Do you ever feel like your business is clinging to survival? Or that you’re one lost client or bad Yelp review away from bankruptcy?
Saving a small business from the brink of disaster isn’t easy. But Grant Cardone (pictured), entrepreneur and host/executive producer of the TV show Turnaround King, says it can be done.
Cardone offers five strategies for getting a small business back on track:
1. Identify the real problem. Cardone, who also wrote the book Sell to Survive, says many times the heart of the issue is related to revenue, so often his first task is focusing on immediately generating revenue. “Revenue is God for a small-business owner,” he says. “Without revenue, you can’t expand, you can’t advertise, and you can’t conquer the market.” Set revenue goals for your employees, but also recognize their efforts in supporting sales. Cardone uses the analogy of a sports team: “You don’t have to just make a shot. You also get credit for assisting in shots in the NBA, and in the NFL you get credit for assisting in tackles.”
2. Stop discounting your products or services. “People don’t make decisions on price, they make decisions on value,” Cardone says. “Most small-business people completely misunderstand that value has nothing to do with price.” Rather than discount your product or service, increase the value proposition by boosting the quality of the product or service. For instance, if your store sells sewing machines, you could include sewing classes or in-store repairs as part of the purchase prices rather than giving out coupons or running frequent sales. “People buy things to solve problems, not because of price,” Cardone adds.
3. Fill up your pipeline. Having more orders than you can handle is a much better problem than having employees sitting around waiting for customers. Move past the latter problem by encouraging employees to become proactive. “Everybody needs to get extroverted and operate with tentacles,” Cardone notes. “Make contact with previous customers or unsold customers. Expand the pipeline of opportunities until you have new problems.”
