How Entrepreneurs Can Minimize Customer Anxiety When Taking Over an Established Business

It’s the dreaded, seemingly unbelievable news Apple warned its investors about earlier this month. The sales of its most important product, the iPhone, free-fell by 15 percent. Since these devices account of 60 percent of Apple’s business, that’s a big, big deal. Overall, the tech company’s sales dropped 5 percent; a sizable setback, indeed. How Setbacks can Impact Businesses What this demonstrates, quite starkly, is that no company is immune from setbacks. No matter how popular their products and/or services. Regardless of the economic climate. Despite strong consumer sentiment. Any business can suffer setbacks. Reconnecting with the determination that’s helped you succeed takes re-examining your strengths and a little creativity. When challenging scenarios have you hanging your head, shore up your confidence with these skills so you can get back up, dust yourself off and look the challenge in the eye to overcome. —Forbes.com It’s not just monetary losses, either. When a setback occurs, it can shatter confidence. So much it’s difficult to get it back again. In other words, a setback can not only take away from the bottom line, it can take an emotional, psychological toll. And, these shouldn’t be understated. Ways Businesses can Overcome Setbacks So, just how do businesses deal with setbacks? What can they do to turn things around and get back into a positive groove? Here are some effective ways to deal with setbacks: Face it head-on. There’s no sense in denying reality. Acknowledge the situation to start to understand just what’s happening. And, take comfort in the fact that you’re now a bit wiser for the experience. Avoid the blame game. Sure, there’s probably a person or two you can point to as the culprit(s). But, this is only useful in getting to the core of the problem itself. Playing the blame game does nothing to move you forward. Identify the source, accept it, and move on from there. Give it a little time. Instead of just jumping into a fix, allow some time for introspection and reflection. If you hurry, you’ll probably only make things worse for rushing into the first rash solution. Impatience is very powerful at undermining because it takes time to heal. Move forward with caution. If you take your time, you’re much more apt to pinpoint the problem points and come up with workable, realistic solutions. Proceed with caution and then, if there’s headway, push past your comfort zone. After all, if you step outside of your comfort zone, you’re bound to see things in a totally different way than before. How do you deal with setbacks? What other remedies would you recommend people try? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

Strangely, no one is lining up outside the body butter and toothbrush rental stand. How odd? Who would have guessed such an idea wouldn’t take off? After all, you have a huge selection. So, there are plenty of choices. Yet, no one is interested. Something’s amiss here and you can’t quite put your finger on it. Even Good Business Ideas are Not Guaranteed Winning Strategies Okay, so the headline says it all. It’s a totally ridiculous business model. There’s not a person near or far interested in renting body butter or a toothbrush. Yet, people do come up with some strange concepts to sell and are surprised when they don’t pan out. You’ve created something unheard of. You’re passionate about it. You believe in it. You’ve also spent an insane amount of time figuring the whole business out down to the tiniest detail. By now, you can talk about it for hours — and to top it off, it actually is a great idea. But for some reason, you can’t sell it. So, what’s the problem? —Forbes.com On the flip side, there’s no guarantee a really good idea will widely succeed. Even the best concepts run into problems. In other words, solid products and services aren’t immune from the realities of the marketplace. Put another way, there is no straight path from unknown to sensation. How to Test a Business Idea So, how do you know if a business idea is worth pursuing in the first place? How can you determine if it’s something which has a real chance of making it in the free market? Try these suggestions to establish a baseline: Look for successful competition. Everyone wants to believe their idea is “new.” But, that’s usually not the case. In-part or whole, it’s likely been done before. So, look for examples and see how they fared. Test different versions several times. There’s no such thing as perfect. Meaning, your business idea isn’t without some sort of flaw. Even if you’re really confident in what you’ll offer, it could perform better or worse, depending on a few tweaks. Offer a variety and see which works. Explore the industry to gain an understanding. It’s certainly true good ideas are boxed out of the marketplace because they aren’t allowed. Perhaps it’s too heavily regulated or there are just too many obstacles to make it feasible. Think about how it can scale and adapt over time. If the business can’t scale up to meet demand, that’s a big, red flag. And, if it’s not able to evolve with the changing times, that too, is a big obstacle. Think about creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Ok, what the heck is an MVP. A minimum viable product (MVP) is a concept from Lean Startup that stresses the impact of learning in new product development. Eric Ries, defined an MVP as that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. This validated learning comes in the form of whether your customers will actually purchase your product. A key premise behind the idea of MVP is that you produce an actual product (which may be no more than a landing page, or a service with an appearance of automation, but which is fully manual behind the scenes) that you can offer to customers and observe their actual behavior with the product or service. Seeing what people actually do with respect to a product is much more reliable than asking people what they would do. If the business can’t scale up to meet demand, that’s a big, red flag. And, if it’s not able to evolve with the changing times, that too, is a big obstacle. How do you test a business idea to ensure it’s a viable one? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

Is your business really ready to expand in the coming new year? Although the question seems complicated, it’s not too difficult to answer. Just four key factors can quickly help you determine if you’re ready to expand your business. And, perhaps more importantly, if your company is ready to expand. What it Really Means to Expand a Business Business owners often think about two elements when it comes to expansion — output and sales. Of course, it’s not that simple. However, these are two very important parts of the overall equation. Nonetheless, what it really means to expand a business is to take on a whole new level of responsibility. Even thinking about growing your business is exciting. Expansion means more products or services, customers, sales, and income for you. And, for businesses with physical locations, expansion might mean opening a bigger or second location. Before you rush into expanding your small business, you need to make sure your company is actually ready for growth. Your recent business success isn’t the only thing you should look at. —Forbes.com It also means the business having to respond to a new level of production while not losing it’s nimbleness or its personalized customer service. After all, if it can’t do the latter two — stay agile and maintain customer care quality — it will hurt the company greatly. 4 Signs It’s Time to Expand Your Business So, just what are the signs that it’s time to expand a business? Well, it comes down to only a select group of factors, which include the following: You have too much business. Time and again, you’re falling behind because you simply lack the resources to get all the work done. You’ve streamlined every single solitary step along the way and still, you’re not able to adequately keep up. Worse yet, it’s starting to show itself to customers. Too much work and too few resources to get it done in a timely manner. You have a strong team in-place. Your team members are your secret sauce. Without them, you’d really be in big trouble. Fortunately, they’re able to pull off magnificent feats over and over again. Well, that’s not only good news for the present, but really good for a future expansion. You have the money to expand. Expanding usually means incurring significant expenses. But, if you have some retained earnings saved and a strong forecast for the next several months, you probably can afford to expand your operation. You have a plan to upscale your operation. While the first three elements are absolutely critical, this is perhaps the most important of all because it will define your way forward. (It’s also where winging it just won’t cut it.) So, take the time to consult an experienced business consultant and coach. Someone who has helped companies grow before. Work together to formulate an actionable expansion plan. What other advice would you give business owners who want to know if it’s time to expand? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.