Inside & Out: Finding Out Why Your Business Is Going Down The Tubes

You might feel you’ve done everything within your power to improve and the company. You’ve turned it into a more social business inside and out, and you’ve worked on the product, but the business is still, for some inexplicable reason, going down the tubes. It’s never nice to undertake an audit of this magnitude, but we need to establish some of the prudent reasons why a business can fail. Some are obvious, but some are not.

Scaling Up Too Quickly

Doing this too early can destroy the company. A lot of people find that they spend too much on the marketing, even before they’ve had an understanding of the product. If you try to grow up too fast, you will stunt your growth. What you should do is look at the areas that you want to spend money on, and ask yourself if it is worth your time. In terms of marketing, and specifically something like Search Engine Optimization, it is worth conducting an SEO audit, so that the content you create is more organic, and encourages more traffic to your website. You can scale up too quickly, and throw the kitchen sink at the process, but if you focus on more subtle, organic processes, especially in terms of marketing, you are able to put your money into the more crucial aspects.

Bad Leadership

A great leader knows what to do at any given moment in time. A poor leader makes poor decisions. Because a leader’s mistakes will filter down the ranks, the CEO will soon have a mutiny on their hands. Improving leadership skills isn’t just about knowing how to shout in the right tone of voice, but it’s about learning from your failures, and improving yourself. Bad leadership is something that we can all smell from a mile off.

Ignoring The Customers

Do you treat your customers as a priority? You may tell yourself you do, but many businesses that create a profit, especially at the beginning, tend to focus more on money than keeping the customer satisfied. You also need to look at how things change within your demographic. Your customers’ values may change, and you need to reflect this, not just in the marketing, or the products, but the customer service as well. The most simple way to get back in contact with your customers is to liaise with them. It’s never been easier than ever to go on social media and ask for open and honest feedback.

You Don’t Know What Sets You Apart

A lack of differentiation, even if you have a fantastic product, means that you will struggle to keep afloat. This is even more important when you have competitors providing the same service. Finding ways to set yourself apart can be done through the marketing but it’s about going back to those core values.

If you really don’t know why your business is going down the tubes, these are a few places to start. A business can fail for a multitude of reasons but if you take the time to investigate, inside and out, you can start to make changes for the benefit of everyone.