What Your Business Should & Shouldn’t Be Doing
Your aim should always be to be doing everything right when it comes to running your business, but that isn’t always the case, is it? Running a business is hard, and you never know what’s going to be around the corner.
Although you might not be aware of the unknown, you can prepare yourself for all possibilities. The more backups you have in place, the more you can protect your business from going downhill. But, for all of the protection you put in, you sometimes can’t account for the things that you personally, might be doing wrong.
As business owners, we like to think that absolutely everything we’re doing is perfect when in reality, we’re making mistakes on a weekly basis. Whether the effects of such mistakes are damaging or not, you still want to keep any to a minimum to keep your business running smoothly. So, we’ve come up with a list of things that we think your business should, and shouldn’t, be doing. Have a read on, and make sure you follow every point within your business practices.
What It Should Be Doing
So, let’s start with the positives first! There are so many things that your business should be doing, but might not be doing to the best of its ability at the minute.
The first is website management, and we know a lot of companies fail here. The website is the bread and butter of a business at the minute, but failing to maintain it properly can result is a loss of sales.
You should be looking at things such as web store software, to see if you can implement it into your business. You should always be looking for ways to streamline the e-commerce section of your business to give your customers the best experience that they could possibly have. Website malfunctions can be so annoying to both you and your customers, so finding ways to maintain it all of the time should be your priority.
The second thing that we think you should be doing, is paying attention to what your customers actually want from your business. It’s so easy to focus just on marketing, selling your products, and making a profit. But, if you don’t think you’re doing either of those to your full potential, then looking to your customers should definitely be your answer.
They often hold the key to a successful business, yet so many companies choose to ignore their views and opinions. One thing you could try doing is a survey for your customers that outlines parts of your business and ask them whether they like it, or whether they think it could be improved. Once you have this data, the things you can do with it are endless. It’ll give you so much praise, but at the same time will give you a few areas that you need to focus on. From there, it’s all about improving your business to please your customers.
What It Shouldn’t Be Doing
There are plenty of things that your business shouldn’t be doing, without you even realising. One of the biggest things you need to make sure you’re not doing is treating your employees unfairly. The amount of companies who have a reputation for high staff turnover, and poor employee treatment is so high, and it’s one of the reasons why some companies just aren’t reaching their full potential.
Although it can be easy to unload the stress of the day onto an employee in the form of being a little snappy, the effect it’ll have on their performance will be huge. If you want a team of people working for you who are committed, and will put 100% effort into the role day in, day out, then you need to make the role more appealing. Simply speaking to them, and trying to bond with them is one of the first things you should do. If you can build up a rapport, then they’ll have someone they can confide to if they need it.
Another thing you really shouldn’t be doing is copying your competitors to an extent where it’s noticeable. We all like to take an idea here and there, but copying to the point where customers might recognise similarities is just setting you up for trouble.
Not only that, but if you were to copy so much so that you’re taking full ideas, and the company you have taken it from copyrighted that particular section or an idea, then you’re going to be in for a world of trouble. Try and keep your ideas unique, and take hints and tips from other companies when needed.
This is a collaborative post.
