If you have your own business then you may be wondering why it isn’t doing so well. You may already know that a high percentage of businesses will fail within the first five years of trading, this can be due to many different issues. If you don’t want to become another statistic in the world of failing businesses then take a look at the article below to find out how you can avoid it happening.
Funding
One of the most common reasons that businesses fail is due to running out of money. Having lack of funding means you won’t have enough money for all the things you need. When you first start your business you will need to write down a list of all the things you need the funding to cover. This could include things like employee salaries, rent, tech, and any other supplies you need. Once you have this list, including prices, give yourself some wiggle room. You will be thankful for this if any emergencies happen and your budget takes a hit. If you don’t have the money you need to hand then you will successfully need to apply for a business loan. The bank needs to know you are a safe lending option and able to make the repayments each month.
Not Having Experience
Another reason your business could be failing is due to you not having the right level of experience. Every business owner should have some knowledge of what it is like to run a business, otherwise they are just going in blind and playing the guessing game. If you have never run a business previously then it might be worth taking a management and leadership course to learn the basics. You don’t want to be in charge of managing everything in your business if you don’t know how. You could hire a business manager to handle everything like that on your behalf.
Poor Website
When your main office doors are shut there is one thing that will continue to run. Your website needs to be strong, stable, and able to handle lots of traffic without crashing. Your customers are more likely to be shopping on your website between the hours of 7pm and 10pm, so they don’t want to run into any issues that can’t be rectified. In an ideal world your customers won’t be more than three clicks away from the page or product they are looking for. If this happens they are more likely to take their money elsewhere, most likely your competitors. When the time comes to design your website you need to think about what makes life easier. This could be a search bar or a chatbot that is there to answer any questions or queries as soon as they crop up.
Lack Of Parking
Where is your business located? If you are in the middle of nowhere that can only be accessed by a car but you don’t have parking facilities then your customers won’t be able to stop. Many businesses these days overlook where their customers and clients are going to park. This is one of the main things that your customers will be thinking about before they turn up at your business. Before you start your business, check out different locations to see which ones would benefit both you, your business, and your customers. If there is room for a car park then this is even better, you may need to cordon off different areas to show they are yours. You can do this through the use of traffic cones.
Not Using Marketing Strategies
How is your business doing with customer numbers? If these are low then you aren’t bringing in enough money to make a profit. Profits mean you are more likely to pay back that business loan and be able to expand your company. Without them you are just managing paycheck to paycheck, which isn’t a great long term thing to be doing. Take a look at the current marketing strategies you are using, if they aren’t relevant to your company then look into changing it up a bit. For example, you don’t want to be using leafleting in different neighborhoods if you are solely based online. Using social media is one of the best forms of marketing you can do, this reaches a huge number of people and they will potentially turn into repeat customers.
We hope you found this article helpful and that it gave you some ideas on how you can improve your business and prevent it from failing. You will be met with hurdles along the way, it is how you cope with these and overcome them that says a lot about you as a business owner.
