Many of the sectors in which our SMEs compete are made up of a group of five or six companies, often subsidiaries of multinational groups (with some exceptions of large family businesses) that bring together more than half of the company's turnover and total profit. market, and a long list of hundreds of SMEs that are often almost anonymous after many years of operation, maintain modest, stagnant turnover, without dynamism, despite the enormous personal and patrimonial sacrifice that it entails for their owners to move them forward every day. And that is a problem, both for the competitiveness of the economy, and of course for the small owners of the SME base.
Among the most common, and true, reasons are financing difficulties and the amount of regulatory obstacles that our SMEs have to face every day to be able to operate in their sector.
However, there are other reasons more attributable to the businessman's own so-called "worldview" of his own activity. Among these other, more hidden, reasons that represent barriers or large loads that heel and prevent progress and growth are often found:
1. Absence of good management accounting, and confusion of personal assets with business assets. Sometimes looking for optimization or tax loopholes. In other cases due to a simple lack of training or will. The point is that quite a few companies operate without really knowing what their "real" profitability, or losses, are. And that prevents any strategic decision making about growth.
2. Lack of knowledge of their own gaming market. Customer acquisition is "already" complex enough, almost a miracle, without considering what my potential customer base is, or looking for a more systematic commercial function. The same thing happens with the competition, which is often only known by the occasions in which it has statistically lost an offer or a competition to another competitor.
3. Fear of losing control and "laziness" to professionalize it, to have a more formal government. The owner-manager manages himself in his area of comfort, it is an area that may be complex and with a certain disorder, but it is "my" area, there are no judges, no opinions, no competing visions. There the owner Administrator is the "king". What happens is that there are no new ideas, no critical thinking, and very often the worst, no ambition. The best result is to achieve the best of the last 5 years, whatever it was, and continue paying payroll, loans, suppliers, and take something home. It is a worldview of survival, fully justified by realities and difficulties, but with a high vital price and a high opportunity cost.
4. Lack of SME sectoral and industrial fabric that is technical, associative, and not political, not just another political satellite by and for politics, not for the entrepreneur and for business. Without that activism, without that interaction between SMEs, ambitious ideas and plans are very difficult to flourish.
5. Attachment to being essential, whether conscious or unconscious, which influences the view of the employee as a mere tactical resource. Of course this vision is based on the reality of how difficult it is to find truly motivated and generous collaborators, who are not contaminated by the old suspicion of company-employee. It is a vicious circle that is difficult to get out of without a renewal of vision about oneself and the company. Without a team that gives extra and genuine effort it is very difficult to do extraordinary things, and without doing extraordinary things it is very difficult to get out of the hole and grow profitably.
6. Lack of updated and adaptation training. In some cases, the training of the owner and administrator himself is still seen as something that "has already been done", when in reality (good) training must be something continuous and that one knows how to choose to adapt and ideally anticipate future needs.
We could continue the list, but it is enough to highlight the importance for the SME to raise its head and think differently. The strategy is basically what we will prioritize and do in the next 30 minutes, and at FEU DU NORD we are always alert to help whoever wants to get out of the long queue.