For businesses, there are only three phases that a business can be: expanding, sustaining, or death.
Of course, every business wants to expand, but expansion is costly and requires a large sum of capital; sustainability then becomes a problem.
When a business is in the phase of sustaining, the company is at a good position with adequate profit and expenses — everything is a-okay. But businesses with good sustainability become complacent and don’t think of growing their business further. Which, over time, leads to high upkeep due to economic changes and inflation of prices.
Lastly, unsustainable businesses lead to the one thing every businessman dreads: death.
Businesses who don’t strike an efficient balance between sustainability and expansion die sooner or later. And this often leaves owners and shareholders downtrodden and in debt, a position no businessman wants to be in.
But a company doesn’t die overnight. It usually starts months or years before the company finally packs up, and there are symptoms to know that your company is about to kick the bucket; knowing the symptoms are key to know how to salvage your business:
Your Brand Is No Longer Buzzing In The Market
When a brand opens up to the market for the first time, most of the time there is a long queue outside the store during the first two or three weeks. This is often generated by hype and curiosity about your brand and what it has to offer.
But once your brand becomes common in the market and has nothing else to offer, the long lines start to dwindle and fewer people come and visit your store, hurting the overall health of your business.
The solution: When your brand isn’t getting any attention from the market anymore, it could be because you’re lacking in activities or marketing that could help boost your brand. Other solutions could be re-branding or expansion to a wider target market.
You’re Getting Little To No Revenue
Lack of sales is another sign that your business is heading to the doldrums. When you don’t get enough sales and revenue from your operations, it becomes hard to sustain your company’s day-to-day and it would affect your overall operations.
Soon, you’ll have to cut costs just to keep your business afloat.
The Solution: When you’re getting little sales, you’ll probably have little budget for marketing, so holding an event to boost your reach will be next to impossible. However, marketing yourself through online social media platforms like Facebook and youtube could cost less than a full-blown campaign. It could also be more effective than the expensive, traditional marketing campaign.
People Could See Your Brand Is Failing
When people — especially your competitors — could see your brand is falling apart, then there’s a likely chance that it is. This is never a good image to show your customers and competitors since they could take advantage of your vulnerability.
The Solution: Negative image is hard to deal with, especially for a company that’s on its last leg. However, if you can turn this negative publicity to your favour, you might just get the boost you need to get back up.
You Have Unhappy Employees
When employees are starting to do tasks outside their job description and are jumbling around the office just trying to keep everything together, they become very unhappy. When employees become unhappy and demotivated, it becomes hard to operate the business and eventually lead to a complete downfall.
The solution: When a company starts failing, employees look at the CEO to help improve the situation. It’s now the job of the CEO to ensure that the company stays afloat through effective management and leadership.
Bounce Back Now
When your company is on the brink of death, resuscitation can still be done with the proper procedures and strategies. Marketing efforts should be given particular attention as this would help bring in fresh customers that could begin to breathe life into your business once again.
If you’re looking for cheap and effective ways to market your brand and save it from death, hiring a competent SEO team to help you with digital marketing could provide you with the necessary boost to remain in business.
