After the Great Recession there are still some businesses that may be struggling and don’t know what to do about it. Here are a few ways to turn around a struggling business:
Upgrade: The rate of change nowadays seems to be accelerating at a pace that has not existed in the past. This includes technology, competition, lifestyles, behaviors, and preferences. Although business principals never change, everything else around us does. Questions to ask are:
- Is my service or product still relevant and in demand? A perfect example is Blockbuster and department stores.
- Are delivery methods of your product or service in sync with customer preferences, lifestyles, and behaviors? Another closely related question is, “How easy is it to do business with you?”
- Have demographics changed?
Your business may need to upgrade/change any of the following: location, technology, including website capabilities, payment processing, scheduling, and communications with customers, turnaround times, product and service offerings, the type of customer you are servicing, and so on.
Marketing: Marketing methods have changed dramatically over the last 10 years. Are you marketing your business to keep up with these changes? If you relied heavily on newspaper or phone book advertising in the past, then I would make a bet that it is not very effective anymore. Even businesses that serve very local customers need to have a strong Internet presence. The best products and services still need to get the word out. Rationally, they shouldn’t have to, but this is just not true.
Analyze and take action: Take a fresh look at your business and seriously consider hiring a consultant to point out your blind spots. Most likely you are not recognizing what needs to change or possibly you do but do not know how to go about making changes. The next step is to actually implement changes.
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