Congratulations! You’re an Entrepreneur! Now that you’ve started, many things are popping up that you hadn’t anticipated. You thought that starting was enough to succeed. But now you feel like you’re on a boat with one oar and it’s sprung a leak. You want to scream!
Don’t worry. Every successful business goes through turmoil at the start. The key is to navigate through the rough waters, and when you do, you’ll be much further ahead then you’d ever imagined.
Here are a few suggestions to help get you back on track:
Start with your finances
Financial statements are a ‘snapshot’ of your business at any given point in time. And while financial statements can be complex, they all are based on a simple formula: Total revenue - Total expenses = Profit.
What do your statements tell you about your profit margins? If you sell multiple products, can you identify how much profit is made on each one? What about the costs? Did you track them accurately? Can you pinpoint any revenues that are lower than expected, or expenses that are higher than expected?
Talk to your customers
Get to know your clients; where they are, what they like, and why they buy (or don’t buy) your product. What do they like about your product? What do they think could be improved? Can you identify more opportunities with current customers?
Now reach out specifically to people who don’t like your product. Find out why. What could be better?
Take a look at the competition
What about your competitors? How do they match up to your product? Be honest with yourself. Is it better quality? More competitively priced? Do they have a better marketing strategy?
Your next step depends on the answers to these questions
You may need to make adjustments to your product, change your price point, or offer better incentives.
Whichever way you choose, these strategies will be necessary to give you a clear enough picture so you can get “Back on Track”.
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