Will Your Business Survive?

You can spend millions of dollars on your premises, hire the best and brightest and offer a fantastic product and go out of business within six months.

You can spend nothing, hire whomever applies, offer the same thing as everyone else, yet be remarkably successful.

This is because a business depends on customers. Without Customers, you fail. Getting and keeping customers and clients is the ‘trick’.

You can pretty much get anyone to walk in, to get them to come back is the challenge.

Here’s how…

a) Walk your business through 

Take every step a potential customer or client would, to see if there are glitches.

For example, a life insurance company had no idea that their doctor was finding every other potential a ‘high risk’. This meant the potential customer declined taking a policy.

b) Get on the Floor 

See what your employees see and what a customer encounters.

Are your employees so busy with their personal lives they have no time to serve a customer? Are the steps from selection to purchase unnecessarily complicated? Are prices clearly marked?

c) Make Service the Product 

Potentials who encounter surly or unhelpful staff don’t come back. Those who have difficulty returning a product or getting it repaired go where such is simple. It is better to lose money on a product then to lose custom. Satisfied customers are your best advertisement.

d) Don’t fix what isn’t broken

Whether it is some old software which fulfills your needs,  a way of settling labour disputes, or a procedure which everyone knows, as long as it works, keep it.

“New” is only ‘better’ when what you have is not fulfilling requirements. As long as what you have or are doing is working for you, forget what the ‘other guy’ is doing.

e) Focus on the Product 

Too many companies have unnecessary ’staff meetings’ which disrupt the business, become fascinated by inessentials, or sacrifice a successful enterprise for some ‘branch’ or’ innovation’ or ‘process’ which becomes a nest of termites, eating away at the foundation. Sometimes the bulk of a businesses profits comes from renting space while the ‘actual’ enterprise is losing money.

Always remember what you are there for, what your product is.  Anything that interferes with selling the product, or if the company is only successful because of esoterics, be alert and take action.

Know where your money is coming from.

f) Dead Money 

Consider your product as ‘dead money’. The only way to have  ’live money’ is to sell products. A store full of items is a  ’money graveyard’, so your purpose is to continually clear the shelves. If something isn’t selling, find out why and get rid of it. Whether dropping the price, giving it away as a free gift with the purchase of another product, moving it to a more prominent position.

Always be aware of what you have in stock, how long it has been there, and find out why.

g) Don’t wait 

If your business is losing money, find out why and make changes. Don’t think business will ‘pick up’ if it’s been in the doldrums for awhile. Unless it is seasonal or there’s a temporary glitch, start downsizing and altering quickly.

During this sagging economy you have no ‘lee way’. Every day might be your last. Every possible way you can save money,  from shutting off the air conditioner/heater and opening windows, (or setting thermostats to no warmer than 68o in winter and no cooler than 78o in summer), to making everyone part time, (so as not to pay for a lunch hour and being able to change working hours without paying over time) has to be done.

Keep aware, it is better to close the business then lose it.