Lack of a clear plan, ineffective leadership, marketing effectiveness, Term Paper

Lack of a clear plan, ineffective leadership, marketing effectiveness, and lack of execution are common problems of a small business and how strategic planning can help avoid them - Term Paper Example Independent ownership implies sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or any other legal form (U.S. Small Business Administration, 2010). Irrespective of the industry, a small business operates in; it has been found that they suffer from largely the same types of problems. Small size of a business enterprise ensures that the management acts as a sharp cost controllers and active member of routine operations. This gives rise to many leadership related problems and loss of far-sighted visions. The discussion below further details the types of problems faced by small businesses. A major problem that infests a small business is ineffective leadership. Leadership, to be effective, should be influential enough for the employees so as to motivate them to work ethically and create values for their customers (Grenny, 2009). Most of the leaders today have no concrete idea of their work. They get involved in the hassles of routine instead of focussing on the long term goal of the business. The problem appears to more widespread in small businesses because the compulsion to save costs are higher. Hence, to cut down upon the number of employees, leaders end-up becoming a part of the operations instead of managing the operations. Also, leaders of such small businesses are often not trained scientifically and their decisions are the outcome of their experiences rather than established managerial practices. Another common problem among small businesses is lack of a clear plan (Harsberger, 2010). Lack of a plan results in short sightedness of the business and distracts the manager in aligning all the activities towards the common goal of the organization. Ultimately, non-essential activities result in wastage of cash resources which otherwise could be applied more usefully. There appears to be a direct correlation between the clarity of plan and the success of the business (Perry, 2001) Even if a business has proper marketing strategy and plan, the execution