SME stands for Small and Medium Enterprise. Although the standards for qualifying as an SME differ across countries, in Nigeria, the CBN defines an SME as a business with a turnover of less than a hundred million naira per annum and/or less than 300 employees. The PWC Nigerian SME Survey states that SMEs account for 96% of businesses and 84% of employment, and contribute 48% of Nigeria’s GDP.
The growth of SMEs would significantly affect the economy as they would not only contribute more to the nation’s GDP they would also reduce unemployment, but they cannot operate to their full potential on their own and consultants are the help they need.
What problems do SMEs juggle?
The day-to-day management of an SME is a tasking affair that leaves the owners and employees too busy to think innovatively and expand the business the way they have the potential to.
Customer Passion Point Limited has identified a range of areas that SMEs typically overlook or seem too busy to tackle. They are:
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Marketing:
For an SME, marketing could simply fall between managing one or more of the 4 P’s— Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Additionally, an SME could have stunted digital and social media marketing structures.
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Sales support
Businesses hit a snag in sales when they reach the maturity point in their life cycle. This is a delicate point that could lead to a sales decline if the right decisions are not made to boost sales. Sales support identifies and maximizes new markets and sales strategies.
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Channel development
This is a company’s effort to increase its sales through a particular distribution channel or combination of channels and deciding what new channels to explore can be time-consuming and overwhelming.
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Customer service:
How a business handles customer interactions, specifically, customer complaints can be a serious turning point for the business. That is why customer service can be an area that which an SME might encounter issues.
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Brand management:
Investopedia defines brand management as a function of marketing that uses techniques to improve the perceived value of a product line or brand. Managing the mundane parts of a business could overshadow the added things that make up brand management.
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Capacity development and training:
Training sharpens the existing skills and inaugurates new ones, and the combination can only result in the business’ development. Unfortunately, many SMEs do not invest in training, little do they know that the learnings from training and workshops will lead to improvements.
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Advisory services:
Whether it is the Human Resources, Finance, IT, or Legal departments, SMEs tend to overlook the in-depth development of these departments and might grow to a point that the status quo no longer works.
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Value creation and business development mentorship:
Sometimes SME owners might simply need a guiding hand. They might have ideas and even know ways to implement, them but might need a mentor to sign off on or tweak these ideas.
Here’s a solution:
American business executive, Jay Abraham once said: “You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence, and success. The problem is, you just don’t see them.”
One thing that can help an SME owner think innovatively, is a consultant.
A consultant is a person who provides professional or expert advice in a particular field of business to either an organization or an individual.
Why should an SME invest in a consultant?
Many people wonder why an SME owner would rather hire a consultant than figure out business issues internally. Here are the reasons that consultants are extremely beneficial:
Independent voice
: Consultants are independent, therefore, they provide an objective approach to solving dilemmas. They are not thinking about things from a personal point of view because they are not directly involved in any of the issues and thinking up solutions is a process that will not be affected by their involvement with the cause of the problem.
Specialized hand:
Consultants are hired solely based on their expertise in a certain area. Typically, a consultant has accumulated career and/or educational experience in their area of consultation, which enables them to apply their knowledge to a series of scenarios.
Unaffected by company politics or sentiments
A consultant’s independence also makes them less susceptible to internal politics, which reduces bias and increases the likelihood of an honest dissecting of the issues and the proffering of solutions.
Extra manpower
There are times that businesses have important issues to solve, but dealing with them would require employees to reprioritize their core responsibilities. A consultant would execute the heavy-lifting of the initial execution of change while employees can go about their existing responsibilities.
Less costly
In some situations, an in-house expert is more costly than hiring a consultant. A consultant will be present till your team has gotten a hang of implementing the agreed-upon solutions.
What next?
The need for a new perspective is a key reason that SMEs need consultants. That’s the “sight” Jay Abraham referenced in his quote above.
Customer Passion Point Limited is a firm that provides a variety of business solutions and SME consulting is one of them. Our team of youthful professionals has executed projects that have ignited sparks between our clients and their customers.
Click https://cppl.com.ng/free-consultation/ to book a free consultation with us today and take one step closer to looking at your business from a new perspective.
