Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/976998
WEEKLY EDITION MAY 2, 2018 Small Business Report 2018…continued By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director This information may provide you with little comfort, but it does illustrate that the struggle to find good people is real. At present we know that finding qualified drivers is an ongoing struggle, and one that is not specific to portable sanitation. The American Trucking Association estimates the US is currently short about 120,000 qualified drivers – a situation that is expected to get worse instead of better in the next few years as shown in Figure 7. Using your small size to your advantage in hiring. Indeed says small businesses are getting better at competing for talent. For 37 percent of small businesses competition for employees comes down to money. These companies are offering higher wages to get the right candidate for their businesses. But not all small businesses can do this and for these organizations, it means being creative with the incentives they offer. Twenty-one percent of the employers responding to the Indeed survey said they offered advancement and mobility within the organization, while another 18 percent did it with generous vacation policies. According to Indeed's official company blog, small businesses have an advantage over their larger counterpart: their size. The blog added, "It's not easy to build a sense of community at work, but many job seekers today look for authentic human connections. A smaller business often results in a tighter-knit group of people, and just as the owners wear many hats, so too do the employees. This gives them the opportunity to work on projects that might fall outside their typical scope of work, allowing them to cultivate a variety of skills." There's also no magic as to where good staff can be found. In general, small businesses seeking talent are getting their best leads via word of mouth. Other small business challenges for 2018 and beyond. In addition to hiring, there are, of course, other things small business owners will need to work through in the coming few years. According to Investopedia, the biggest ones are: • Customer Dependence. If only a few key customers make up the majority of your income you are vulnerable to the ebbs and flows of their businesses. Diversifying your customer base is vital to growing a business, but it can be difficult, especially when the client in question pays well and on time. However, it is generally better for a business to have a diversified client base to pick up the slack when any single client quits paying. PAGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 Figure 7