We live in a day and age where progress and change happen rapidly. In order to keep up with these cutting edge innovations, and remain relevant, businesses must learn to adapt and build capacity. Both large and small businesses now understand that they must continually engage capacity building techniques in order to survive and thrive.
In today’s post, we take a look at five capacity building techniques small business owners can engage to grow their businesses and remain relevant in today’s business world.
What is Capacity Building?
Capacity building is a term that can be interpreted to mean several things. In our context, we will define this term by defining the word “capacity”.
What then is capacity? Capacity can be defined as the facility or power to produce, perform, or deploy. Therefore, we can say that capacity building is the process of obtaining, improving and retaining the facility or power of an individual or organization to produce, perform and deploy the necessary skills, knowledge, tools, and other resources needed to do their jobs competently and effectively.
Why Small Businesses need to Engage in Capacity Building
The need to constantly evaluate and improve is paramount for every business owner. It is necessary in order to remain operational and create a sustainable and effective organization. By this, we mean that every business has what it takes to grow, if given the right tools to do so. Capacity building ensures that businesses are equipped with the tools they need to grow and remain effective. Therefore, we see that the capacity to grow has nothing to do with a company’s size but with its commitment to continual building of its capacity to produce, perform and deploy its duties effectively
Here are some reasons why small businesses need to engage in capacity building:
- To develop new resources to perform business activities
- It is necessary to put available resources to the most effective use
- To maximize their strengths so as to achieve their goals
Building capacity as a small business involves various methods, strategies and techniques. Nevertheless, these activities are designed to make the business thrive, adaptive and successful in an ever changing environment.
Five Capacity Building techniques for Small Business Owners
In this section, we take a look at five capacity building techniques for small business owners:
- Strategic planning: This helps companies determine their vision for the future as well as identify the main goals and objectives of the organization. The process of strategic planning also involves establishing the sequence in which those goals should be pursued. This ensures that the organization is able to reach its vision. Please see the link here to find out about Vision Statements and how to write one.
- Networking opportunities: This involves building alliances with other organizations in your field. Networking is great for sharing ideas, knowledge and opportunities, which increase confidence and raise your company profile.
- Human resources: No matter how small a business is, it needs to develop its human resources. Doing this ensures that they can reach their potentials. This can be done by providing them with access to relevant resources, expert advice and team building activities. This helps teams connect and forms cohesion in the group and in turn builds your business.
- Self evaluation and Environmental evaluation: Doing this helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses and those of your competition. It also equips you with the internal resources to build a strategy that gives you an edge above your competition.
- Measuring what works: You should monitor your customer base and where they are coming from so you can determine if your approach is working. This way, strategies that do not work can be refined and those that do can be developed for greater profits.
Final Thoughts
Are you a Small Business owner? What techniques have you engaged to grow your business and build your company’s capacity? Or perhaps you are considering starting your own business. What ways do you plan to use to grow your company? We have a great post on ten profitable business ideas with low investments to try in 2019 if you are considering what small business to start. Regardless, please share your thoughts with us. We would love to hear from you, our readers.
As we conclude, we would like to share with you, an inspirational quote by the Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian Nationalist.
“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning”.
Whatever goals you have set up for your company, if you believe in them, you can achieve them. However, you will only achieve them by engaging capacity building techniques on a regular basis.
Today’s Funny Quote
As is our custom, we end today’s post with a funny quote by Bob Thaves, the Cartoonist
“Inside me there’s a thin person struggling to get out, but I can usually sedate him with four or five cupcakes”.
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Have a great week and see you again on Friday.
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