In the spirit of Easter, we wanted to share our thoughts on how to (resurrect?!) revive your businesses, just as we are trying to revive HootBox Unltd. This body has been around since 2013 but ironically we never saw the appeal of sharing our own work while we helped market other businesses. We are trying to change that earnestly from this point forward.
Given the amount of competition in the market, many companies, regardless of their size, culture and skills fail to thrive and gradually face a near-death experience. With startups, it becomes furthermore difficult to cope, making them succumb to the pressure and eventually shut down. A recent study claimed 9 out of 10 startups had failed in 2019. If you are reading this article, it is possible you or someone you know is in a similar situation, seeking ways to revive your business.
Reasons for failing could be several – from poor business planning to ineffective management, from an unsustainable business model to a bad economy. However, if you have decided to breathe life back into your business, you need to put the guilt aside, stop the blame game and chalk out a constructive roadmap to resurrection. Here are a few steps to guide you on your way.
Ask yourself prudently ‘Why did you begin?’
If you are unable to decide on how to revive your business — revisit history! Why did you start? Did you have a goal in mind? Did your actions walk the talk in the initial phase only and gradually then disappear into thin air? Identify the core pain points that stopped you from taking the right actions that would have possibly complemented the ‘why’ of your business. You need to do a close detailed analysis of what worked and what did not. Based on the root cause of the problem, chalk out an action plan.
Assess the existing situation and ‘skills’ objectively
By skills, we mean people – the most important asset of your organization. You may go wrong in selecting the right set of people initially, but as time progresses, you should be able to either provide the training to develop those skills or find people with adequate skillsets who can actively help resurrect your business. Not only your people but you as the torchbearer of the organization, also need to upgrade. Learn from your competitors, stay updated, work on your skills inch by inch, and gradually move towards the broader picture.
Share the same vision
Assess whether your people and you are on the same page. Mostly, a startup fails when people working for it do not share the same vision. Certainly, people should work in an agile environment, wherein they get to brainstorm and generate innovative ideas – but it all should drive the same mission for taking the company to its ultimate destination. A disconnected chain of people mostly produces unsatisfactory results; becoming one more reason for the failure of your business.
Know your customer and reinvent your business
Modern customers are — and will keep being more connected than ever before. Most of them know what’s the best available solution. Hence if you approach them with an offering, they will obviously want to know whats ‘different’ and what’s in it for them. This difference can either be tangible or intangible or both. You may not be able to provide an original solution that has never been offered before, but the way you provide it makes all the difference. So, step into your customer’s shoes and rethink your products and services. And, of course, your set of new ‘skills’ will guide you on your way to breathing innovation in your offerings.
Rethink execution
Avoid taking the new offering to market the same way you previously did. Or, at least try to bring in a fresh approach to it. If the strategy did not work last time, its possible, it wont work even now. So, brainstorm with your team ways to bring back lost customers and look for new ones as a means to revive your business. Rethink ways to execute the plan you chalked out after defining the ‘why’ for your business.
Invest to help revive your business
Investing – not only money but time, effort and patience is the key to reviving your business. Talking about financial investment – yes, it is of utmost importance as you may need to launch a new offering or execute a new marketing strategy. Utilize some available fund, sell available assets, if possible. In case of bankruptcy, lookout for a small loan from private funding institutions who can help revive your business.
The point is, don’t give up. There are ways to restart at any given time. What’s important is for you to decide when and how you will.
For HootBox Unltd this is a restart or a redo of sorts, where we took a hard look at our work and services and how we wanted to share them with you. If you liked this article, we’d like to hear from you. So do leave a comment below and check out the rest of our Blogs.
