Stop These 4 Bad Business Habits in 2020

Bad business habits lead to bad outcomes. These four bad habits could seriously be impacting your growth, so we’ve taken the time to highlight each one. 

Failing to Strategize

We often write about forecasting and business planning on our blog. In the past, we have shared a 3 part series on strategic planning and we really can’t emphasize enough just how important this is. If you’ve never done any form of strategic planning now is the time to change that! Failure to strategize is the equivalent of ‘winging it’ in business. Sometimes if luck is on your side things work out temporarily. For a sustainable business strategy and planning is key. 

The first step is analyzing the previous business year’s performance and asking why things played out the way they did. The second step is doing the math! Looking at your sales and breaking this down into months or weeks. The final part is understanding patterns in your finances. You can read all about each step in our guides as linked above. 

No Contingency Plan

2020 is proving to be one of the most challenging years yet, not just for businesses but for all of us around the world. Although this is a very extreme example, unforeseen circumstances must be extenuated as must realistically possible for business survival. In order to do this we need to forecast all eventualities. This is where strategy comes in to play again. In order to survive a rocky patch of business we need multiple contingency plans in place. 

It’s a bit like doomsday prepping but for business! If you were to lose your main supplier what plans do you have in place? If the cost of manufacturing increased substantially what would you do? There are so many possible variations and outcomes that could apply to your organization you can’t create too many contingency plans. The more you have, the more layers of protection you have. 

Not Delegating

When we’re busy running our companies it’s easy to get caught up in all the day-to-day menial tasks that don’t contribute to growth. As the owner or director of a business we must focus on opportunities for growth, growing business and building sustainability. Often this can be changed by simply delegating tasks to employees or outsourcing elements that eat into your precious time. Opportunities for growth are missed when we are consumed by daily tasks. If you’re too busy working in the business you can’t work on the business.

A Narrow Marketing Reach

If you don’t take a multi-channel approach to marketing, you could be missing out on thousands or even millions of new customers. 

A multi-channel marketing approach is usually always best. Firstly, you can cast a wider net initially if you use multiple methods to reach customers (email, search, postal mail etc.). Reaching customers where they prefer to receive information and where they respond best. Secondly, you can create a funnel to build on initial brand awareness and take a customer through the buying journey. For example, you might use a piece of direct postal mail (www.Zairmail.com) to pull in the recipient. This could take them to your website, but you might later hit them with a remarketing advert on social media or a follow-up email marketing campaign. The type of funnel best for your business will depend on the product/service. A considered purchase, for example, might involve more channels and a longer process than a low-ticket sale.