Every entrepreneur sets out with the goal to build a successful business, but all too often something happens to halter their progress and keep them from making their dreams come true.
What are the biggest differences between companies that survive their difficult first few years and ones that come to an abrupt end?
Some things are certainly out of a company’s control, but there are plenty of things you can do to increase your business’ chances of succeeding. Let’s discuss six of them.
What are the biggest differences between companies that survive their difficult first few years and ones that come to an abrupt end?
Some things are certainly out of a company’s control, but there are plenty of things you can do to increase your business’ chances of succeeding. Let’s discuss six of them.
Long-term Planning
It’s important to have money in the bank to pay your day-to-day expenses, but don’t let that fact keep you from looking a bit more long term, as well. Do your best to make sure that the activities you’re engaging in right now will lead to positive results in the future. It helps to use Fishbowl’s reports to help you plan for seasonal sales trends and other things that could affect your bottom line.Customer Focus
Do your customers have a positive experience with your products or services? If not, find out the cause of their frustration and work to resolve it. Keep in touch with customers through social media, customer service representatives, and other ways that make sense for your business. Engage your customers and give them reasons to keep coming back for more from you.Employee Retention
There are many ways you can encourage your employees to stay with you for a long time: Give them a stake in the company, base part of their pay on performance so their goals become aligned with the company’s, encourage friendships within teams, praise employees’ work often, empower them with new responsibilities, and don’t micromanage them but give them latitude to come up with creative solutions.Constant Innovation
The world keeps changing, so if you’re not innovating and keeping an eye on the competition, you could run into trouble down the road. This is where trusting your employees really leads to positive results. Listen to your employees’ advice on what they need in order to more effectively do their jobs, reward innovative behaviors, and carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of adopting new software and hardware.Perseverance
Everyone has a rough day every once in a while. Don’t expect everything you do to turn out perfectly or every day to bring some exciting new development. Sometimes you just have to soldier through hard times, slog through mundane tasks, and do other things that aren’t some romanticized version of what an entrepreneur does. Seemingly small efforts over a long enough period of time can lead to great results.Competitive Advantage
What do you do better than any other company? Do you beat your competitors on price, quality, speed, customer service, or customization? Whatever your competitive advantage is, you should focus on that area to differentiate your company from others in your industry. Fishbowl helps in every one of the six areas I’ve outlined above. It lets you:- Plan for future inventory needs.
- Empower employees to learn new skills and get more done.
- Keep popular products in stock so customers are never disappointed.
- Take advantage of the same advanced inventory management features that much larger corporations have.
- Make it through lean and fat years by trimming nonessential costs.
- Maximize efficiency in numerous business areas so you can focus on what you do best.