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When you begin a new business venture, there is no talk of failure. Even though more than half of new firms go out of business within the first year, the mood is positive. However, after the honeymoon period ends, realisation begins to set in and you come around to the fact that your company might not be a market leader. Usually, the reason for this is due to the fact that the firm isn’t hitting the right targets at the right time. If your company falls into this category, these are the signs that you won’t be able to ignore.

No Dedicated Accountant

As a new company, there needs to be an emphasis on saving money. Only when you cut costs can you save enough to keep the liquidity flowing. Now, lots of bosses think they can do it alone because it is general maintenance work. The truth is that a dedicated service such as Qdos accounting is essential due to their expertise. For example, professionals know which accounts to put the firm’s money in to build up reserves. They also know when to pay arrears and when to hold back to ensure the business is not vulnerable. More than that, they understand how to legally cut your tax bill, which accounts for a big chunk of your budget.

Marketing Isn’t A Priority

It is hard to talk about modern marketing without listing techniques such as SEO. But, the reason they are part of the conversation is their effectiveness. Quite simply, using search engine optimisation is the only way for an SME to compete with the big boys. Thanks to backlinks, tags and strategic keywords, a company’s traffic can skyrocket. Plus, with the help of social media, there is the opportunity to create shareable content which can go viral. These features raise brand awareness and increase revenue streams without breaking the bank.

You Don’t Have Alternate Money Streams

Most businesses don’t make money for a while. And by a while, it means at least six months to a year. Unless you have a huge budget, your company won’t be able to survive by cutting costs alone. To keep your head above water, you need various cash flow options. The main one is a bank or credit card loan which most lenders are happy to provide. With a few extra grand in the account, the business might be able to last until the money begins to roll through the door. Without it, the debts and expenses will kill off the company.

Little To No Growth

Any enterprise which plans on lasting the test of time needs the resources to grow. Without them, the Grim Reaper won’t be too far behind ready to pounce. An essential resource is foot traffic. Boots on the ground mean that the company has people to market to who are interested in the products/services. If your analytic software says the traffic is minimal, this is one sign you can’t ignore.

After all, no business can prosper without the help of its clients and customers.

Are you starting to notice that the team you have assembled is not quite doing what you expected of them? As a business owner, this is a worry and a concern, and it certainly shouldn’t be ignored. There are many things that could be causing this problem, and it’s up to you to get to the bottom of those issues. If you don’t they will just persist, which is not what you want.

They Don’t Feel Valued or Appreciated

It might not seem like a massive problem, but when people feel like they’re being taken for granted and not appreciated properly, it has repercussions. People only ever feel valued when they are congratulated and thanked for good work. If you only ever talk to your employees when there is a problem that you want them to fix, then they will feel down and demoralised more of the time. That’s not good for your team, and it’s not good for the business either.

You’re Not Providing Them With the Right Tools

They say a workman’s only as good as his tools, and this is something that still holds true. If you are holding your employees back by not equipping them with the things that they need to do their jobs better, then the fault might lie with you rather than them. Investing in new technology and new tools for your employees to use is always important. And if it’s something that you just ignore, you will run into problems sooner rather than later. So, make those investments.

Your Pay Grades Aren’t Up to Scratch

Let’s face it; everyone wants to be paid fairly for the things that they do. If they don’t feel like they are being paid a fair wage, it’s not surprising that they are not giving their all for the business. Using salary benchmarking services from Croner might help you assess the situation. Of course, your business can only afford to pay a certain wage, especially if it’s small. But if the company is doing well and you’re making a profit, then why not share the rewards with your employees? It will benefit the business in the long-term, so it’s not like the money would be wasted.

You Judged Them Incorrectly When Recruiting

It’s always possible that you judged those employees incorrectly when you initially assessed them during the hiring process. If that’s the case, you should look at your hiring process and what went wrong. If you thought they could do certain things but were proven wrong, it’s a sign that something wasn’t done correctly when you were hiring. Maybe you didn’t check their references or notice signs that they might not have the skills or experience necessary for the wrong. Whatever it is, you need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

It’s frustrating when it seems like your talented team is not performing to the standard you require of them. But there is always a reason for that, and you should work hard to fix those reasons.

Marketing is one of those things that a lot of businesses spend a lot of time, money, resources focusing on. Of course, there’s a very good reason for this. After all, if you’re not able to bring customers to your business or let them know about your product, then your business is never going to succeed. A business without customers isn’t really a business at all. The problem that many companies tend to run into is the fact that, for one reason or another, their marketing simply isn’t working. A lot of the time it can seem as though you’re doing everything right but things still aren’t working properly. However, this often comes down to the fact that many businesses fail to understand one simple fact: everything is marketing.

You’re always promoting your business

Whether you like it or not, everything that you do constitutes some kind of promotion for your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking to an upset customer on the phone, making a post on social media, or rearranging the internal structure of the company itself. Everything has some kind of impact on the way in which your business is perceived by the outside world. If you don’t think carefully about the way that the things that you do in your business will be perceived, you’re going to end up making decisions that lead to customers being less likely to want to interact with your business in general.

No action without consequences

Before you do anything, you should not only think about what impact it will have on your business, but what impact it will have on how your business is perceived. Of course, that doesn’t mean that, if a decision won’t necessarily be popular, that you should do something else. Sometimes, being a business owner involves making the tough choices that aren’t always popular for the good of the company. The key is to be aware of those consequences so that you’re not left with any nasty surprises further down the line.

Intent can be as effective as results

You’re not going to be able to please everyone all of the time, so it’s best to forget about that as soon as possible. However, you would be surprised at just how effective it can be when you make an effort to improve your business’s practices, even if you don’t fully succeed. This Peninsula Business complaint guide shows that they want their customers to criticize them and show them how to improve. By doing this, customers will often feel much more positive about a business because they can see that the business is making an effort to do better based on the feedback that they’re being given. It’s a small touch, but it can often be an incredibly significant one.

So, while you might spend most of your time focusing on the more specific, deliberate aspects of your marketing, don’t forget that you’re promoting your business in one way or another no matter what you do. If you’re able to be aware of this as much as possible, you can make sure that the image that you’re presenting to the world is always the right one.