Tips for small businesses to navigate this 'hard environment'

Are you looking to start your own business? Maybe you already own a small business and are looking for tips to improve. Citizens President and Head of Business Banking Mark Valentino joins Wealth! to discuss his strategies for advancing small businesses.

Valentino acknowledges "it's been a very hard environment" for small business owners. He emphasizes that beyond anticipating the Federal Reserve to implement interest rate cuts, Americans are interested in how presidential candidates plan to adjust policies "to help improve the livelihood of small business owners." However, Valentino stresses that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump should not solely focus on new small business applicants but also consider the needs of the 33 million existing small businesses in the US.

In this economic climate, Valentino recommends small businesses create value for customers through loyalty programs and bundling products and services. Additionally, he highlights the importance of maintaining excellent customer service, urging businesses to prioritize this aspect of their operations.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

In less than two weeks, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates for the first time in four years.

But rates will still remain near historic highs, complicating the landscape for small businesses Looking to stay afloat here with tips for small business owners.

I'm joined by Mark Valentino, who is the president and head of business banking at Citizens.

Great to have you here with us.

Thanks, Brad.

It's great to be here.

What should small business owners really be taking into consideration with regard to this first rate cuts?

Uh, in four years that's anticipated.

Yeah, absolutely so, First of all, small business is a passion of ours at citizens.

So I'm I'm really happy to be talking about this, and I'm happy that small business has become more of a conversation right now.

We saw that VP Harris just started talking about small business.

Uh, in this past week, um, it's been a very hard environment, and I think what American consumers and American small businesses are really looking for right now, uh, as part of this whole rate cut is really policy.

What are these candidates going to talk to us about in terms of policy to help improve the livelihood of small business owners.

As we know, they employ almost 40% of the US economy, So a very important part of our overall economy is small business.

How effective do you believe?

And and we've heard from Vice President Harris, Democratic nominee Harris, as well about some potential incentives for small business owners, operators as well through funding that would ultimately help them perhaps navigate what is an uncertain macroeconomic environment as well.

How effective might those be?

II.

I think it's excellent.

I'm thrilled that she is talking about small business and rolling out some policies on this topic.

What I would also like to see happen is her talk about the 33 million existing small business owners right now in the US and the struggles that they're going through right now with inflation, high interest rates, putting food on the table for their families.

So I'd like to see a little bit more policy about existing business owners, not just new applicants.

What are the ways that you're seeing small business owners navigate through a consumer that's looking for value and and value hacking and looking for promotions?

That's gonna pressure profits for not just small businesses, but every business as well.

Listen, um, I have some principles at citizens that I talked to all of our colleagues about is part of our overall citizens credo.

Um, it's about colleagues, customers and communities.

And at citizens, we try to invest in all three of those areas in big ways.

If you're a small business, you don't wanna just fight on price.

You're not gonna win against the larger global national corporations.

You wanna create intrinsic value for your customers.

And you can do that by I'll give you a few tips, one enhancing your value proposition.

So, for example, instead of just talking about price points, can you build a loyalty programme?

Can you bundle products and services together to get customers to purchase more from you?

But I would say the overarching theme and this is something that we talk about in my business all the time is staying close to your customers and also customer service.

So we were just named the number one and overall customer satisfaction as a business bank at citizens in the 2024 annual Barlow Voice of the customer.

So that's customers rating US number one overall amongst top 10 banks.

I think that principle, though, of staying close to your customers and focusing on customer service is really important because we don't take that for granted either as a bank, and we know we can do a lot more for our customers around service.

So we keep at Citizens the customer, as our kind of guiding North star, and I think that can apply to any small business owner.

If the customers are guiding North Star, you're gonna have good relationships, and ultimately your business will thrive.

I like some of the other tips that you sent to us for people trying to start their own businesses as well.

In the current environment, do your homework, do your research, seek advice from trusted people with experience and be realistic but not discouraged.

Mark Valentino, who is the president and head of business banking over at Citizens.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks, Brad.

Pleasure to be here