Small and midsize businesses continue to prove their resilience in the face of shaky global economic fundamentals. For the first half of 2024, a Statista survey of small business owners indicated that 30% of respondents agreed that their business was in ‘ very good health’, up 3 points from Q223. The positivity continues into 2025 with recent research from the US Chamber of Commerce suggesting that a whopping 84% of small business owners were expecting a better year than 2024. With the year coming a rapid close, we look ahead at business trends and operational priorities for SMBs to maximize opportunities in 2025.
Upskilling Increases Capabilities
Customer facing businesses know first hand the difficulty in hiring for entry level positions and elevating current team members may be the best strategy to drive performance. Upskilling and reskilling are ways small businesses can develop current staff and increase individual abilities.
- Upskilling refers to adding additional skills and processes and enable individuals to do different jobs and take on additional tasks
- Reskilling refers to refreshing existing skills or applying advanced techniques such as customer service and communication skills
Staff development not only increases the capabilities of the individual, it also elevates the worker’s experience and can reduce expensive turnover while increasing motivation and productivity. Upskilling and reskilling are high velocity and effective methods to drive performance of frontline teams and provide consistently high levels of customer service.
Spotlighting Digital Presence
Heading into 2025, small business marketing will take center stage as more consumers go online to research and purchase goods and services. The online presence of small businesses is essential to any marketing strategy and a detailed review can identify opportunities to maximize presence:
- Ensure websites are working and easy to use
- Check in and update social media profiles
- Enable other channels of communications for customers
- Engage with social media platforms and users
- Highlight and promote digital and online profiles to current customers
Establishing and maintaining an online presence is essential in today’s marketplace as more consumers are turning to websites, mobile apps and social media for shopping needs and brand research.
Focusing in on the Customer Experience
Competition in any selling space is fierce and brands look for ways to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. For 2025, the focus will fall back on the customer experience and how small businesses can really elevate and maximize each customer interaction. SMBs can use their smaller size as an advantage to evaluate the customer experience and discover potential opportunities to improve the engagement. Optimizing and elevating customer service processes and building a service first culture within the business will drive individual sales and customer loyalty, key factors that impact profitability of customer facing businesses. Quality customer experiences can also create more opportunities through positive reputational marketing and highly valuable word of mouth marketing originating from highly satisfied customers. Savvy small business owners and leaders will look at the experience through the customer’s lens to fully evaluate the experience and identify potential opportunities to maximize the interaction.
The Bottom line
Small and midsize business owners and leaders have a rosy outlook for the new year and that positive mindset continues to power the engine of most modern economies. With 2025 on the horizon and potentially a busy year ahead, SMBs can take a closer look at customers facing the business and identify opportunities to improve and maximize interactions. Smaller sized organizations have the distinct advantage of being able to pivot and shift quickly in a changing marketplace and SMBs can use their size to their advantage. Training, marketing and the overall customer experience are the SMB triple play that drives business and profitability. Owners and managers that focus and optimize these facets will see higher performance from their teams and more engaging customer experience resulting in positive residual effects on reputational marketing.