Why Your Business is Tanking

by ​Susan Ranford, Guest Contributor
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Building a business is never an easy task and maintaining its success adds additional difficulties. Even for the most business savvy amongst us, trying to keep your company afloat can be incredibly challenging. With the unpredictability of life and the economy, it may be years before your see any real benefit from your business, and in the meantime, you may find out your business isn’t doing as well as you had hoped.

Why your business isn’t doing as well as you had hoped.

A Business Gone Bad
It’s a reality many business owners have to face—a business just isn’t working. Despite your best efforts, preparation, and planning, sometimes a business takes a turn for the worse. If you find that your business is tanking, take a minute to read through ways to understand what’s gone wrong and figure out how to fix it.

Your Marketing Misses the Mark
Even if your business offers incredible products or services, if no one knows about your business, it will fail. This is why it is so important to invest in successful marketing. If your business has been muddling along without the right marketing, now is the time to develop a new strategy. Without a constant influx of new customers and new revenue, your business’ demise is a guarantee.

To fix your marketing mistakes, simply begin marketing properly. Try consulting with a marketing firm, reading articles and books, and using social media more aggressively. Developing a new, fully formed plan to market your company is the best chance you have to turnaround your business.

You are Disconnected from your Customers
Oftentimes, business owners have a perception of their ideal audience, but don’t really understand who their customers actually are. Your business will never be successful with your target demographic if you fail to fully understand their needs. Fixing this disconnect will take intentional action into researching your consumers and the market. This can take the form of using surveys, hosting outreach events, and asking consumers their reviews of your business.

You Avoid Social Media and SEO
Social media is hardly a phase or a fad. Failing to take full advantage of the world of social media is paramount to the kiss of death for your business. A business without a presence on the Internet or on social has no chance in today’s world.

Many companies are turning to automation and sophisticated software to ensure that their social media presence and campaigns are effective. This is a great way to streamline your social media strategies get your business where it needs to be. You may also want to spend time researching SEO tactics yourself to gain a better understanding of how social media affects your ROI.

You Micromanage Your Business
Running a business does involve a lot of management and figuring things out on your own. However, taking on every aspect of running a business without taking the time to outsource work is something that will only hurt your business in the end.

Not everyone is good at everything and it is important to recognize these strengths and weaknesses. Do everything that you can do well, but get professional help for everything else. This means focusing on hiring the right talent to build up your company.

You Don’t Respond Well to Growth
Business owners all dream of overnight success, however, making it big in such a short period of time isn’t always easy to handle. In a situation with rapid growth, your business may not be ready to handle the flood of sales, calls, and interest from the public. Scaling up should always spell success for your company, not disaster.

In order to keep your business prepared for growth, it is important to develop a plan for hiring, training, and managing traffic, calls, and customer service. You should also keep up with the several changes in technology to stay ahead of other competition. For example if you accounts payable department isn’t working efficiently, implement technology to change that. If you’re generally not making as much money as you should, find out where you’re leaking money. Usually, it’ll be an easy fix.

You Aren’t Business Savvy
Business owners don’t need to earn an MBA in order to run their company, but it is necessary to have the knowledge of how to run a business. The fastest way to tank your business is to have a complete disregard for being business savvy. Without an understanding of sales, leadership, marketing, management, and finances, your business doesn’t have much of a chance.

Take time to learn the ins and outs of running a business by taking classes, getting a mentor, and spending time researching successful business strategies. If knowledge is the only thing that stands between your business and a failed idea, do your best to learn as much as you can right now.

Your business doesn’t have to fail, and if it is headed down that path, you can turn things around. Begin making changes today to change the course of your business for the future. In business, and in life, there is always room for growth—don’t be afraid to take the next step to better yourself and your business.
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