It’s a non-written rule that after experiencing a year or two of growth, businesses tend to slow down. These are critical moment when entrepreneurs need to act fast and make it healthy and profitable again. Since prevention is much better than cure, it’s very important to conduct regular business check-ups to ensure this moment never comes. In this article I’ve listed some of the things that should be checked on a regular basis, in order to keep your business live and kicking.
Evaluate your employees
It’s important to remember that even the biggest corporations are built by regular people, with all of their strengths and weaknesses. More often than not, small businesses have employees as their most valuable asset. That’s why entrepreneurs need to constantly check and evaluate employee’s performances. In this day and age it is really hard to keep the best talents by your side, which is they need to be given proper rewards for their agility and devotion. It’s also worth taking notice and warning employees who are not carrying their weight like they should and making sure they are aware of the goals set for them to achieve.
[Also Read: 7 Reasons Why Good Employees can Quit your Startups]
Best employees should receive creative rewards. You can organize company dinners, give out various coupons, gym memberships, or in cases of really agile and dedicated individuals, a raise, promotion or company’s shares.
Review your company’s sales strategy
Demands of clients are changing fast, and constant reevaluation of sales strategies is the only way to stay competitive on today’s market. In the same way you evaluate your employees, you need to list your customers and determine the most and the least profitable businesses, groups or individuals. Determine what type of customers and niches have the strongest future potential and base your next sales strategy on their needs and wishes.
Follow new marketing trends
Shift towards digital marketing was a huge step for some companies, and many of them credit social media pages and running successful Facebook or AdWords ads to their newly acquired customer influx. Digital marketing is very dynamic discipline and trends in this niche are changing at lightning speed.
[Also Read: The Newer Approach That Business Owners Are Adapting In B2B Marketing Success]
Today videos and streaming apps are top digital marketing tools, and if you don’t have a Periscope account, or you don’t use benefits of promotional Facebook videos, you are definitely not using all the benefits digital marketing brings.
Check your cash flow regularly
Cash flow is one of the most important parameters for healthy business. You should constantly check your company’s credit lines, because when problems do occur, you will need a lot of time and money to bring everything back in order. You can keep your cash flow in order by continuously checking these values:
- Monthly revenue;
- Monthly expenses;
- Capital equipment;
- Inventory acquisition;
- And of course cash flow itself.
“If you have problems with keeping all these parameters in order, you should definitely ask for some expert help. There are many agencies that can outsource your accounting, but you should always choose the ones that are from the country or state you are running business in, because tax laws defer from one place to another.”
Evaluate products and services company is offering
Every company needs to upgrade its product line all the time. In the world of big businesses, companies are usually bringing updated or new generation products every year. Small businesses usually don’t have the means for such a dynamic and innovative schedule, but whenever they come across any faults or defects they should act immediately and upgrade their product’s or service’s performance.
Constant evaluation and check-ups will prevent all issues that can disrupt your business and slow down your company’s growth. Operating in such a way, you’ll be able to save a lot of money as well as valuable time, which you can invest in further development of your business. Take some time to evaluate the market trends and make sure you keep up the pace with your competitors.
Guest Author bio: John Stone is a business consultant and regular contributor to Bizzmarkblog. He believes in the notion that form should always follow function and that thinking outside of the box is a prerequisite of being a successful entrepreneur.
