It’s a well-known fact that most businesses will fail within their first year. This is the simple rule of averages. For the few to succeed, the majority must fall. There are countless reasons why businesses do tend to fail or fall short of lofty expectations. If you are running a company, then you need to strive to achieve the goal of longevity. Instead of thinking in terms of the next couple of months, you should be exploring how to keep your business firing on all cylinders for five years and beyond.
Creating a business with the right level of longevity will mean that you must take the right steps when running your business from day one. So, let’s explore the different elements that are going to be critical in achieving this goal with your own company.
What’s In A Name?
First, you need to choose the right name for your business. Your name is important and an element that you should get right from day one. With the right name, you can ensure that your company is memorable and sticks in the mind of clients or customers. Of course, you also need to check that your name isn’t too similar to the names of other brands that already exist. There have been multiple high-profile lawsuits surrounding this issue.
Logo
Next, you should think about your logo. As important as your business name is, the logo is perhaps even more critical. Research shows that people find it far easier to remember images compared to words. As such, they are more likely to recognize your logo than your business name. While it’s obviously not all there is to the story, some well-known companies owe their success, at least partially to choosing the right logo from the beginning. If you’re unsure what type of logo you need for your business, then you can explore utilizing the support of a professional designer. They can build a logo that fits with the set ideas you have about your business.
Team
Another element that you need to get right from the beginning is your business team. Your team can be the life force of your company. Without the right team in place, you are always going to struggle to get the level of attention that you hoped for online. Similarly, you will be stunted in terms of what you can achieve in terms of productivity and general output. To get the right team together, you need to focus on your hiring practices. Think about asking questions that will reveal what different members can bring to your company in the long term.
Quality
Quality is a huge factor that will always impact whether a business model has longevity. You might be able to get away with delivering a low-quality service or product in the short term. But eventually, this is going to catch up with you and will usually be reflected in the reviews received from customers and clients. There are lots of ways that you can improve your quality standards. For instance, you should consider the business services that you use behind the scenes of your company. If you are operating in the manufacturing industry, you might utilize a thermoforming solution. This needs to be up to the right standards to deliver the final products that your clients deserve.
Cost
Keeping the costs down to size will help your business remain flexible on the market. We’ll discuss this a little further down. For now, let’s think about how to reduce your spending. One of the ways that you can do this is by price-checking different services and solutions that you are using. Alternatively, you may also want to consider going green in your business model. Reducing your energy bills will keep your company modern and the costs under control.
Planning
It’s important to have a plan if you want your business to be a success in the long term. The right plan will make it easier to gain the interest of investors who can build up your business and ensure that you are in a stronger position when facing off against key competitors. In terms of how far ahead you should plan, we recommend that you think about starting with a five-year strategy. This should be comprehensive and include various different elements from new products that you plan to introduce to fresh audiences that you intend to market to.
Marketing
Since we mentioned marketing, it’s important to make sure that your marketing is on point and able to deliver the results that you need. Often, this is a matter of hiring the right marketing team. While you might be able to DIY certain aspects of your marketing, taking this approach to all elements of your campaign would not benefit you in the long term. You would fall behind the competition. You should also have a diverse marketing strategy that includes a number of different elements so you can reach different groups of customers or clients. Ideally, you should aim to set up an omnichannel strategy where each different element works cohesively with other parts.
USP
It’s vital that your business stands out in the market. One of the reasons why so many companies fail is that they are all fighting for the same customers. Even if you join a niche market, you will still be up against a hundred or more other businesses that are fighting to get the support of the same audience as you. That’s why you need to make sure that you find the right USP or unique selling proposition. To do this, you should explore where competitors are falling short so that you can fill in the gap.
Flexibility
If COVID teaches new business owners anything, it should be the importance of a heightened level of flexibility. Businesses that survived and even thrived during the COVID pandemic were based around a model that valued and embraced high levels of flexibility. For instance, if one avenue of sales is closed off to you, then you should be able to dig down into another mine. High levels of flexibility are also one of the best ways to ensure that your business costs don’t begin to balloon over time.
Research
In the early days of your business, you should be completing as much research as possible. You need to make sure that you have a firm understanding of who your target audience is and what they are searching for when they buy from your business. In particular, you need to understand their pain points. These are the reasons that they end up at your business website or company doors in the first place. If you understand their pain points, then you can easily secure a sale.
Brand Management
Your business is only going to be successful if you have a strong brand. Without a strong brand image, you’re going to struggle to maintain the interest of an audience. It is also going to stunt you in terms of the level of word of mouth that you can achieve. Positive word of mouth is critical if your business is going to continue to grow on the market. You need to be aware of the perception of your business online and you should be ready to put out fires if and when they crop up. The right marketing team will help you here too.
Create A Culture
Another element that you should think about is your business work culture. Churn is a fact of life in any business model. There’s no way to avoid this issue completely. As much as you might want to avoid it, people are always going to leave your business. This means that you need to be ready to attract new people into the fold. Strong work culture will ensure that you can do this and that your business is always a desirable option for new employees.
Innovation
Finally, you should think about exploring different elements of innovation. It’s important that your business is seen as a modern enterprise that has the answers to tomorrow’s problems. One of the ways that you can ensure this is the case would be by continuing to move forward. If your business stagnates in the market, then it’s going to be in a far weaker position. Ultimately, you could find that the company does start to lose the interest of customers and clients.
Again, this is often about finding the right people who can propel your business into the future with exciting new ideas that other individuals wouldn’t have thought of. Of course, you also need to direct funding into the right areas of your business model too.
We hope this helps you understand some of the factors that will determine whether your business is built to last. Once you have the right building blocks in place, you need to make sure that your customers continue to buy and demand your products. Do this and your company will withstand the test of time, getting the attention it deserves on the market for years to come.
