8 Ways to Help Fix Your Struggling Small Business

Most small business owners I know are miserable—or on the verge of being so. There’s a lot of reasons why this might be true, but I believe there are 8 straightforward ways you can start to fix that if you relate.

Note that none of these things are guaranteeing overnight success. You will always have to work at it! You didn’t become a small business owner because it was easy, though (surely?!).

Here are my 8 ideas of how to make your small business fun again if you’re struggling to keep it together right now.

1. Stop Selling Your Cheapest Product

When you’re just starting out, you’ll do just about anything to make money with your small business. That’s fine and all, but sometimes what can happen is you fall into the trap of continuing to offer really cheap products when you’d rather be selling your higher profit services.

One of the easiest ways to deal with this is to stop selling your cheapest product. If you’ve got ongoing clients who buy it, find a way to phase them over to another comparable product. Work with them and demonstrate that, while you have to make difficult decisions for the health of your business, you’re still on their side and want to help them.

2. Stop Selling Your Most-Hated Service

It’s not a guarantee that your cheapest service and your most-hated service are the same thing. If they aren’t, also make an effort to stop selling this service.

We (as people) thrive when we do work that we love. When we’re working on stuff we hate (not even are just neutral about), it has a very alarming way of taking all of the wind out of your sails.

If you can’t stop selling your most-hated service altogether (maybe it’s an integral part of what you do), see if you can instead:

• Outsource it to someone else

• Minimize doing it

• Systematize / batch process it'

• Experiment with when you do it

• Experiment with how you do it

If none of those things work, I’d suggest a night of research on Google / with your peers on how to make this part better. There are all kinds of people—in every profession—giving away their knowledge for free on the internet. Search it out. Improve your life.

3. Get Real About Work-Life Balance

When the business entirely rests on you, then the business entirely rests on you. I get it! You gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet.

But most small business owners I’ve encountered are burning the candle at both ends. That’s fine for a season, but eventually it’s going to catch up to you and you are going to burn out (appreciate the candle pun being carried into the next sentence there?).

If you don’t have core hours of your life where you are completely unreachable from your job—where your cell phone + laptop are away and not easily checked—then you might be at risk for serious trouble.

There is more to life than work. Find things to do outside of work (maybe get another hobby).

Success can’t be defined as reaching all of your goals but being a shell of a human. If you aren’t going to get there in a healthy way, it’s not worth the journey. Period.

4. Have An Honest Conversation With Yourself About Your Job

Here’s something I wish I might’ve done earlier in my self-employed career as a wedding photographer: Stopped and asked myself, “Do I really enjoy this?”

The answer, if I was honest with myself, would’ve been “No.” While there were aspects of the job I really loved, the reality is I took my job so seriously that it stressed me out considerably. It was not abnormal for me to have a stressful week in the lead-up to a wedding gig on the weekend. It was also not abnormal for me to be feeling the pressure the entire wedding-day long. I shot a little over 100 weddings by the time I was done, and that was enough (I have some friends who could clock 100 weddings in less than 2 years. I shot for 10).

This isn’t true for every small business owner I know, but it is for many: If you’ve started a small business because you’re good at something (as opposed to enjoying that something), you’d better find a way to enjoy it quickly or it’s going to turn your life into misery.

The easiest way to enjoy a job you.. don’t enjoy is to get paid very well for it. If you don’t hit some financial goals after 3 years, it might be time to reconsider.

5. Ask “What What I Do if This Was Fun?”

This one sounds silly and simplistic, but it’s got more power than you’d think.

When you started this business, it was fun. You did things with more oomph because of it.

Take a second to stop and ask yourself, “How would I do things differently if this was actually fun?” You might find ways to make games out of boring tasks. How fast can you do that part-of-the-job-you-hate-but-needs-to-get-done? Can you beat your old record? Are you faster than a colleague?

Search for the fun. It’s there. You just might’ve forgotten about it.

6. Talk to a Peer Who’s Been Through It

Misery loves company, my friends. On top of that, we all have blindspots that we need someone else to help us see.

Talking to a peer who’s been through the same thing will let you vent about really niche things that no one else understands. It may also give you a huge confidence / energy boost to hear about how someone else overcame the exact same problems you’re experiencing.

If you don’t have a close enough peer who you know in real life, search the internet for some. Reddit is a great forum among many others for niche things.

Here’s what I guarantee you: Someone out there has gone through what you are going through. They’ve written about it on the internet. You just need to find them.

7. Take a Break

Wanna experience the biggest OUCHIE you’ll have all day?

You have an overinflated sense of how badly people need you.

Yep. I’ll get some ice for that burn (and get some for myself while I’m at it, because this one still hurts me).

Even if you are a business of one, you’re probably overdoing it because you think too highly of yourself. I’ll lose all my customers if I shut down the business for 2 weeks! You won’t. And you might not have a business to even contemplate doing so if you don’t take care of yourself first.

You cannot pour from an empty cup. Many business owners, after a while, have a pretty low level of fluid in their cup. Taking a break will help you fill yours up again. Make sure to leave your phone + laptop at home.

8. Raise Your Prices

This one’s at the end but it very well could be near the beginning as one of the first things you do.

You’re probably not charging as much as you could for what you do. It’s that simple.

Most small business owners I know (especially if you’re struggling) are humble and don’t want to charge anything other than a fair price for their work.

But also, most of the small business owners I know are better than they think they are, and are leaving money on the table.

Even if you only raise your rates 5% (although I’d suggest probably starting closer to 10% - 15%), this could be enough to show you “Hey - I can raise my prices and not lose all my business.” And that might be all that it takes.

If you’re in a position where you know that raising your rates even a small percentage is going to cost you the majority of your business, you might have deeper problems to address. If your clients are only choosing you because you are the absolute cheapest option available… that doesn’t sound like a sustainable business longterm.

In Conclusion

Business is hard. No doubt about it. But it doesn’t have to be miserable and you don’t have to struggle forever.

These are 8 actionable steps you can take right now to getting control back of your business.

Only thing stopping you is you.