Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash
You’ve made it. The doors are open and the first customers are finally trickling in. You want this dream to last forever and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. Here are five things every business needs to keep in mind that can easily put them out of business if not managed.
Manage Cash
Cash flow is one of the most common reasons for businesses closing down. Make sure that you are keeping track of how much you are earning and how much you are spending. Many businesses, at the start, do not know what to charge for their products because they don’t know the value of their inventory. This can be devastating to a company just starting up.
It’s important that your available cash is tracked and differentiated from profits. Inventory costs, the amount of time a client takes to pay you, and supplies change in price constantly, as do gasoline prices. You may get an order of pallets from Challenger Pallet & Supply just to find out that you don’t have any cash to spend on the order because gas prices increased dramatically. It is crucial that you remain aware of price changes and fluctuate how much you charge for your products depending on this rate.
Technology
According to companybug.com, Americans can spend 10 hours in front of a screen every day. It’s important to leverage technology in your business by making sure that your company website is friendly to all types of devices and browsers and that making online purchases is simple for your customers. Technology can also help automate responsibilities such as payroll and other administrative tasks.
Track Data
You will make many choices for your business and most of the time you will be relying on gut decisions. Your decisions will always be better if there is data to push it in the right direction. The more data you can track, the more flexible you are to unforeseen expenses and other speedbumps along the way.
Recruit and Retain Talent
In order to obtain your desired workplace culture, you have to start with the prospective employees. Do the people you interview possess the experience, background, and values that you want in your company? Before you hire people, you may also want to consider providing incentives to employees to entice them to stay at your company. Training employees can be expensive and if there is a high rate of people leaving, that’s a lot of money lost in training.
Marketing Strategy
Make sure that your business plan includes a marketing strategy so customers will know you exist. Whether your customers can see you or not can mean the success or failure of the company. Some marketing strategies include printing newspaper ads, airing television advertisements, or using social media. Make sure you track which strategies work for your company so you don’t pay for something with a low return on investment.
Manage your cash, utilize today’s technology, track as much data as you can, recruit and retain your talent, and make sure you have a marketing strategy. If you keep in mind these five things, you’ll be a lot better off than companies who don’t. If they are your competition, you might even put them out of business.