Pressure Points
On the surface, things may look stable. But behind the headlines, many small businesses are tightening spending, delaying decisions, and preparing for a more uncertain road ahead.
Small businesses have more tools available than ever before—but that hasn’t necessarily translated into growth. In many cases, the problem isn’t a lack of technology—it’s how those tools are being used, integrated, and prioritized.
I spoke with Patricia Rollins, Executive Director, Marketing at Thryv, about the biggest growth bottlenecks small businesses are facing right now—and how to overcome them.
Rieva Lesonsky: Small businesses have more tools available than ever—but many still struggle to turn those tools into real growth. What’s getting in the way?
Patricia Rollins: More doesn’t always mean better. Selecting the right growth tools for your business starts with setting your priorities.
Four of the most common growth failures that small businesses can experience:
- Failing to appear prominently in online searches
- Failing to prioritize the right leads
- Failing to follow up quickly
- Failing to convert quality prospects into paying customers.
Select tech tools that will help overcome these challenges, and you will be set up for success. I also suggest checking the level of support and training you will have access to with your tech vendor. If you don’t engage with the new tool within the first few days or weeks, you’re more likely to abandon it altogether, despite paying for it.
So, make sure you’re properly supported throughout the onboarding process so you can get that tech working for you as quickly as possible.
Lesonsky: “Scalable growth” is a phrase we hear often, but it can mean different things to different businesses. What does it actually look like for a small business today?
Rollins: Scalable growth is the ability to increase customers and revenue while keeping costs and complexity under control. That’s why automating repeatable marketing and sales tasks is so important to achieving scalable growth. Not only do you have fewer employees; you also have tighter margins.
Businesses that automate marketing and sales processes can achieve more consistent growth. You can automate the process of building a strong online presence across listing sites like Google and Yelp. And get automatic summaries of customer calls, forms, and chat interactions so your team all know what was discussed.
You can also use automation tools to trigger personalized follow-ups based on certain customer actions. AI-driven automations deliver consistent, immediate, and relevant sales interactions that are non-negotiable for achieving scalable growth.
Lesonsky: Many entrepreneurs are juggling multiple platforms for marketing, sales, and customer management. How is that fragmentation impacting their ability to grow?
Rollins: Fragmentation prohibits information flow. The valuable data your CRM is providing isn’t feeding into your marketing platform and informing your approach to creating your ICP (ideal customer profile), which helps you maximize your marketing spend. Data is gold that can inform all aspects of your business. An integrated platform paves a smooth path, eliminating the friction from fragmentation.
Lesonsky: AI is becoming a bigger part of how small businesses operate. Where are you seeing it make a meaningful difference—and where is it still overhyped?
Rollins: AI allows small businesses to become much more sophisticated marketers. AI and automation tools enable business owners to attract high-quality leads by creating beautiful, intuitive websites that capture visitor metrics such as time on page, clicks on CTAs, and more. And then use that information to automate targeted email, text, and social campaigns that convert hot prospects into customers. That’s how AI is helping drive meaningful small business growth.
But small business owners need to be careful. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype and commit to one-size-fits-all AI solutions. They won’t move the needle because they assume a certain level of data maturity and processes that many small businesses simply don’t yet have. Better to adopt tools designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.
Lesonsky: What are some of the most effective growth strategies you’re seeing small businesses use right now?
Rollins: Small businesses are embracing AI for growth. And that’s meaningful. Whether they’re using free tools like ChatGPT for promotional copy or leveling up with sales and marketing-specific AI tools, they are seeing results.
Take Ken Cook, founder and owner of The Prepared Group, a consulting firm specializing in marketing strategy and lead management. Since he started using a unified AI marketing tool to track and segment leads across multiple marketing channels by quality, he’s been able to grow his business. “We’ve gone from being just a week or two booked out to months booked out,” Ken told me.
Lesonsky: Small business owners are always balancing growth with limited time and resources. How can they prioritize what will actually move the needle?
Rollins: Prioritize your customers. Understand what they like about your business and what you might need to adjust to keep them coming back. Put the old adage “feedback is a gift” front and center. Include surveys in thank-you emails and ask your happy customers to leave reviews. You also need to read and respond to all reviews, especially the negative ones. Demonstrate that you value customer feedback and are willing to make changes to better accommodate customer needs.
This might sound like a lot of work, but there are AI reputation management software tools you can turn to for help. Thryv AI, for example, can monitor a business’s online reputation from one screen, replying to reviews, scanning ratings, and collecting that valuable feedback.
Lesonsky: What are some of the biggest mistakes small businesses are making when it comes to growth right now?
Rollins: They spend a lot of money on customer acquisition, only to drop the ball when it comes to converting leads into paying customers. And I get it. You’re so busy running the day-to-day of your business that things can fall through the cracks. But this is one area that no successful business can neglect.
Conversion is everything. Automation tools can help prevent your leads from falling into the dark abyss. For example, automated prospect follow-ups are triggered by real consumer actions such as website visits, calls, and text messages. This helps relevant messages reach prospective customers right away. And that’s so important. If you don’t respond quickly that prospect will just as quickly move on to a competitor who does.
Lesonsky: As tools and technology continue to evolve, what should small business owners be doing now to build a growth strategy that will hold up over time?
Rollins: Technology keeps changing at an incredible pace! Choose a reliable technology platform or tech partner that keeps you ahead of the curve and focuses on growth. To scale over time, invest in SMB-focused agile tech that equips you with the data you need to understand your customers, inform marketing and sales decisions, and maximize your budget.
Lesonsky: If a small business owner wants to grow but feels overwhelmed, what’s the first step they should take to start building momentum?
Rollins: To build momentum, sometimes you need to slow down. When you feel overwhelmed, the first step is to pause and identify one clear priority that will make the biggest difference right now.
From a growth perspective, that often means understanding where you are getting the most high-quality business leads (referrals, Google Business Page, Instagram, etc.), maximizing your resources on that channel, and ensuring you have an automated process in place to respond to every lead quickly.
By focusing on a single, high‑impact growth channel, you can create quick wins that help build clarity and confidence.
My Takeaway: What stands out here is that growth isn’t about having more tools—it’s about using the right ones, in the right way. For many small businesses, the biggest opportunity isn’t adding more technology, but simplifying and focusing on what actually drives results.
In a time when resources are tight, clarity—not complexity—is what moves the needle.
Rieva Lesonsky is the founder of Small Business Currents, a content company focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurship. You can find her on Twitter @Rieva, Bluesky @Rieva.bsky.social, and LinkedIn. Or email her at Rieva@SmallBusinessCurrents.com.
Photo courtesy Getty Images for Unsplash+
