A Harsh Mountain To Climb — Reasons Your Business Is Struggling

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(Pixnio.com)

14 September 2018. It is that overused statistic; approximately 80 to 90 percent of all startups fail within the first year. When you are running a small business, you’ve got so many things to have at the forefront of your mind, from keeping ahead of the competition to ensuring that your books are balanced effectively. But if you think you’re doing everything right, and your business is still limping along, then you need to start digging deeper for the reasons why this is happening, and so you can begin to fix the problem.

You started your business for the wrong reasons

Let’s get this out of the way; one of the main reasons businesses fail is down to the entrepreneur. This is why you need to dig deep into your own reasons for starting the business in the first place. Some people start businesses for the right reasons, such as passion and determination, but others start it for the wrong reasons, such as thinking that it will save their sanity, or they will make a lot of money. If you have started a business, and it’s going from weakness to weakness, then think back to when you had this light bulb moment, was it for the right reasons?

Poor planning

Even if you started the business under the right pretenses, and you had boundless passion, this doesn’t outweigh poor planning. The fact is poor planning can come from many different areas, so even if you worked hard at covering 90% of your effort, there is still 10% that is lacking. It might just be a sense of poor organization, especially if you have no idea what your strengths are. It could be something as simple as hiring the wrong people to keep an eye on your funds. And although you can switch accountants online, you need to ensure that every aspect of your business, from the preparation to the people, are all working together in tandem. This is where the pre-planning is essential. A sufficient business plan which includes budget requirements, what you need from your workforce, as well as a long-term financial forecast, means that every base will be covered.

You

Even if you started your business with all of the best intentions in the world, it could still be you that is the main reason the business is struggling. For example, do you care too much? It may sound like a stupid question, but if we care too much, and we monitor everything with a tight rein, we might not be giving our business the opportunity to breathe by itself. We can stifle our business in terms of how we manage our employees, or maybe we don’t want to delegate key components to other members of staff. Or it could be how you lead. You need to take a long hard look in the mirror and see if you are doing everything you possibly can, not just for the sake of your business, but for the people that work for you.

It can take some time to fix, but if these are any of the reasons your business is struggling, then it’s time to get started.

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