During this period of uncertainty with the dark clouds of BREXIT still hanging over our heads, how do you ensure your business longevity?
If you are gearing up to start a business, or you are a business owner who’s recently opened your doors, there’s a lot of uncertainty ahead of you. Everyone whom you’ve told about your idea has probably (rather unhelpfully) mentioned what percentage of small businesses fail.
And the data doesn’t make pretty reading…
20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 30% of small business fail in their second year, and 50% of small businesses fail after five years in business.
And it doesn’t get any better for those business owners who make it beyond the five-year mark because 70% of small business owners fail in their 10th year in business.
This past weekend, my partner and I were talking about our neighbour (she’s 103 years young) who has just moved into a nursing home and it got me thinking about business longevity.
I figured it would, therefore, be apt to look at strategies to help you ensure your business’s longevity.
Although there are no guarantees on the survival of your business (nor that your business will reach 103 — but who knows!!), there are steps that can assist your company’s staying power.
- Become a visionary.
- Motivate your team to share your vision.
- Build a strong business model.
- Create an adaptable business strategy.
- Know your numbers.
- Have a strong support network.
- Providing a consistent level of quality to clients and members
- Stay consistent and flexible.
- And, most important, never stop learning.
Let’s drill into each of these in a little more detail…
1. Having a Clear Vision
This is the foundation of your business. Before you can grow, it is important to have a clear vision of your future and the expectations of your business and put this down in writing.
Questions to ask yourself would be…
- what type of business model will I follow?
- Where do I wish to be in 5 years?
- How large a business do I want?
- What’s my exit strategy?
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2. Motivate your team to share your vision
Strive to be the best leader you can be. A true leader develops a management style that generates trust whilst providing consistent motivation to their team members assisting in their growth and development in the roles they perform. They then see their position as a career instead of a job.
Take time to hire the right individuals and look for people with a commitment to succeed, then make them loyal members of your team. These people will have the drive and passion to want to make the business work knowing that everyone will be rewarded.
The number one criteria should be that they have a great personality, have a passion for fitness and are good with people. You can teach them the rest.
Once they’ve joined your team, you need to keep them motivated.
Make them feel that they are directly responsible for the company’s success and that they are able to share in that success. One way to do this is to implement a profit-sharing program.
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3. Build a strong business model
Does your business model reflect the goals of your company?
Have a look at the services you offer to your clients — are there too many options?
If so, look to simplify things. Having the right business model in place can help grow your business to where you want it to be and in turn help to secure your business longevity.
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4. Create an adaptable business strategy
In order for your business strategy to succeed, you need to follow the market. You must be flexible and willing to change.
From the way you price your product to the way you bring on new team members to the state of the economy, these factors should guide your business strategy.
Do you listen to your clients, then modify your product to meet their needs?
Do you see an untapped market that might be able to use your product?
Could your marketing approach be off, or is there a better way to make sales?
Little changes can make a big difference.
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5. Knowing your numbers
Understanding your company’s finances means doing more than just monitoring your cash flow. One of the biggest problems startup companies face is running out of cash.
To keep on top of your business, analyze your financials every month.
Determine which products and services are making money, which are not, which cost the most money to make and which provide the least amount of margin.
Watch your payroll. Review your monthly reports. Be aware of your cash flow at all times.
You can’t have a business if you don’t have any money.
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6. Having a strong support network
Surround yourself with a loyal and strong team and competent advisors. Acknowledge your strengths, then find others who complement them.
Identify your weaknesses, then find people who can compensate.
Advisors will help you face hard decisions, as well as provide advice, input and encouragement.
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7. Providing a consistent level of quality to clients and members
It is imperative to provide clients with the highest quality of service or product that you can.
If you try to get away with providing substandard work, you will be discovered, sabotaging your company’s chances for longevity.
Businesses survive when owners provide clients with quality service. Those are the companies that clients come back to and talk about.
Ask yourself if your services are consistent. To go a step further, owners who care about quality service care about in-house quality, as well.
That means hiring the right people and then treating them well. Staff turnover is one way to gauge consistency.
Chances are good that if you have high turnover, your clients are receiving inconsistent service.
Clients can tell when employees are satisfied with their jobs — and when they’re not.
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8. Stay consistent and flexible
Flexibility means realizing that you don’t have all the answers. It means learning how to delegate authority to those in your team you trusted enough to hire.
And it means analyzing your numbers so you can make the difficult decisions that will drive your company forward.
No matter how good a plan or system is today, unless you keep updating it, it will become old very fast.
The market is changing constantly.
To succeed, and to stand a chance of having business longevity, your business must change with it. Be open to new ideas and different ways of doing things.
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9. Never stop learning
There’s no way to truly master any craft without always looking for ways to improve; learning and applying new skills is the ultimate self-improvement.
As a business owner, it is important for you to strive to constantly educate yourself both on technical aspects but also on the business side of things too.
When we stop trying to better ourselves and learn new things, we essentially stop striving for our goals.
The success of your company depends upon your ability to gain knowledge from your every experience.
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Key Points To Consider:
In basic terms, the longevity of your business owes to offering products or services that continually satisfy customer demand, as well as nuanced growth strategies and a close understanding of the competitive marketplace. This can be easier said than done.
To experience lasting growth and prosperity, you must be able to adapt to market changes and the disruptive emergence of a competitor’s products or services.
In a nutshell, your business longevity hinges, in part, on how well your business adjusts to evolving customer demand and a dynamic marketplace.
Understanding these changes can help you determine how best to satisfy your customers while outmaneuvering your competition.
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
Building a company with staying power is no easy feat. It is important for you as a business owner to learn the factors that determine a business’ ability to adapt and prosper long term.
Ultimately, the factors and decisions that impact your business’s longevity are so numerous that it is probably best to look to seek support from a trusted advisor who had specialised knowledge and services to help you and your team adapt to change, mitigate risk and make critical strategic decisions.
