Advice For Businesses, running a successful business can be difficult, sometimes a business that for years has struggled to makes ends meet can finally experience a massive change in fortune and become hugely profitable. You might all of a sudden find yourself in a situation where old clients are referring new clients, new clients are taking notice and your staff can barely keep up with the influx of client-related tasks.
Here are some advice for businesses who find themselves in this type of situation and are wanting to continue to remain successful for the long haul.
Advice For Businesses:
Proceed With Caution
While you are in the midst of these periods of rapid growth, your business will need to hire quickly to keep up with the increasing workload, but it is important to be strategic about how you hire and when you hire. When deciding to take on new staff there are plenty of variables that must be considered. 20 percent of small businesses fail the first year, 30 percent fail within the second year, 50 percent fail within the fifth year of business and 70 percent fail by their tenth year of operating.
It is important to make sure that you hire carefully, making sure each new employee is inducted into the company culture. Introductions to existing employees are important when so many people are working remotely, and it is easy to feel disconnected. If face-to-face introductions are out of the question, video conferencing can be a fantastic alternative.
Study Why Other Businesses Have Failed
When wanting to boost your businesses chances of achieving long term success it is important to evaluate why so many businesses fail in the first place. Some of the most common reasons include; no demand for the product or service within the market, poor marketing, poor finances and management of money, poorly organised management team who fail to create a positive workplace environment for employees, burnout, legal problems and a lack of passion from employees.
This illustrates that miscalculating your target market and personal capabilities can be disastrous.
Entrepreneurs who choose not to conduct market research and overtime fail to adjust to the ever-evolving market challenges are setting themselves up for failure during periods of growth. A successful business can rebound quickly in the face of a bad hire, a poor product or misguided decision whether they are experiencing a lull or a growth period.
An example of not adjusting to the challenges of the market would include; the smart luggage manufacturer Bluesmart who shut down in 2018 after most major US airlines began requiring passengers to remove lithium-ion batteries from their checked luggage. Unfortunately, the company couldn’t rebound from the change because their product relied upon lithium-ion batteries to operate.
When you are growing as a business it is important to always put your customers first and be grateful for the support they give you. Never neglect your customers and make sure that you are doing your best to provide them with positive experiences. Regardless of how much focus you put into building your business and how much success you are achieving the happiest of your customers should always be your top priority. By keeping your customers happy they will not only continue to buy your products and use your services they are also likely to recommend you to their friends who in turn might become new customers. In comparison, by giving your customers a bad experience you will not only lose customers but bad word of mouth will prevent you from acquiring new customers.
Always Remain True To Your Core Values
The best way to make sure that you increase your chances of remaining successful in the long run is to retain your company’s core values, no matter how fast or slow your organization grows. A company’s core values are its roadmap to success and will steer the organization in the right direction, even if it means navigating some bumps along the way.
If you built your company’s reputation on top-notch customer service, then stay the course and make sure you continue to provide the same quality of goods or services that vaulted you to success.
Always make sure that you show your appreciation to people and customers who have been with you through the ups and downs of the company’s earliest days. Loyalty to those who helped you get where you are today is one of the keys to successful growth.
It is important to make sure you provide your employees with leadership and management training. In most cases employees don’t automatically know how to manage. This means that employers must invest in leadership training so when employees move into positions of authority they can learn how to properly manage other people.