What is success for a small business owner? Take a look this this free research report provided by Infusionsoft & Emergent, which uncovers: - How small business owners define success - Challenges to small business success - Overcoming challenges through technology and coaching - And more! For more small business insights and ideas delivered to your inbox weekly, subscribe at http://pages.infusionsoft.com/learn

1. How Small Businesses
Define and Achieve Success

2. How do you define success? If you are a
candidate, it’s the number of votes. If you
are a student, it’s a passing grade. But for
a small business owner, well, that’s never
clearly been defined.
To a small business owner, success could
mean a double digit growth rate, opening
a second location, taking a vacation or
simply just making payroll. There is no
one single answer. Or is there?
Infusionsoft, a sales and marketing
automation software company committed
to driving small business success, and
Emergent Research, a global research
and consulting firm focusing on small
businesses, teamed up to find out.
2
Methodology 3
How small business owners
define success 5
Challenges to small
business success 9
Overcoming challenges through technology 14
Overcoming challenges through coaching 18
Conclusions and recommendation
for small business owners 22

3. METHODOLOGY

4. Stages of Small Business
Emergent Research built
on prior Infusionsoft
survey data designed to
identify five common
stages of business
growth. The study uses
the stages segmentation
model shown in the chart
to the right throughout.
4

5. HOW SMALL BUSINESS
OWNERS DEFINE SUCCESS

6. Money Doesn’t Define
Success…But
Small business owners don’t define
success by just financial rewards.
They put greater emphasis on non-financial
measures of success, such as:
• Ability to do work they enjoy
• Being the boss
• Work flexibility
• Freedom and control
• Having a positive impact on their
employees, customers and
community
6

7. Money Doesn’t Define
Success…But
BUT, small business
owners still
understand achieving
non-financial goals
usually requires
financial success.
94% 65%
94% surveyed have
specific financial goals
65% are confident they’ll
achieve them
7

8. More Than Growth for Growth’s Sake
Most small business owners are neither
inspired, nor driven, to build large empires.
• Time and effort required to build a big business
would conflict with their personal definitions of
success.
All surveyed report planning to growth their
business, yet only 12% of those surveyed
expressed desire to build a large business
with more than 50 employees.
Most small
business
owners are
neither inspired,
nor driven, to
build large
empires.
8

9. CHALLENGES TO SMALL
BUSINESS SUCCESS

10. Challenges to Small Business
Success
Small businesses, regardless of industry and size, share similar challenges.
The top three are:
Time to get
everything
done
Finding and
retaining qualified
employees
Generating leads
and turning them
into customers
10

11. A Deeper Look
For small businesses in the first two stages of growth, hiring the
first employee is challenging and intimidating. This presents a
challenge because they are now being responsible for
managing an employee and meeting payroll.
Stage 1 to 2
11

12. A Deeper Look
For small businesses in the third
and fourth stages of growth and
with 10 or more employees,
owners typically need to hire and
train a supervisor, manage
multiple teams and delegate
authority. They also require more
sophisticated processes and tech,
forcing them to adjust their
business model.
Stage 3 to 4
12

13. Two ways of overcoming business
challenges and achieving success
stood out: through technology
and coaching.

14. OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

15. Overcoming challenges through technology
Technology saves time
for small businesses and
their employees.
15

16. Technology enables business
owners to have a dispersed
workforce through the cloud.
• Only 37% of small businesses in
the U.S. use cloud technology, but
that’s changing. By 2020, 78% of
small business will have
transitioned to the cloud.
Overcoming challenges through technology
16

17. Technology enables automation and opens
the door for rich analytics.
• Almost all surveyed reported automaton allows
them to “do more with less”, hire fewer
employees and save time. They also felt it led to
a significant competitive advantage relative to
their less automated competition.
• Almost all surveyed had key performance metrics
and used analytical software to monitor and
manage against these metrics.
Overcoming challenges through technology
17

18. OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
THROUGH COACHING

19. Small business owners heavily rely
on paid coaches, consultants and
training programs for overcoming
challenges.
• Almost all surveyed reported
using one or more of these
knowledge-building resources.
• Stage 3 businesses are most
likely to use these resources –
likely due to high hurdles moving
from Stage 3 to 4.
Overcoming challenges through coaching
19

20. Several factors driving use of coaches:
Overcoming challenges through coaching
Increasing business
complexity and rapid pace
of change
Lack of time to “learn
while doing” or the
margin of error to “learn
by making mistakes”
Growing use and
importance of technology
is hard for business
owners who lack the skills
20

21. Most owners interviewed also used
coaches and unpaid mentors to improve
management and leadership skills and
work through difficult business problems
and decisions.
• They also mentioned often turning to
unpaid mentors and coaches for
emotional support, especially when faced
with difficult decisions.
21
Overcoming challenges through coaching

22. CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

23. Small business success isn’t
easy, and if anything, it is getting
harder due to increasing
complexity and pace of change.
Here are four things you can do.

24. Small Business Recommendations
Define success in your own terms and in
ways supporting your broader life goals.
1
24

25. Small Business Recommendations
Understand that as your business moves
through stages of growth, your challenges
will change. Also recognize these new
challenges will require changes in how you
manage your business.2
25

26. Small Business Recommendations
Don’t be afraid to get help. Successful
small business owners see help as a
way to improve themselves and their
competitiveness.
3
26

27. Small Business Recommendations
Technology is playing an increasingly
important role. Successful small
businesses are using technology to
gain competitive advantage, and you
don’t want to be left behind!4
27