As a business owner it is imperative to perpetually keep one eye on the business ball; making sure you are adapting to meet demands, changing your strategy to suit or updating your business model to keep up with current trends.
However, sometimes things don’t always go as planned. For example, you could spend months organising a campaign, an event or changing your strategies & the outcome somehow falls flat. Despite your best efforts & an abundance of energy; your ideas are not received as you had hoped, your event is not well attended & the feedback is muddled.
We’ve all been there. So you start to question what has gone wrong? Has anything gone wrong? Is it just a case of the fact that as we live in an ever changing society, whose needs are greatly determined by influencers, celebrities & changes in economy; peoples choices change quicker than some companies can keep up with? Is it any wonder for some businesses it is a constant challenge to not only keep up with business trends, but attempt to be one step ahead of them.
However, if you have found that this year has seen your business ideas not necessarily be received as well as you had hoped, what can you do to address this?
Virtually Smart Ltd has collated five ideas which you could use if you feel you need to refocus & regroup. (Note: This list is not exhaustive)
Regroup
When youhave taken stock & had a chance to think about why your business may not be on the track you had hoped; now is the time not to disband, now is the time to regroup.
Refocusing your effort inwardly make sound counterproductive, but if you are going to ultimately make the leaps & bounds forward which your business plan says you should do; taking time as a business owner to assess & evaluate is crucial.
What has worked this year?
One way to enable the regrouping process is to spend some time as a team (or seek out a VA Professional if you are a one-person band) & take some time to consider the strategies which have worked well during the year.
Have you held a particular event for example, which was a resounding success? What was the event focused on? Guest list? Public responses? Weather?
Another element to consider is if you have conducted a successful advertising campaign (see below) Consider why it was so effective? How much of a revenue impact do you consider it had on your business? & how much more return custom has been generated because of it?
Take a look at the peeks & troughs of your business year & consider if they are seasonal at all.
Another ting to consider is how the political landscape might have influenced your customers or clients choices throughout the year. In the UK particularly, there has been political uncertainty abound for the past three years with Brexit negotiations reaching stalemate & of course the UK is now seeing the fallout of a General Election just before Christmas. These kind of issues can & do affect consumer behaviours & can affect the ways in which they engage with business.
When you have taken an opportunity to reconsider the successes in your business year, now is the time to begin the brain storming & business strategy forming process to rejuvenate & refresh your business.
Advertising
Advertising is essential for any business & where & how you advertise for your specific business, will have a key role to play in the success of your business.
Dependant on your business sector & what your client/customer avatar type is, depends on where you will target your advertising campaigns.
Social media still has a large part to play in advertising, however, depending on budgets, you can of course choose to explore television & radio formats too.
Regardless of what your advertising platform choices are, the content therein has to be constructed carefully to ensure you are targeting the customer/ client avatar your business type will engage with.
If you are targeting millennials for example, you will want to consider appropriate content for a You Tube/Netflix generation who are seeking to not only be entertained, but expect your advertising to reflect an ethical, social & informative stand point as well.
If your product or service is suited to a family audience, you will want to consider advertising time frames which are suited to the time of day that families with children will be engaging with television, radio or social media platforms. Traditionally, targeted advertising for children over the age of five years old for example, would happen after school time & traditionally before nine pm. However, in a Netflix/YouTube driven society, considering additional time frames is also essential.
Printed materials are still read by a vast majority of readers & dependant on your business sector, this could be another way to target a specific customer/client avatar.
Social Media
Social media not only enables you to engage with a vast & wide ranging diverse audience, it also allows you to engage with current trends, other companies of a similar ilk & enables you to actively target certain age ranges.
The use of the #Hashtag has become synonymous with creating a collective focus throughout the entirety of all social media platforms. However, over doing it can lose rather than engage an audience. Therefore, when you use a #Hashtag, make it specific to your brand, business or business sector.
Be mindful of where your client avatar ‘hangs out’ socially & target your social media presence to engage directly with them. For example, if your product or service is of a legal nature for example, you may find that LinkedIn, Instagram & Twitter are more appropriate platforms. If you are part of the crafting movement, Pinterest & Instagram would most likely be more suited to reach a target audience.
Ensuring you are responding to your social media data & keeping abreast when you receive the most amount of engagement (this is available through all of the major social media streams) will enable you to be active at the most appropriate times.
Also make sure that in amongst your own advertising & your own content, you include other content from other sources to create a balance & generate more engagement.
Networking
Physical networking & or connecting with other business owners in your locale, is a great way to firstly not feel so isolated & is also a great way to discuss ideas. Networking groups are available everywhere, some are focused on a specific industry, others are designed for local business owners to come together; regardless of how they are formed, they all benefit business owners to help stay connected to others in their communities & business sectors.
Running your own business is a challenge & it is not always plain sailing. However, rather than fight against the tide if things don’t seem to be working out or choices are made which don’t have the returns expected; stop & take a breath for & moment, regroup & refocus. This seemingly simple act can & does help business owners to dust themselves off & move forward successfully & positively.
Written by Katy-Jane for & on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd
