Five things to make your rainy days less miserable
Its a great feeling when the economy starts to pick up and business starts to be a little easier to come by, but it dismays me when a business owner says they don’t need any more business.
You may not need any more business but do you want any more business? How far could your business go if you thought about not just mending the roof when the sun is shining but re-designing the house or building an extension.
When times are good, we should be planning for when things take a dip – as they will inevitably do. Do some work on your business rather than in your business when times are good and you might find that the opportunities that exist will help you grow and that you can take evasive action to head off any perceived threats.
Do these five things whilst the sun is shining and you might find that your rainy days aren’t as miserable as those of your competition.
- Review your unique selling points and your core competitive advantages. Are they still relevant to the market you are in and what your customers need and want today? Is this enough to give you and edge over your competitors?
- Conduct a regular PESTEL check. Look at what’s happening in the external environment, specifically in the Political, Economic, Sociological, Technical, Environmental, and Legal areas.
- Take a look at your competitors in terms of what they are doing. Are they taking clients from you and if so how are they managing to do it? What are you doing or could you do that they cant do easily? Are there more or less competitors than there were a year ago?
- Examine your marketing mix (The Four ‘P’s of Product, Price, Place and Promotion). Are you still supplying the right product or service (they clients want) at the right price (where clients see the value) in the right place (easy for them to buy it) and are you using the right communications channels to reach the audience that wants it?
- Review your objectives. Are your short and medium term objectives still relevant to what the market is doing today? Are the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reviewable and Timed? SMART objectives make us focus on exactly what we need to do rather that leave any grey areas.
Do these five things and get them right and I can almost guarantee that your rainy days will never be as miserable again. Get in touch with E Business Coaching today for more information.
