Every entrepreneur wants to see his business making profits and growth. But, the sober truth is--not all businesses flourish. Running a successful business is not at all an easy affair. In addition to the investment of time and money, business owners have to be ambitious, careful and able to take calculated risks for running a successful business.
Despite dedicated efforts, many businesses fail to gain momentum and eventually trail behind. And that is mainly due to the entrepreneurs being ignorant of the retarding forces that come into play while the business is in operation.
You need to negate the hindrances that drag your business so that your business not only grows but also surpasses your competitors.
So, what retarding forces operate to pull behind your business and what are the corresponding remedies? You will get the answers in the following:
#1 Not Engaging Your Customers
If you do not engage your customers with your business, their attraction towards your products and services will gradually fade over time. So, you need to engage them as much as possible for winning their brand loyalty.
Customer service is one of the good ways of engaging the customer. Leave behind a good impression while serving your customers will go a long way in strengthening the bond between you and the customers.
Recognizing and rewarding your loyal customers is another good way of engaging them with your business. Recognition is something everybody loves, and by leveraging that intrinsic urge you can grow your business.
Another good option of engaging your customers is to ask them about their feedback on your business offerings. They will feel valued.
Customer engagement also helps you to know about their demand as well as expectation. Not engaging your customers might prove fatal as that might lead you offering products and services below their expectations. In turn, your sales will shrink.
#2 Trying to Do Many Things by Yourself
Your business might become the victim of your urge to do everything on your own. When you engage yourself in multiple tasks, it keeps you away from the task that is very important for you to execute. Say, you are an expert software developer and you have opened a software firm. If instead of only looking after the software development team sincerely, you also do accounting and promote your firm on social media, you will eventually burn yourself out and at the end of the day, it is your business that will feel the pinch.
So, delegate the right person to do the right task, and ensure that things are done in the right ways.
#3 Lack of technology / Reliance on conventional methods
One of the key reasons for sluggish growth of any business is their in-competitiveness in terms of technology adoption.
Many companies keep on relying on outdated/legacy systems as compared to their peers which make them inefficient. For instance companies are moving towards cloud to enable remote working which provide them the bandwidth to hire from geographically wide talent pool.
However the cost involved in adopting technologies like cloud, AI, and big data is huge which is a key factor impeding their growth.
Now a days AI is being leveraged on a wider scale. Digital marketing is one such vertical where AI is bringing innovation by predicting the behaviour of the customers and delivering a personalized user experience. This has in turn opened a world of opportunities of the marketers.
Nevertheless the advantages of these technologies cannot be overlooked as the benefits are more than the cost involved. The efficiency and productivity increases multiple times and most of the manual works are automated.
#4 Yet to Differentiate Your Business
Are you offering products and services with features that are commonly found in the market? Are you yet to take initiatives to differentiate your business from your competitors simply because you are getting good sales?
If you do so, then chances are there that you will see your business getting customers as long as your competitors do not change their game-plans. One they change their strategies, offering customers more value for their money, you will see your sales dwindle and that would mean you will trail behind your competitors.
So, to avoid that unwanted eventuality, you should address your customers’ demands uniquely, appealing to them. It will entice consumers to choose your business offerings over those of your competitors.
#5 Focusing on Growth without Caring for Other Things
Growth is a universal aspiration of all businesses. When entrepreneurs see enough demand for their products and services, they tend to aggressively embark upon expanding their businesses. It at this point many businesses commit a big mistake. They tend to aggressively deploy all resources in their business expansion without caring for maintaining good quality in their existing products and services. As a result, the quality of their products and services drops, negatively impacting the sales.
Nevertheless, growth is important for all businesses. But, you should strategically plan things out before implementing your business expansion strategy. Get the additional resources beforehand and ensure that the quality of your existing products and services remains intact.
#6 Inability to Effectively Handle Extra Load
You might tend to paint a rosy picture for your business expansion. You might come under the belief that you need not do any hard word after your business grows beyond a certain point and money will flow in effortlessly. It is, however, a wrong notion. Situations are hard to combat after your business expands.
As your business grows, your responsibility will also increase. With the steady increase in workload post your business undergoing expansion, there might come a time when you would see that you are not at all prepared to handle the extra workload. Subsequently, you will find it difficult to even keep your business afloat, let alone garner profits.
So, to avoid such eventualities, strategically plan out your business expansion in terms of expenditure and effort requirements.