Giving shape to your business is not an easy task! It might have looked all exciting and easy on paper or when you thought about it. But once you get into business activation mode, everything from procuring raw materials to planning social media marketing is your responsibility. Despite every smart and best attempt, entrepreneurs at times face a setback. And not every entrepreneur can manage this initial setback well. They get demotivated and often think that their business might hit rock bottom and that they would not attain their business vision.
The truth is every entrepreneur undergoes business instabilities and setbacks! But that doesn’t mean there’s no hope or way out. Research, study, and in-depth analysis can always help entrepreneurs to revive their business and make better progress and gradually more sales. But managing this setback and getting a plan of action in place, is the greater challenge. Eminent entrepreneurs like Eric Dalius have always helped start-up and small business entrepreneurs to get through the setback phase with their smart guidelines.
Get your business back in action the Eric J Dalius way
- Level up your daily motivation
Entrepreneurship is a long journey, and all through this journey, entrepreneurs need to stay insanely motivated! Belief and faith do half the work on this journey. There are and will be unknown and unpleasant predicaments. Entrepreneurs should have the desired level of zest and motivation to convert a negative situation to positive one or at least try to. And this comes with patience, practice, and study.
Expecting an overnight miracle will make you tense more. Entrepreneurs should exercise patience and study successful business case studies and stories. They should also follow popular entrepreneurial and marketing blogs to have access to informative resources. Browsing, reading, and analyzing information and applying the same to your business will help you think positively. It will make you focus on the solution instead of the problem.
- Analyze the business loss and get to the cause
Business losses happen because of specific reasons. Entrepreneurs need to take the time to scan the problem. If you feel you need a little hand-holding, make sure to get in touch with a business consultant or a business coach.
Understanding why your business faced a setback can be a game-changer for you. For instance, it could be that you didn’t respond to customer requests on time for a while, and your end-users switched to another brand. You can try and resolve this situation by writing an apology message on your social media page, highlighting the reasons for the delay in catering to customer requests. Other reasons could be:
- You need to level up your current customer service team and make them more proactive in responding to client queries and complaints.
- You need to up your product or service quality to match up to other market players.
- Your product/service cost doesn’t justify your service/product quality.
- You need to make the correct investments and plug-in the right ads at the right time.
There can be varied reasons you can come across. EJ Dalius suggests that entrepreneurs take time to delve into such reasons and work towards the best solution.
- Make the correct business and social connections
There have been instances where small and start-up businesses have had a quality service/product and team, but still, they failed to make the desired mark. The reason for this is the lack of proper social and business connections. A word of mouth publicity and recommendation goes a long way in your business success. Hence, you need to get connected with the correct business leaders, executives, and also the influencers. For this, you need to attend the business meet-ups, be a part of a local entrepreneurial circle, attend seminars, webinars, and other meet-ups. The idea is to be present and make your business presence felt. And in time, get a recommendation from a prominent business influencer. It will add the much-required boost and visibility to your business.
Alternatively, try and connect with social media influencers. Usually, the successful ones have a huge follower count and are keen to help new and small business entrepreneurs by featuring their brand on their social media page. It will also enhance the brand visibility and brand recall value of your brand.
- The brand logo
It might come as a shock or surprise to a few entrepreneurs, but if the brand logo isn’t clear, your end-users remain confused about your business identity! Surveys will help you to get to this. At times, the brand logo is incomprehensible, and people can’t relate it to the brand name. Here you need to rethink the logo design and give the task to an accomplished graphic designer. Make sure that the new logo is coherent, eye-catchy, and also represents your brand image and persona correctly.
- Making unwise business decisions
At times, entrepreneurs want to attain everything at one go! And that makes them invest in other business verticals or domains, without excelling in one. Eventually, that leads to a loss as entrepreneurs can’t do justice to either of the business domains. It’s good to stay ambitious and have plans. However, it’s not a wise decision to start a new business domain and invest in it heavily, when you haven’t made adequate profits in the current business. It’s is also unwise to make investments in stocks and mutual funds when you are trying to set up your business. There are chances of incurring a debt, which can go against your business investments and land you up in a debt trap. So, plan your finances better and invest wisely. If you want, you can seek help from the ace financial planners as well, who can help you arrange your funds better.
These are a few of the challenges that an entrepreneur encounters during a business setback. Recovering losses and transforming a poor performing business into a profitable one takes time and effort. It also takes the correct vision, financial planning, and the apt mindset combat the setback. The secret is to go ahead with unwavering focus and endless motivation to make your business work out in this changing and competitive marketplace.