28 Amazing Solutions When Business is Bad
Problems do exist. As sure as that is, so are solutions. I’m sure you are reading this so that you can know how to solve the problems facing your business. The truth is, even if your business is not facing problems, you need to know what to do to avoid that. In these post, you will learn new things that will help your business productivity.
These are the 28 amazing solutions when business is bad. Please note, I will be explaining some of these solutions and give tips for other solutions. You are free to use the tips here to learn more.
1. Go Back to the Basics
- Why did you start/setup the business?
- How can you create new customers?
- How can you keep the customers?
If your reason for setting up a business is profit, you have limited your business already. Your main reason is to get and multiply customers. If all you have been doing in looking for profit, you need to reconsider. You need to start getting customers. This may involve selling to your customers at cost price some times.
Create, Keep and Multiply customers.
2. Business is Marketing
Are you marketing? Are you selling? Sell or be sold. Market or die. If you run a business and you don’t like marketing, your business will not only be bad it will also be worse.
To do marketing effectively, please answer the questions below sincerely.
- specialization: what’s your niche?
- Segmentation: who are your potential customers?
- Differentiation: what’s your uniqueness? what makes your product unique?
- Concentration: where does your focus lies?
Now go ahead and work on your area of specialization, segementation, differentiation and concentration.
3. Value Your Six P’s
- People: Delegate duties. Ask for suggestions. Organize staff meetings. Give your staff more praise. Stimulate your staff to read good books. Promote some of your staff. Sack some of your staff.
- Products: Provide the best and the finest. Have passion for your products. Transfer that passion into your staff and customers. Improve your products until it becomes outstanding. Is your product better? can it be tried? Is the effect visible?
- Place: This can be your website, blog, office, shop etc. Make sure you improve on the aesthetics of your place. Image matters to your business success. Improve on your image.
- Price: Dont charge too much. Offer discounts.
“The value decade is upon us. If you can’t sell a top-quality product at the world’s lowest price, you’re going to be out of the game.” — Jack Welch, Executive.
- Promotions: Improve your promotions. Do adverts effectively.
- Profit: stimulate revenue. Double your income source. Reduce cost where necessary. Reduce waste. Improve your net profit
4. Achieve Competitive Advantage
Wikipedia defines it as the strategic advantage one business entity has over its rival entities within its competitive industry. Achieving competitive advantage strengthens and positions a business better within the business environment.
Now, ask yourselve these questions
- what is your competitive advantage?
- what could your competitive advantage be?
- what should your competitive advantage be?
- what’s ur Unique Selling Proposition?
- what is ur area of excellence?
Come up with at least 30 competitive advantage for your business. At the end of the process, you have created a brilliant competitive advantage for your business.
5. Get People to Talk About Your Business
- Employ mavens: These are people who are knowledgeable about your business. Get them to talk about your business. Most times they don’t need
- Leverage Influencers: These are people who are in your niche but can still promote your business. These works alot. Get them to talk about your business.
- Inculcate passion for your business in your employees.
- Leverage on your Fans: Who are you fans? Get them to talk about your business. Do competitions.
- Use advocates and evangelists
6. Handle Negative Word of Mouth Professionally
Find out if the negative thing is true. If it is, work on it and clear the air. If it is not true, continue your business. It will soon die.
7. Write a motivating stories of your business
8. Generate Indirect word of mouth
9. Organize Events and webinars
10. Organize Roadshows
11. Display your Testimonials
12. Always say ‘thank you’ for patronage.
13. Give out word of mouth kits e.g. special brochure
14. Be part of communities and social netwoks locally and internationally
- join them, help them, listen to them, be genuine, be professional.
15. Start customer referral programs
16. Develop blogs for your business
17. Develop podcasts for your business
18. Perform monthly seeding and sampling
- Find the influential people
- Give them samples of your business products or services for free
19. Develop useful materials and tools for your business
20. Use viral makerting
21. Use buzz/stunt marketing
22. Create affiliate programs for your business
23. Offer quality customers service
24. Create VIP/membership programs.
25. Setup advisory groups
26. Conduct serious Grass root marketing
27. Act diffrently from the normal way
28. Practice kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese word for “improvement”, or “change for the better”. This refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, development, and business management. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life-coaching, government, banking, and other industries.
When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain.
By improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste. Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses after the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers who visited the country. It has since spread throughout the world and is now being implemented in many other venues besides just business and productivity.
Now that you have read through the 28 amazing solutions when business is bad, it will do you no good if you don’t practise all or some of the solutions above.
Finally, I will like to read how you intend to apply these solutions to your business.
To learn more about Business, please read through our previous posts or through the related posts listed further below. You should also subscribe with your email address, RSS, follow me on Twitter, become my friend on Facebook, become my friend on Linkedin and become my fan at www.facebook.com/jadesojiadegbulu so as to get more effective posts delivered to you as soon as they are made available here.
Also, we love reasonable comments. Feel free to share your comments on what you have gained from this post, what you would do with this post or any further explanation you need. You can do this using the comment boxes provided below. Also, feel free to share this post so that more people can have access to the effective information contained in it. This you can do by using the sharing tools available on this blog. They would be glad you gave them this information.
I hope this helps
Adesoji Adegbulu is the Founder of Maven Technologies Nig. Ltd (aka 9jacorp). He is a social/internet entrepreneur, business consultant, network marketer and a problem solver who loves helping people and business succeed.
I write, research, inspire, teach, empower and serve as a resource person. I am a social media enthusiast. You can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
