The weekly top 5 tips post is always full of helpful hints and advice for small, home and micro business owners.
1. Make sure that you listen to what the other people who work in your business are complaining about. Your staff on the frontline are the ones most likely to first encounter any problems within your business. You should make a point of asking them about their concerns in relation to the company.
2. Work to address and fix problems rather than assigning blame to individuals or outside factors beyond your control. Dwelling on these issues will do your business no good whatsoever – it is important to get to the heart of the issue and attempt to fix it.
3. Don’t forget to address the complaints you personally have with your business. If some small problem is niggling you then it is likely to be extremely distracting and can cause you to lose overall focus on the important issues.
4. It is essential that you fix the right problem. Don’t assume that just because sales are low that it is the fault of your salespeople. Have you invested enough in marketing, or has your customer service perhaps been lacking lately? Hidden issues can be the root cause of a problem and it is important to identify these and address them.
5. If you find that the same old problems keep coming back even after they have been addressed, you have most likely addressed the problem but not the cause.
For example, faulty parts can be remedied quickly but unless your supplier changes their production process it is likely to recur. Similarly, if you keep addressing problems with your customer service department then you probably need to go back to the drawing board and provide better training to them.
