As the owner of a small or mid-sized business, you are the architect of your own success or failure. If you assemble the team and company structure wisely, it can handle itself somewhat autonomously. On the contrary, if you don’t spend enough strategizing the business’ structure and merely take the expedient route, you may find yourself wasting more energy than you need to on course correction.
Surviving in business takes focus, determination, foresight, and adaptability. Only 12% of Fortune 500 companies operating in 1955 survived to make it to 2016. The difference between these successes and failures consists of staying aware of changing surroundings and never letting important aspects of the business age into decrepitude.
This article will explore tips to ensure the strength and longevity of your business.
Hire Intelligently
Smart hiring practices have been linked to improved market share. Paying attention to the size of the workforce, and cultivating versatile personnel goes a long way in ensuring the strength and flexibility of your company.
To be able to hire the best employees, you need to stand out among the competing employers and offer something they don’t. Make your company the superior choice by showcasing a comfortable work environment paired with competitive pay and benefits. Thanks to technological innovation and willingness to embrace new technology by a younger workforce, working from home is a growing trend that many businesses are saving money with.
It’s great to have self-motivated employees who want to push themselves, but if too much of the pressure comes from you, it can facilitate a negative association with the job, and fan the flames of their discontent. If you make a note to feel out the emotional states of employees, it is often easy to tell if they are happy or stressed.
Prepare For The Worst
Understandably, many people are unable to bring themselves to consider a hypothetical scenario in which their business suffers a catastrophe. After all, thinking about it entails that you accept disaster as a possible reality. However, the reality is that adverse events are somewhat inevitable no matter what. As we enter an age of increasingly sophisticated technology, unfortunately so do cybercriminals.
That being said, the best way to safeguard your business from collapsing under pressure from an unplanned setback is via preventative measures. Make sure your company has a reliable backup and recovery system. This will minimize downtime and associated contingency costs as opposed to being forced to deal with the situation haphazardly on the fly.
Mind Your Online Presence
There was a time when merely having a website was sufficient for your business to stand its ground on the internet. That era is long gone; now, a compelling online presence necessitates a multi-tiered endeavor. You now need to have an aesthetically pleasing website, with extra points for a clean mobile format. In addition, social media should be part of your larger marketing strategy.
Social media platforms are clearly more than just a novelty at this point; they have demonstrated themselves as formidable means of communication between businesses and customers, and also possess an unprecedented potential to reach a larger market share.
Implementing a social media strategy costs little to nothing, and can put your brand in front of a limitless audience. As a hard and fast rule, the more someone sees your brand, the greater the likelihood of you winning preference. This is counter intuitive to many, who assume that incessant commercial time may breed distaste; however, research supports the notion that more is more when it comes to exposure.
Often times, the only things required to wield the power of social media are time and diligence. If you think you have the resources to hire an additional employee to handle the social media presences, you’re likely doing yourself a favor. Keeping your social media platforms constantly updated and interactive is favorable to the algorithms within the sites that determine exposure.
Encourage Autonomy
Nobody likes a micromanager. If you grant the space for autonomy, employees will foster a greater amount of dignity in their work. On the contrary, constantly peering over the shoulder of your employees creates distrust and discomfort. This is not an ideal environment for an employee to do their best work. There is nothing wrong with periodically evaluating progress, but be sure to allow sufficient room to breathe.
Communicate
Communication is key to making sure you and your employees are on the same page. If one party is uncomfortable about something, make sure it becomes a conversation as opposed to letting the matter fester into something larger than it needs to be.
The importance of communication extends to customers as well and is to be held in high regard. If they voice concerns or frustrations, it’s important that you stifle the flames in the earliest stages possible. Ensure that you hear their concerns, and follow up with corrective action. Customer satisfaction forms the foundation of companies, and its importance has never been greater. Thanks to the magic of social media, a customer’s negative experience can spread like wildfire and cause major damage.
