How Do You Revive A Stagnant Business?
Only around 25% of new businesses last 15 years or longer. Those that fail tend to stagnate first with flat sales, increasing overhead, and few new customers.
But that doesn’t mean your business is doomed if it’s starting to stagnate. You may just need to find a new approach. The tips below will help you get started.
Analyze The Business
First, take a step back and analyze your business. This process can help you gain perspective and understand why your business is stagnating.
For example, reviewing your finances may reveal that your overhead is too high. Or, maybe your pricing structures and brand positioning are wrong for your target market.
It can be helpful to ask yourself what you would do differently if you started the same business today. This exercise can help you pinpoint where your current business isn’t working.
Evaluate Your Market
Next, review your target market. What kind of people or businesses are in it? What goals do they have? How can your business help them?
Sometimes companies stagnate when the services or products they sell no longer align with the consumers they target. You can make sure this isn’t your business’s problem by reviewing your target audience and adjusting your strategy where necessary to meet their needs.
Revamp Your Brand
Now could also be the right time to revamp your brand’s identity. Most companies consider rebranding every 7 to 10 years. Your business might be overdue and failing to connect with its target audience because of it.
The key to a successful brand revamp is understanding your target consumer and their preferences. For example, if targeting a young audience, you may need to become more informal.
However, you do it, your brand revamp may include:
- Creating a new logo
- Updating your motto
- Choosing a new website design
- Changing your tone (such as becoming more playful in your advertising)
Look At Competitors
Looking at what your successful competitors are doing is another way to break out of stagnation. Consider what’s made them more successful than your business over the past few years.
The answer could lie in their pricing strategy, marketing approach, or people. Bringing some of a competitor’s successful practices to your business could be just what it takes to finally move forward.
Ask Your Customers
Your customers can also be great resources for learning why your business has stagnated. You can poll them through surveys or conduct personal interviews to get a better idea of the pros and cons of your business relative to its competitors.
For example, if you sell software, your customers say they don’t feel any of your subscription tiers are an ideal match for their needs. This could be a sign that you need to revamp your pricing structure.
You never know what you’ll learn from polling your customers directly. Sometimes, you’ll gain insights into your business and its competitive edge that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.
The Bottom Line
Stagnation can be a precursor to collapse in business. But you don’t have to let it happen to your company. By getting proactive and trying the strategies in this article, you can break out of stagnation and get back to growth.
As part of this process, you may need to bring more financial leadership to your business. CFO Hub makes that easy to do by offering a variety of outsourced accounting, back-office, and financial leadership services at affordable prices.
Get in touch to learn more about how we can help