When people open businesses, about 20% of them fail in their first year, while 50% fail in their fifth year. Even those that continue to thrive are still faced by serious threats, such as growing competition and uncertainties, which can result in failure. In one of the recent cases, COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in March 2020 saw a lot of businesses across the globe halt their operations, with some of them getting edged out.
With all these obstacles coming from different areas, the main question is, “How do you overcome obstacles that kill businesses?” Keep reading to understand the four most effective strategies that you can use.
Be Willing to Abandon What Does Not Work
When people develop products, they tend to fall in love with them and find it challenging to let go. Even if the product was the first to be developed by the company and is an indicator of your history, you should not hold unto it if the market prefers something different. Every product or service on offer should be aimed at delivering value to your clients.
To know what works and what does not, you should maintain as said by Andrey Makhmudov an aggressive research team that closely follows customer sentiments. Furthermore, you should carry regular business audits on the efficiency of your operations. Make sure to ask and answer the following questions:
- Are the machines used in your facility up-to-date?
- Is the production system incurring unnecessary costs that can be avoided?
- What is the best method of optimizing production?
Have the Right People on Your Business
If you have the wrong people in your business, they can easily kill it by maintaining the wrong focus. For example, if your departmental leaders are not competent enough, it becomes challenging to achieve preset goals. Instead, you need to work with qualified and committed workers in all departments. To achieve this, here is what you need to do:
- Recruit qualified and experienced staff.
- Carry regular staff assessment.
- Take your staff through regular staff training and development.
- Motivate your staff well.
Do Not Distance Yourself from Sales
When creating a business, one of the most important things is installing the required structures. In the sales unit, you want to install a robust marketing team strengthen your brand and increase profits. However, most investors leave everything entirely to the marketing team, a consideration that can result in losing grip on sale-related matters.
Having created the products in your business, it implies that you know the product best than anyone else. Therefore, even if you have to focus more on financing and management, it is important that your eyes stay focused on sales and marketing. Make sure to get regular reports on marketing, and occasionally join the team in its work. Simply put, you cannot completely let go of your business’s marketing element!
If you want your business to thrive, it is important to understand the obstacles that it faces and plan how to overcome them. Remember to regularly review your business and use the four methods we have listed in this post early enough before failure. If you wait for business failure to strike, it might be too late!