Do you sometimes have that feeling that you’ve taken the wrong turn? What do you do if you are driving a car and accidentally get lost on the way? Most people retrace their steps back until they find the right path again. You can apply the same principle in the business world. Indeed, the turnaround strategy is essentially the act of undoing a company’s mistakes. Strategically, it is a retrenchment practice that aims at repairing the damage made to the business profitability.
How does a business know it’s time for a turnaround?
Typically, signs of struggles are easy to spot:
- Continuous loss of profits
- Loss of competitiveness
- High employee turnover rate
- Loss of reputation
#1. Poor sales data affect growth
Sales intelligence sits behind every sales success. However, sales intelligence can be tricky to gather. A sudden change of tool kit or lead database supplier can have a dramatic impact on your sales. Often, when a business struggles to build a long-term sales strategy, the sales tool kit can be a problem. While there are other potential factors, such as bad products or service issues, these are typically rapidly spotted by the customer service team. Yet, when you don’t face any customer complaints, but your sales are not growing, it’s time to reconsider how you collect and use sales intelligence.
#2. Your audience doesn’t listen to you
Sometimes, the message is not the issue; it’s the messenger. Ultimately, it can be tricky to promote yourself as a small business. Your voice lacks credibility. Additionally, small businesses often experiment with marketing strategies to determine their brand’s right tone of voice. As a result, you could inadvertently put off potential customers. The easiest way to regain your audience’s trust is to switch messengers. Rather than talking about your achievements as a business, entrust a third party such as a local influencer to reach out to the market. Local influencers have already earned the trust of your audience, so they are more likely to overturn a bad rep. 
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#3. Loss of interest/ engagement
Not every entrepreneur has the same interest. Some entrepreneurs love a smooth-running business, and others might prefer the challenge of starting from scratch and establishing a brand. Once the brand is robust, they lose interest. While it’s not specifically a business mistake, it can rapidly lead to profit losses as the business owner no longer feels invested in the company. If this sounds familiar, it might be a good idea to seek options for selling a business for profits. This could protect your employees and provide you with the capital to start your next business.
#4. The business culture is toxic
A toxic culture typically drives a high turnover rate. Employees don’t stay for long, and those who do are unhappy and unproductive. There is no miracle solution to undo a toxic culture. The effort needs to come from top to bottom, taking responsibility as a leader. Indeed, the culture reflects your leadership; even if you did not create toxic behaviors, you did not prevent them.
It’s, therefore, crucial to acknowledge your shortcomings and introduce new policies to make everyone accountable, including yourself. You can also bring a third party to help address issues objectively, which would gradually help establish a safe environment.
In conclusion, turnaround strategies can effectively tackle devastating issues that would otherwise destroy a business. Contrary to common belief, it’s okay to get things wrong as an entrepreneur, if you take rapid measures to fix your mistakes.
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