Business Turnaround: How Can You Recover?

When a business runs into trouble, it’s often most people’s instant reaction to close it down or seek to sell or exit the business. There’s nearly always a loss from this course of action, no matter what you sell it for. Valuations will be low, those seeking a bargain will negotiate and often the bones of a business are all that remain if it ends up changing hands.

More often than not, there’s ways to combat a complete dissolution and there are multiple ways to bring a business back, even to profitability and growth again. Here are just a few ways to ensure you can turn around a business that may have fallen on tough times, self-inflicted or not.

Review, review, review

A business review can often show a whole host of different tell-tale signs that a business is in trouble, but it can also be the key to turning it around. If you are able to lay out simply how much your business is making and then spending on costs, you are well on your way to understanding just how things are going and just how to bring that back under control.

Often it is only when you uncover these truths that your business can truly recover. Sometimes small costs that you don’t think about can turn into the monster that is dragging you down. At other times, huge expenditure that you were unaware of can be uncovered and immediate action can be taken to mitigate it.

Reviews should not only be directly financial. Look into HR, are you overstaffed, are your workforce skilled enough? Could training make a difference to progress? Could you use more experienced staff?

Similarly, are you marketing yourself properly? Often an unadvertised business can seem like a closed one. These days, being present digitally can make a huge difference. Something as simple as using Google My Business and ensuring the basics are available to those who use the search engine giant know your location, contact details and even opening hours can mean an uptick in business. On the more sophisticated scale, are you targeting the right customers by using technology? Your competitors are and that may be costing you sales.

Forbes Burton can conduct a full Business Review – done by experts in your field.

Stabilise your situation

It’s important to consider what can be done when it comes to consolidating your debts or placing at least a modicum of priority to how they are dealt with. Borrowing is essential for growth for companies, but there’s ways to do that properly and without inviting recurring levels of interest that can cripple your business for months if not years. When debt impacts your cash flow to the point of not being able to operate properly, something needs to change.

Prioritising debt should be your first point of order. Which ones are causing you the most financial stress? Try to negotiate with the lenders of these more serious ones first, then seek to pay off the others in order. If you cannot service the debt then more extreme measures may need to be taken. In order to turn around a business, debt needs to be addressed in a very serious way and acted on.

Look into new markets

Should it need to be said, could you business look into new markets? If a company has gone into needing to be turned around, then could certain markets have been wilfully ignored or simply passed your business by?

For example, if you own a tech company, is there a chance your software or application could have different uses? What fundamental feature of what you do could be changed or adapted to suit another industry that may be in need? Fortunes have been made from failing companies who simply rethought their place in the world. Do some research and find out what people really want. Could this be the answer to your woes?

On a smaller scale, if you currently supply goods to a certain industry B2B, could a consumer version of what you do be a viable option? For example, those who sell wholesale in fresh produce to large corporations or supermarkets may find a more lucrative market in selling direct to market. Could the consumer be your key to saving or turning around a business? There is much potential in seeking out new ways to market. Just because a company has done something the same for years, doesn’t mean it has to be that way forever.

Nurture your existing customer base

Are you rewarding loyalty in your customers? Are you making sure that your customers remain your customers for a lifetime? If not, why not? It is traditionally harder to find new customers than to service the ones you have.

Think about what makes you unique. Why for example can you charge a certain premium over other, cheaper brands? What keeps your customers coming back for more of what you do? Can you exploit that even more?

This also stands hand in hand with your marketing strategy. Have you ever marketed to existing customers? If you have an established base, they are already on your side in terms of trust, preference and more. Lose those customers through indifference and it could spell the end.

Increase sales

It may sound simple, but looking into how to increase sales can make a huge difference to your bottom line. If you need to speculate to accumulate by employing specific sales staff or to get expert advice in terms of strategy, this should be your aim. Increasing sales sounds simple in theory, but in practice can prove difficult and encompass a lot of different factors.

However, these could be elements as simple as fulfilment, stock management, service reviews, marketing, staffing and more. Ask yourself why sales have slumped and work on intelligent ways to combat this. There are myriad factors why sales may suffer, so it’s a case of identifying these, strategising on what to do and to act on it accordingly.