(ARA) – Best practices – big corporations have been using the concept to make money for years. But what does the term “best practices” mean for a small business? And how do you arrive at the ones that make sense for your small business?

In a nutshell

Any idea, policy or strategy – from how you build and maintain your website to getting customers to pay you faster – that improves your company’s performance and helps grow your business can be considered a best practice.

Finding best practices for your small business can benefit it in a number of ways:

* You can reduce costs by learning from what has worked for others, rather than investing the time and money in generating, developing and testing everything on your own.

* You can improve your company’s performance by bringing in new ideas that inspire your team to strive for a higher standard or new goals.

* You can avoid making others’ mistakes, rather than going through the process of making those mistakes yourself.

Finding best practices

Some best practices have value for virtually every small business across a range of industries. For example, using online tools for billing and receiving payments, managing online marketing, and securing business insurance can simplify everyday operations for most businesses. Products like American Express OPEN’s suite of Business Apps – which includes AcceptPay, SearchManager, InsuranceEdge provided by BOLT (SM), and FX International Payments — helps streamline processes, reduce costs and improve performance.

Still, not every best practice that has worked for others in your industry – or outside it – will work for your business. To find best practices that make sense for your company:

* Evaluate what aspects of your business most need improvement. Is there a particular process or service that is costing you too much money? Perhaps you’re paying more than you think you should for business insurance that doesn’t cover everything you want it to. Maybe you need to improve your cash flow by getting clients to pay faster.

* Look for competitors, or other companies outside your industry, for whom your issue is not a problem – that means they’re probably doing something right. Or, seek out companies that have had a similar problem but resolved it.

* Seek information on small business owners you admire. You may find them in the business pages of your local newspaper, an industry journal or a mainstream business magazine. Read up on their stories and the paths they traveled to success. Evaluate whether their techniques could apply to your industry and business as well.

* Study business tactics for your industry in business journals, trade publications, blogs and community websites. Reading about what best practices work for others can help you foster innovation in your own company.

* After performing your competitive analysis and identifying new techniques, modify your processes accordingly. Set a timeline for implementing and benchmarking your new best practices.

* Pay attention to what others in your industry are doing to market their businesses digitally. Digital marketing is now an essential component of marketing any business, no matter how small or large. If you’re unsure of where to begin or how to manage your digital marketing efforts, get help. Online services like SearchManager from American Express OPEN, designed for small business owners, can help simplify search engine advertising.

Make sure you measure results. At the end of your test period for each best practice, you should see significant improvement in the issue you want addressed. If improvement doesn’t occur, re-examine your processes; they may need a slight tweak, or you may need to go back to the drawing board and find new ideas.