How to Stop Your Business From Failing

Growing businesses attribute their growth to innovative ideas, savvy business deals, and loyalty to core philosophies. As a company’s products become cash cows and consecutive, profitable economic quarters stack up, no company believes that six months, five years, or even two decades from now it will stop growing or fail altogether. It is important for companies to be attentive to the factors that can cause businesses to fail and arrest them before too much damage is done. Here are 3 things to keep an eye on:

Growing too fast

Companies that grow too fast do so because of the high demand for their products. A good thing! To satisfy high demand, the business expands and branches out. Companies hire more employees and create more departments to handle the growth. However, unexpected downturns in the economy or the market’s sudden disinterest in your product can be a huge financial shock. What then? To recover, your business will need to downsize, and that comes with tough questions like: Where to start? Who can stay? Who has to go? You’ll have to decide which parts of your company are:

Absolutely essential for the company’s success
Financial drivers
Running well and correlated with other department’s functions
Complimentary with the company’s culture and values

An employee experience survey program can help management understand and address the financial leaks and make sure that the company continues as a cohesive unit.

Growing too slowly

Businesses develop slowly because of the slow demand for their services or products. However, determining which area is the problem and why is not so simple. Companies with low customer demand should reassess:

If the product or service meets customers’ requirements
If the customer service meets customers’ expectations
If company values and philosophies meets customers’ requirements

Determining which of these applies and how to fix it can be time consuming and complicated for a company to figure out. The longer the problem persists, the deeper the impact will be on your customers and your finances. But, asking your customer base about your service and their level of satisfaction can help salvage relationships and your business.

Average operational performance

Companies can get in their own way by hiring and promoting employees who don’t believe in the company’s values and philosophy. On any given day, a customer can come into contact with several different branches of a company, giving employees the opportunity to impress or upset that customer. Make sure that employees who are in customer-facing positions are happy and engaged and make a difference during every encounter. Companies can measure and improve employee engagement by:

Assessing the emotional state of employees, departments, and the company as a whole
Assessing productivity and intent to stay
Assessing how well employees work within their own departments

Organizations must constantly monitor the thinking of employees and customers to keep the company moving in a positive direction. At NBRI, we believe that survey research is the key to uncovering the unique reasons why companies fail and conversely, discovering the keys to success.