction company: meet Washington State and Federal reporting requirements,employee information, physical inventory. Quarterly audits for Corporations. Quickbooks or Dynamics GP and contract with Accounting company. Farms make up a significant portion of Small Businesses (dollar volume of mid size grocery store). Many small retail, e.g. charity thrift stores, have no phone or Internet access. Many small businesses have no computer and a (Gartner, Forester?) study shows a sizable number are not networked.
Small businesses don't usually get Venture Capital or an IPO.
Small businesses need:
1. Sales, Advertising, Lead generation, Referrals: depending on business model
2. Accounting. Record keeping, Business license.
3. Worker(s). Inventory. Save money by skimping on these and you have no bottom line (no sales). Pay for worker training. Buggy whips stopped selling after the automobile came out.
4. Updated (kept current) Business Plan. Not just for initial startup funding. Bookstore might stock more Romance novels because they sell better in a Depression. "Five and Dime" stores, like Woolworths, proliferated during the last depression and "Dollar Stores" during the current one. Many retailers now have a "$1" section (Walmart has an 88 cent section).

Excellent points Ted! I especially agree with #5. I have looked at both options: 1) offering group health care to employees 2) paying an employee to get their own health care. Group health plans should be less expensive for small business but it is so expensive and why do they only allow employees change their plan once a year when with a personal plan you can change anytime you want?

If small businesses are the back bone of this country, why are our taxes so high? Why is it so hard for us to offer Health Care? They should offer small businesses a tax credit if they hire someone right now. That would help everyone.

Small businesses definitely need access to capital, marketing and business advice and coaching.

As an accountant, I can't tell you how many businesses have come to me in the last few years to mortgage their houses to get access to capital.

In addition, alot of small biz owners know little about business. Business is an on-going animal and if you don't have the $$ to hire an entire team for support, then YOU need to know how to run it properly!

As they say "Prevention is better than cure!"

@SandraBaptist

My experiences lead to me to answer - the top five needs of most smaller businesses today are:
1. Leadership - for the owner to guide their business through the maze of difficulties impacting them today
2. Differentiated Products and Services - there must be clear and measurable differences between them and their competitors
3. Marketing Message - they must be able to clearly and succinctly explain what's in it for a customer to do business with them and why it matters
4. Cash - to invest in all of the above and the future
5. Passion - to believe in their products, services and customers (see the legacy of Steve Jobs if you wonder why this is important)

Staying lean is very important and keeping costs down. Evaluate your expenses and see what can be eliminated. There are a lot of excellent cloud applications that can help keep costs down all while decreasing your dependency on onsite IT support. VoIP Hosted PBX systems are one very good example of this. You can get a phone system for 1/2 the price of a traditional analog phone system with none of the hassles of onsite hardware and software to maintain. Cloud based CRM systems, document sharing, email sharing, calendar sharing, and even video conferencing are other ways to decrease your costs and strengthen your bottom line. Many small businesses are using these tools to their advantage and hiring telecommuters to keep their infrastructure costs down.

Shultz, You re spot on there!! Clarity in your product/service and communicating them through effective marketing strategy to your target audience is essential. The general flaws that can happen is when business owners look at a short term ROI on their marketing budget. A budget needs to be fixed for at least half a year, and track the results over a quarter and cut the marketing expenses over the next quarter. This will help in refining the campaign over the next 6 months with the output received.

Gopi

Thank you Dr. Karen.
Shane

These are also the needs for SMBs.

Website:- to get more business and brand visibility SMB needs a Website.
Excellent Marketing Strategy
Good Finance Support

Almost all SMB businesses are not public facing. Building contractors, contract manufacturers, et al do not sell to the general public. Often a website is only there to stroke the owners ego. McDonald's has many franchisees that do not have their own websites. Although Thrift and Dollar Stores, and Pawn shops, are up and coming in this depression most do not have websites. Two top parking lot chains (about $20 million/year and $10 million/year) in downtown Seattle have no websites. Per US Census, many SMBs are incorporated professionals (doctors, lawyers, other consultants) needing no website. In fact many of these are specific and work off referrals (c.f. marketing strategy). As I noted, larger Banks no longer offer Account Receivable (AR) or "bridge" loans to small businesses (delay between work/stock and payment).

Interesting.
Thank you Sandra.
Shane

My 5 centavos of key challenges for small business:
5#1 WHEN: Good cashflow is the wind that moves you forwards, my grandmother used to say you can `feel it in your waters´ Think of your business like a bucket of water, you can splash about in it and spill it or create strong movement in one direction, movement creates good energy and encouragement to a small business owner reminding them of their daily why. With a combination of all 4 points below you can control your when your cashflows
4#2 HOW: Focus. Sales ... no, Service. No, Ideas. Ah.. Marketing is ideas in action or know-how to laser focus on the areas of your business that serve your customers best to create cashflow
#3 WHO: You now know how to find whos looking for your what and need to develop a relationship with them, so best to get someone in your corner who knows how to achieve this utilizing what you have. A strong WHAT and a WHY are powerful attractors and people will be eager to be associated with you and you can leverage this attraction often without spending any additional monies.
2#4 WHAT: Developing a uniqueness for your service or product. This is fundamental, and isnt just a cool logo and slogan/jingle. Once you know what you stand for it is easier to find who youre target market is and service them stand by them. Stop focusing on the what after you know your why and focus on your who
1#5 WHY: Maintaining a burning reason why you go in to the trenches every day, this is why business and marketing plans are essential. If it´s not written down it never happened and if you don´t know why, your customers won´t either

Interesting to note that the customer/client #3 is central to this cycle

Here's my top 5 based on what I see with my small business clients:

1. Cashflow. Despite the media hype, most small businesses have limited access to cash beyond personal financing and a lot of uncertainty regarding costs for healthcare and other expenses. It hinders growth and hiring.
2. Lack of consistent marketing. It can't be something you do periodically when 'revenue drops'. Better to do a few things consistently than a lot of things once in a while.
3. Lack of systems for all areas of the business. Most small businesses are too dependent on the business owner. Nothing is documented so it's difficult to delegate effectively, train new people or simply improve efficiency.
4. Lack of planning and goal setting. Without clear goals, everything looks like a priority to the busy small business owner. You don't need a 50 page business plan, but a simple 2-3 page action plan with clear, measurable goals and specific tasks to achieve them is a key to getting the results you want and need.
5. Niche, Niche, Niche. If you try to serve everyone, you end up serving no one. Niche your products and services for smaller groups so you understand their problems and effectively communicate the right solutions for them.

Totally disagree with you! You can't compare the established brands like McDonalds, etc. They're $Bn companies.

As a certified accountant and consultant myself, I didn't start out needing a website as I pounded the pavements and did direct mail, etc to build my biz.

As my business grew and I set up my consulting/coaching site, I started to get clients outside of my local area...even in the UK!

I get contacts on my sites often and sometime I pass on their info to those professionals that are still playing 'old-school' and can't grow their biz.

Here's the thing...as the world gets smaller, you are able to market to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Business is changing. The world is getting smaller and smaller. In my opinion, you must have a website.

A website also adds credibility and you are able to build your brand.

BTW I need a home office built and I went to a contractor's site to see his portfolio of projects he's completed.

@SandraBaptist