Is your business slow?
It’s very normal to see ups and downs in business, some months are good, some are great and some are extremely bad.
There are numerous reasons for it, what’s important is to differentiate between the normal ups and downs as against permanent deterioration of business.
Its alarming when you notice a consistent downtrend. Here are a few points which will differentiate the temporary vs permanent downfalls in business.
- Few months might be bad, but Is your average yearly sales growing gradually every year?
- Is the overall demand trend for your products / services falling? I.e With Cds coming into market, floppies went obsolete, DVDs overtook Cds, Blu Rays overtook DVDs and Pen drives overtook everything else. So if you are selling cds, dvds or blu rays, it’s time you change your product line as future is bad for your business
- Is there are growing competition in your products / services? It’s very important to realize the nature of your business, if it’s a business anyone can do and the products you deal in are common products easily available everywhere, that’s a very competitive field to be in. If the same product you sell is available everywhere, you need to be cautious about your marketing channels, network distributions etc. You are in a business which any competition can overtake you in no time.
- Ask a simple question, what is my business usp? Why will consumer A buy from me and not from a different seller? If you have a concrete answer to this question, you are in a good position. Unless you have anything special to provide in addition to your competition, you will be in trouble sooner or later. A great example is amazon, there are a lot of marketplaces like amazon on the internet but amazon is the preferred one for everyone for the very reason of trust, after sales support, return policies, quality assurance, ease of buying, and ease of refunding. Give something special above your competition may it be personal touch, great support, quality assurance etc.
- Are you a manufacturer or trader? If you are a manufacturer, it is very important to invest in research, market trends, changing preferences etc. Being ahead a few years will only help you survive, it’s very important to anticipate, study, research future trends to avoid a sudden shut down of demand. If you are a trader, are you dealing with one product or multiple, dealing in multiple product distributes the risk due to one product line being affected, the second can compensate the loss
Being successful in business is easy if done right. What’s right is subjective for every business. If you realize that the future demand is falling and will continue to fall due to factors, start acting now. Google started with the search business and today its over the internet in every business possible. Nokia, motorola didn’t predict the android wave and had to shut down. If you see someone more powerful than you taking over your market share and you aren’t able to compete them, the best bet is to sell of your business when you are still there or start a new product line.
These are my personal views and may be applied only if you find them useful.
Wish you Luck!