of businesses can fall off the planet virtually overnight.
The companies that survive and thrive in tough times are usually able to do so for a reason — their willingness to adjust and adapt to a changing economy, market or environment. But what does it take to have not just the willingness but the ability to change?
The reality is this: any business that has a solid business plan, strong leadership, and a product or service that delivers value to a hungry market has a pretty darn good chance of success. Couple that with good marketing, effective selling, clear performance measures, and consistent management and the odds of success increase dramatically. Maybe you have all of these things and maybe you don’t.
What makes the difference is knowledge, making sound decisions and taking effective action. You need a good understanding of how your business operates or should be operating. You must know how to structure or restructure your business. You have to develop and implement plans for change and do what’s necessary to make money now and turn a profit in spite of it all.
When you sit down and really think about it, business is relatively simple. It involves the straightforward process of exchanging some product or service for something in return - usually money. You give value with one hand and receive value with the other. To succeed, you need to give equal or greater value to the other side and receive more than enough money in return to cover your costs for the value you provide. Simple? Yes, but not always easy.
This basic model is, in essence, all that business is about. In reality, however, we tend to over-complicate matters in business and in our companies. What usually causes the basic model to break down are things like inflexibility, outdated business plans or ineffective leadership. Over-dependence on too few products, services, clients or distribution channels can starve a business when the marketplace or economy shifts.
In addition, outdated information, poor planning or an unwillingness to face a new reality can kill an enterprise. Businesses are often choked by obsolete assumptions, indecisiveness, poor discipline and unfocused activity or the failure to apply their resources in the most effective way.
But a lack of effective knowledge, indecision and inaction could well be the most common reasons businesses fail. These also happen to be the very things ALL business owners can do something about. More information is available today than ever before. Experts exist on almost every topic, subtopic, and micro-topic or knowledge niche. Resources are more readily available than ever before.
Why, then, don’t more business owners simply learn what they need to know and do what they need to do? Why don’t they read the advice given by countless thousands of successful and experienced business people the world over? Why don’t they implement what they learn and take consistent, effective action?
A client of ours once answered that very question by saying, “I would do what I should if only I could.”
With the amount of information and easy access to knowledge, for some people the problem involves a lack of focus, direction or knowing where to start. For others, they simply don’t know what they don’t know or don’t realize there is always an answer for a problem or opportunity. Some remain blissfully ignorant of what they don’t know in business and what they should be learning; others pick up a book like this and get moving on a higher path to progress. They get into action and turn around their business as well as their lives. (Congratulations—that’s YOU!)
The business owners who do nothing often feel completely overwhelmed and uncertain about what to do next. They wallow in the comfort of doing everything they can based on what they have always done.
If you aren’t getting the results you want, sitting back and doing nothing different is the most expensive course of action. If you think education is expensive, consider the cost of ignorance. What are all the missed opportunities costing your business right now? What would your bottom line look like if you knew how to shave just 5% from your cost of sale? Or increase your profit margin by 10%? Or increase your client base by 15%? What would your business look like if you got your clients to buy more often, to buy more, to buy longer or to buy sooner?
Yes, these are the opportunities that await you if you are open to making some changes or doing things differently.
But still, some people still want to do what they have always done. So, consider these questions:
What would happen to your business if you were to lose just three of your best clients in one month? Chances are good that the majority of your revenue (and profits) are being generated by a small percentage of your customer base. What would losing your three best clients today or in the future mean to you and your business?
If you’re a retailer, what would happen if Wal-Mart moved in across the street? What would happen if your industry suddenly got affected by a dramatic change in governmental regulation? What would happen if the one method of marketing you’re currently using simply stopped working? If your most skilled and competent employee decided to leave and become your competitor, what would it mean for your business and how would you replace them?
Such can be the cost of doing nothing or assuming things will always remain the same.
Now that the threat of an unplanned possibility has just slapped you upside the head, it’s time to get back to reality. Sometimes outside factors (relationships, economy and competition) can make business overwhelmingly difficult. It can happen suddenly and without notice—do you have the resources to be prepared?
Conversely, sometimes those same factors work in your favor, and business booms. Do you have a plan of action that helps you deal with increased demand? What if you have a giant influx of orders and nothing in the warehouse or you lack the capacity to increase your service? What if you were immediately able to access all the capital you ever needed or wanted, how would you deploy it? What if through the process of reading this book you realized an incredible breakthrough in thinking and in operating your business - would you have the necessary resources to implement and sustain the changes in growth, size and scope it would require?
Most business people really do get uncomfortable when thinking about their business from a perspective of “what if”. For many owners or entrepreneurs, it is the very first time they’ve thought about their company this way — “what would happen if…” In today’s economy, with current competition and with the rate of change we all face, a million “what ifs…” have already arrived.
You’ve been awakened to a new reality facing your business. Still, there is plenty of hope. A late realization is better than never. You want more for yourself and your business. You deserve more — you work hard, you earned it and success in life and business is for you. Things might not have gone exactly to plan as of late but - great news! It brought you here to this book as a source to turn your business around.
Why else would you be reading this?
Congratulations on your decision to purchase this book. By taking positive action now, you have begun the rewarding journey of taking control not only of your business but of your life as well.
Read the book. Do the exercises. Take heart and take action. There’s not only hope, there’s certainty in your commitment and your willingness to turnaround from where you are to in the direction of where you want to be.
And as we mentioned in the foreword, not only troubled businesses embark on a turnaround journey. Sure, many struggling businesses implement the strategies in this book and are able to survive as a result. Successful businesses also make the decision and commitment for one reason or another to reinvigorate their company, their organization, or their business model. We often talk about businesses in the red, but the planning needs of good businesses are just as important - probably even more so. Once a certain level of excellence has been earned, what to do about the dreaded plateau? How to sustain productivity and increase profitability? If you’ve already achieved a level of success but you want to exceed the limits of your current performance, what would you do, how would you do it, and what would it mean in other areas of your life and business?
It could simply be that, in the eyes of the owner, it is not living up to its true potential. Or maybe the owner