Are You Trying To Keep Your Company’s Head Above Water?

Here’s the situation: the client list you’ve spent so much time building is shrinking, revenue is falling and bills are piling up. You are desperate to save your business, but you don’t know where to start or who to turn to. If this sounds like you, it’s not too late and we can help.

Before you do anything else, you need to identify the true cause of your businesses turn for the worst. Several owners have trouble correctly determining what the real issue is, which is why authors like American Grant Cardone and Canadian Roy Osing tell it to us straight.

"I've never seen the executives of a company have the right idea of what the problem is," said Cardone. "It's like talking to a drug addict about his problems: He'll blame everything but the drugs."

When things start to go south, we want to point our fingers at anyone else but ourselves. It’s easy to blame the economy, a badly timed expansion or the city. However, if you really want to save your company, you can’t be afraid to take responsibility for your actions.  That being said…

There is a good possibility that your staff or business partner could be bringing you down. Running a business can’t be done alone, which means your team needs to be a group of smart, motivated, caring individuals. By caring, I mean they have to be just as invested as making your company succeed as you are. Build trust with your coworkers and evaluate which people take initiative in solving problems and how quickly they solve them.

Along those lines, don't leave your clients out of this process. It may seem counter-productive, but you have to make some tough decisions and cut lose the customers that are draining your time and energy with little return. A business can’t be successful with clients that lie, are mentally or physically abusive, make unreasonable demands, are slow to pay, don’t follow advice or constantly change their mind.

Also, you need to scrutinize your financials and trim the waste. We’ve heard the phrase that time is money, well so are late payments on loans, credit card processing fees, personal salaries, paper and energy-sucking appliances, fuel costs, marketing -- the list is long. If you’re finding it hard to stay above water, you have to sacrifice something to throw overboard.

Rescuing your business takes a lot of patience and you can’t be afraid to ask for help. Learn from your mistakes and be smart about the recovery process; the upcoming decisions will be crucial for your business. Take your time and keep your head up.