Recently I was in a planning meeting with one of my clients as we discussed their future plans, focusing on the changes within their business model and the changes to their service offerings.
This is something that all businesses should do on a regular basis.
Why?
Because things change. Technology changes. Your market changes. What your customers want change. And maybe you and your business are changing too.
Some businesses find these changes difficult because they’re so set in their ways and don’t want to change. Even if the way they operated for years – maybe even decades – has always worked in the past, that doesn’t necessary mean they will continue to work in the future.
But before you can decide what to change, why and how, it’s important to be testing and measuring within your business.
Monitor your marketing so you know where your customers are coming from and how much they spend, on average, in each transaction, each month and each year.
Monitor your accounts too, or ensure that your bookkeeper or accountant do this and keep you updated on these figures.
And make sure that you’re monitoring changing trends when it comes to things such as customer behaviour and technology.
You might also like to speak with your customers regularly – either as an informal chat, via a survey or by hosting VIP days (or nights) where you get to know your customers better and let them get to know you better too.
In doing these few, simple things you are less likely to be taken by surprise when any of these things change and will require you to adapt your business to keep up with these changes.
This ability to adapt as necessary is one of the traits of successful business owners. Meanwhile those who are stuck in their ways may find it easier to sit back and whinge about how bad business is, continuing to do more of the same things they’ve always done until they’re forced to shut up shop.
