When it comes to running a successful business, there are a number of business attributes that you need to watch out for as these, if not engaged with and executed properly, will slowly kill off any potential for success. A business venture that is floundering, is often one that does not have a business plan, has not created an environment for growth, and despite the owner’s best efforts, is not getting enough time and energy invested into it. Although there are a number of things that can actually kill a business, in this article, we are going to identify some factors that can contribute to this and give you some insight on what to do so that you can secure the extra footing that you need for your business to become successful. After all, knowledge is power and if you know how to identify slow business killers, you can stop them from completely dragging your business off the grid.
- You Have a Terrible Website Design or No Website At All: in this day and age, if you do not have an online presence, you are missing out on massive amounts of exposure. It is practically necessary to have a professional website up and running for your business regardless of what market or niche your business is in. Why? The internet provides customers with buying power, as it allows them to assess things like price point, quality, and reputation. This includes, checking out vendors online for their goods and services, reputation, testimonials, and pricing options. This means, that if you want your business to be part of the buying decision process, it must be highly visible and easily found on the web. A good website design has a modern design, is easy to navigate, has an online shopping cart feature, and a way to contact the owner.
- You Have Poor Customer Service: when a company is doing well in the realm of customer service, it is very easy to foster long-term clients through customer loyalty. This pays in the way of repeat business, referrals, and positive testimonials. If you have poor customer service, this results in a negative experience for your customer and often degrades and devalues your company as a whole, impacting the potential for future customers. If you are a smaller business, make sure to remain in contact with customers after each sale and respond to all inquiries.
- Your Pricing Is Too High: a lot of businesses will lose a lot of customers because they have inflexible and noncompetitive pricing on products and goods. This means that when a customer compares your pricing to another shop, the other shop will get the business if they have a better price. In addition to this, pricing that is too low will cause you to lose a profit. If you want to thrive, you need to have competitive pricing that takes into account the market and your competitors.
- Your Physical Store is in a Bad Location: if your business venture is using a brick and mortar location, do an assessment on the location. Are you in a desirable area and is it easy for customers to reach you? If your business depends on drive-by traffic or foot traffic and is not in a desirable area, your business is going to suffer greatly. Think about using signage for visibility and make it easier to access with proper ramps and directions.
- Your Marketing Strategy is Poor: if you are using the wrong platforms to market your business or are sending out the wrong message on the right platform, you are going to get limited results while still paying out a small fortune.
- You Lacked Enough Capital At Launch: having enough capital at launch is imperative for meeting financial obligations in those first few months. It is way easier to get a lender to provide you with $100,000 then it is to get $50,000 twice. If your lender thinks you have planned poorly, mismanaged the capital, or that your business isn’t viable, you could go under really quickly.
- You Are Not Managing Your Costs Correctly: anyone who goes into a business venture is looking to make a profit and to do that, you must make more in revenues then what you shell out in expenses. This sounds a lot easier to do then it actually is, as a business has numerous upfront and reoccurring expenses that must be maintained. To operate in a profit, get a handle on your costs and reduce them if necessary.
- You Haven’t Examined The Value You Provide Consumers: if your business venture launch goes smoothly on opening weekend but then slows down substantially, take a look at why this might be. Your pricing structure may be priced to high for the area you are in or you may have a lot of competition in the market. Make sure that what you are selling to the consumer comes with a high-value; meaning they get a lot out of what you are selling for a reasonable price.
- You Only Have a One-Off Revenue Model: use memberships, subscriptions, and service contracts to keep buyers coming in. A one-off revenue model will bring in revenue but you run the high risk of never having repeat buyers. This, in turn, makes your business unsustainable.
- Not Knowing The Competition: if you do not know who you are up against, then you will have an exceedingly hard time growing. Why? Failure to learn about what your competitors offer, how they work, and how they survive will limit you on providing something unique to your customer base.
Although it can be very frustrating seeing a business that is similar to yours, thriving in the marketplace, it actually is a common occurrence. Remember that every business will have its own challenges, successes, and growth and in so long as you take time to review all areas of your business carefully, you can stop from being negatively impacted by the above factors.
