The business world is brimming with advice about how to manage business growth and make more, more, more of your company. From a financial perspective, that focus makes some degree of sense. But, a determined focus on growth above all can also be pretty limiting, and it doesn’t always help you get to the top. In reality, business growth is nowhere near the simple trajectory that a lot of advice paints it to be. It’s more likely that companies will experience a jagged meander to the top, rather than a steep climb. This is by no means to say that you won’t eventually hit your growth targets, but before you can do that, you need to learn how to handle sudden growth dips. After all, the best business can take a hit sometimes, and here are 3 measures you should take if that happens.
By Team Savant
Image: Markus Winkler
1. Seek Emergency Solutions
Small dips in operations are normal based on things like times of the year, but if you go from steady sales to nothing at all, you need to take fast repair action to save your skin, let alone grow your brand.
There’s usually a pretty solid reason for a sudden significant dip. The most common of these, particularly for brands who are selling online, tend to be things like broken links, or algorithm updates that leave your website pretty much invisible. If this happens, the best option is to seek emergency SEO services like those offered by Enduro Digital Marketing, as this can help you to identify the problem and quickly find a solution.
If in-person sales have taken a hit, it might be worth considering things like potentially bad reviews that could be keeping people away, or whether your marketing is simply landing in the wrong places. Addressing these issues should be all it takes to get things back on track.
2. Re-evaluate Your Operations
As mentioned, most of the business world is focused on growth, so you may be in the mindset that your operations should be getting bigger, not smaller. However, trying to maintain large-scale operations if your growth has suddenly faltered could spell the end.
In truth, rather than always looking forward, it’s important to re-evaluate your operations in terms of wherever you are right now. For example, if you’re experiencing a sales dip, things like operating on a limited team or slowing production down a bit could be the ideal solution for keeping afloat while you address the issue.
3. Get Back to Growth
Once you understand why growth has gone wrong, it’s important to get back to your business growth trajectory. Admittedly, you’ll want to take baby steps here – remember that you’ve got to make up for lost ground before you can get back to genuine growth progress.
However, slow and steady wins this race. Approaching future growth with patience should mean that you can secure a more sturdy operational footing that’s less likely to fall out from under you again anytime soon.