Running a business is rarely a smooth ride due to factors including changing economic conditions and the cut and thrust of your competitors.
One day your business may be producing astronomical profit and in three months your competitor could be thrashing you with the launch of their latest wonder product that flushes your sales down the toilet.
How do you create a resilient business that survives and prospers? Here are some tips:
Take care of your staff
You spend a great deal of money and time recruiting and training the right people for the right job. Losing them can be very expensive.
Create an atmosphere where the staff want to stay working for your company because they feel valued and feel they have an investment in the business doing well.
People get jobs and keep them because of their everyday feelings of wellbeing or discontent.
Have a personal sense of purpose about what you are doing in the business
People follow those who look as if they are going somewhere purposefully, not walking through life as if they have got heavy weights in their shoes.
Whether you make paper clips or are a brain surgeon, portray that what you and your business is doing is important and worthy.
Create a common vision for you and your customers and share it with them
Be very clear how you serve your customers and try and meet their every need in that area. Always be thinking of how you can add extra value. This doesn’t mean discounting – think of ways you can add something extra to the service you provide.
Let them know you are the ‘go to’ business in your industry. If you own the business you need to be its greatest sales person wherever you go and whatever you do.
Inspire your employees to be understand their importance in making the wheels go around and producing the service or product they customer needs. Make sure they feel worthy and appreciated.
Share your company’s vision with your customers and get them excited about how your business is excited about serving them.
Know your numbers
This includes regularly calculating your profits, stock, manufacturing and labour costs, quotas, performance figures, balance sheets, key performance indexes and how much overtime you can give the guy in packing so he can make his Christmas bonus.
It may not be exciting or ‘sexy’, but businesses succeed and fail on the diligence of bean counters.
Bills and wages must always be paid on time as people want to trade with businesses that are in the black. They don’t want to do business with bad debtors or late payers.
Guard your reputation carefully
Your profile and words need to be your bond.
If you say you are going to deliver on Wednesday morning at 8.00am, move heaven and earth to make that happen with a smile.
Remember, your competitor will always be waiting around the next corner to entice your customer instantly should they become unhappy with your services.
In difficult economic times regular customers and reputation mean the difference between profit and bankruptcy.
In profitable times you need to be cultivating your customers to remain your customers during the next downturn.
Building a resilient business is about being in the market for the long term or as long as that market exists and learning how to adjust to changing times and markets.
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