Three Fatal Small Business Fails

Running your very own small business is not easy. Not by any stretch of the imagination. There are a lot of different things that can go wrong, which is why only those that work the hardest will be successful. Often, if you do make a mistake you’ll learn from it and then come back even stronger. There are some things however that take a lot of work to recover from, and you really need to avoid these mistakes in the first place. They can be fatal for your business. Let’s have a look at some of the issues you must avoid.

Gaining a Reputation for Bad Service

It’s a sad fact that giving poor service to a customer is far more likely to be spread through word of mouth than giving them excellent service, especially given the prevalence of online review sites. It’s why it is incredibly important to make sure that no customers slip through the net. They all need to feel that you’ve given them great service. This ranges from simple things like making sure you deliver orders on time, even internationally, to sorting out any complaints with courtesy and tact. Once you’ve got a bad reputation, it can be almost impossible to recover from it.

Having a Weak Brand

Brand names and logos are very important. Whipping something up in Paint for instance is a sure-fire way of having your brand ignored. Avoid using cliché fonts and things like that. Having a professional come up with your branding is essential if you want to be successful. You might think that you can simply re-brand if what you’re doing isn’t working, but this can be expensive and time consuming, and you may not always shake off the old brand.

Being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

This phrase usually refers to an unfortunate and unforeseeable event, but in this case, we’re talking research. That is to say that you should have done all the necessary research before you started up the business. Getting things started and then ‘seeing how it goes’ is never a good idea. One of the major issues is that things might seem fine to begin with, and it’s only further down the line that you realise you made a mistake, by which time it’s too late to turn back. Always give yourself the very best opportunity to not make a mistake in the first place.