Give Your Business a Makeover in 6 Steps
Starting and running a business is hard work, and brand credibility is something you can’t build overnight. Moreover, fierce competition and a middling economy mean that marketing efforts do not necessarily improve a company’s image or sales.
So how does a company that’s not doing well turn a corner in times like these? The answer could be: a makeover. By changing certain aspects of the company’s operations, a makeover can help a business to survive the hard times while still sustaining profitability.
If you should ever find your business in need of a makeover, here are some of the key areas you should focus on:
1. Gather the facts
Make an honest assessment of the current state of your company, accounting all pertinent financial information, resources, and projections.
Do not cut corners when conducting a thorough and unbiased market and competitor study as this determines the new thrust for your organization. Gather all the details and organize them into a chart or table to better compare your data.
2. Focus on meeting your customers’ needs
The heart of your transformation should be what the customers need. By analyzing their needs and wants, your company should try to formulate new ways of addressing these needs and exceeding their expectations of what you can provide.
Find a way to communicate with your consumers to get their feedback. Once you have implemented the changes in your business, devise systematic ways to measure customer satisfaction to continue improving your services.
If you have the resources, try to analyze the environment in which your company exists so you can anticipate trends and future problems or opportunities that may arise.
3. Refine your company’s processes
People sometimes underestimate the value of processes, thinking that a product would sell itself if it is exceptional. Such as the case may be, there are companies that appear to be selling product, but are actually selling a process or a perceived convenience, like with fast food chains.
With the help of an expert, you can refine your process flow to suit your needs. For instance, you can create a revised system for your business to deal with high employee turnover, while focusing on digitization of common tasks to fit the new business paradigm.
4. Communicate to all parties
Management must not overlook the power of communication. It is essential to be clear of your intentions and vision for the makeover to all parties concerned – staff, consumers, suppliers, and vendors. Mishandled communication may be catastrophic to your corporate image if the wrong information escapes through informal channels.
Also, open communication flow encourages a more efficient formation of linkages and the identification of roles.
5. Ensure your managers are committed
By keeping managers who can communicate clearly and lead effectively, the objectives of the transformation can be better understood by employees.
On the other hand, clients who see change being led by capable managers are more likely to trust in the new vision and anticipate the positive outcome of your makeover.
6. Drive to innovate
A makeover is not a makeover without the presence of new ideas. Start your efforts toward transformation by exploring ventures that may present new challenges to your business – alternate resources, quality control, operational costs, employee succession, performance standards, and security and confidentiality issues.
In dealing with risks, it helps to already know the facts so you can find strategic networks and or government agencies that will assist your business to achieve success.
A makeover does not always mean a complete overhaul, but rather a careful understanding of the key elements that make your business unique and more open to innovation. The transformation should not only occur outside, but must also pervade the internal parts of your company – the people, the operations, and the available technological resources.
With such changes in place, there’s a high chance that you will start to see the desired effects of your business makeover.