The Top 4 Pain Points for Small Businesses

The team at Forbes.com recently compiled a set of statistics that underscores the enormous role that small businesses play in the nation’s economy. Among the most eye-opening small business statistics of 2024:

• According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 99.9% of all U.S. businesses fit the definition of a small business. • Nearly 46% of all U.S. employees are employed by a small business. This is made even more remarkable by the fact that more than 80% of all small businesses are sole proprietorships without any employees. • Small businesses have added approximately 13 million jobs nationwide in the past 25 years — roughly two-thirds of all new jobs added to the economy during that time.

However, operating a business comes with a unique set of challenges that larger, more heavily resourced businesses are better equipped to resolve. Time and again, surveys of small business owners show the same core issues rising to the top of the list. Here they are, the top four pain points facing small businesses today.

1. Maintaining Regulatory Compliance

In an analysis of survey data dating back to 1973, Forbes determined that “regulatory compliance” is the second-biggest concern of small businesses year over year. The top challenge is “taxes,” which is essentially another set of regulations with which a small business must comply.

Whether it’s the IRS, OSHA, EPA, DOL or someone else, government agencies all seek to enforce regulations that benefit society in important ways. However, compliance with those regulations comes at a very real cost to a business. For a small business, the cost to comply with government regulations is typically much higher on a per-employee basis than it is for a large corporation.

2. Scaling Up and Streamlining Business Processes

Amazon was founded in a garage. Nike originally operated out of the trunk of a car. Coca-Cola traces its roots to a drugstore in Atlanta. All large businesses of today were once small businesses and all of them needed to scale up the size of their operations as they grew.

Scaling up also entails implementing more mature business processes. Whether it’s replacing manual labor with automation, outsourcing non-core business activities or some other priority, the road to maturity for a small business invariably involves looking outside for trusted partners who possess special expertise in that area of need.

3. Marketing and Brand Awareness

While word of mouth can help fuel the initial success of a small business, ongoing growth requires a focused marketing effort and that costs money. Small Business Trends suggests that small businesses should expect to spend between 7% and 10% of annual gross revenue on marketing.

Of course, few small businesses can afford to invest that much in marketing without feeling the pain in other places. One way of stretching any marketing budget is to seek low-cost methods of keeping the business name in front of customers for an extended period of time. Whereas a search engine ad disappears into the ether in a matter of days, printed marketing materials can offer more cost-effective and longer-lived brand exposure for a small business.

4. Fraud Losses

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) says depository institutions filed 528,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to check fraud in 2023. Sadly, it’s an especially painful — and common — problem for small businesses.

The 2024 Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report issued by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) notes that 80% of organizations experienced payments fraud in 2023.

For businesses with fewer than 100 employees, the Association of Fraud Examiners pegs the median fraud loss at $150,000. Interestingly, the median loss among large businesses was “only” $100,000. This reinforces the fact that small businesses generally have fewer resources available to protect themselves from fraud losses.

Easing the Pain for Small Businesses

Shop Taylor is the direct sales arm of Taylor Corporation, one of the largest print solutions companies in North America. Small businesses can order printed business products that address each of the pain points described here including:

• Tax forms and medical forms that help ensure your business remains compliant with the latest regulations.

• Custom business forms that can be ordered in quantities large or small — and then delivered quickly — to help you scale up for rapid growth.

• Custom brochures, yard signs, door hangers and other marketing materials that cost-effectively put your brand in front of current and prospective customers.

• Secure business checks that incorporate many of the same security features the nation’s leading financial institutions rely on each day.

All four of the top pain points facing small businesses today can be minimized through thoughtful ordering of printed business products like these. Follow the links above to learn more.

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