Agile businesses seek new premises
A recent survey has highlighted the factors that make flexibility an important part of many successful small businesses.
American Express surveyed over 1,000 small business owners to find out how these individuals were managing during some rocky economic times.
The researchers found that a majority of firms had undergone some sort of dynamic shift to stay competitive - with 67 per cent indicating that they changed their core products or services since they commenced operations.
Nearly half of the owners who participated said that they had shifted their marketing efforts, changing tack to aim at more lucrative demographics as required.
A further 25 per cent indicated that the underlying structure of the business had undergone at least one revamp, changing suppliers, internal processes or premises to generate a sustainable advantage.
In some cases these changes came in the form of a refurbished office space to attract more customers - while other found that shifts in the commercial real estate market meant that moving was a more viable option.
Close to 100 of the participating business owners said that their current operations no longer represented the original image presented when the firm first started up - highlighting the important role that flexibility and innovation play to smaller firms in remaining profitable and competitive in the long term.
