There are more than 26 million businesses in the United States. Some small, some large, but mostly small. It’s difficult for all these small companies to stand out from the crowd and compete with one another, let alone compete with the few major corporations that literally have billions of dollars to throw away on whatever they want.

Small business owners need all the help they can get to be successful in whatever industry they are in. Although there aren’t an insane number of large corporations out there in the market, there is bound to be at least one within every industry. Even if you start a mom and pop store that sells only picture frames for little kid drawings and suckers, there is probably come multimillion dollar organization churning out hundreds of thousands of lollypop-flavored picture frames a second. It’s tough to compete.

Luckily, there are various things you can do as a small business owner to do just that.

Be Realistic With Your Goals

The first thing you need to do is realize that you’re never going to earn more than these billion dollar companies. You’re probably not going to put them out of business and — expect for truly innovative and brilliant ideas — you aren’t going to change industry procedures too much. But, if you set realistic goals and put together a succinct plan, you’ll have a much greater chance of achieving those goals.

Proposal Pricing Software

Unless you’re a math wizard, you’re probably not a fan of dealing with thousands of numbers and percentages and metrics and math. Pricing software is available for small business owners to utilize and track various outcomes when it comes to actually selling your product or service. If you think a certain price is too high, check out a pricing software program to track the outcome. There are government contract proposal software services available all over the country and can be used for just about any industry.

Don’t Underestimate Advertising

Large corporations can throw millions of dollars at their advertising budget in hopes of something sticking. Small businesses actually have an advantage in this department, although it may not seem like it. You don’t have the kind of money to fund these extravagant mega ad campaigns, so you have to get creative. Innovative, original and authentic ads often are much more successful than expensive ones.