It’s never been easy for aspiring entrepreneurs to start a new business. What’s worse, the modern business sphere has more complexity and challenges than ever before. In fact, research shows that approximately 50% of all new businesses don’t survive beyond five years.
Well, some manage to stay afloat beyond the five-year mark. However, you may face immeasurable challenges that necessitate swift action followed by adaptation. Doing so will provide the only way for you to thrive.
For those businesses that can’t keep up with market changes and trends, the risk of falling to obsolescence is pretty high. Do you remember Myspace? Blockbuster? Blackberry? These businesses failed to adapt quickly to the developments in their space, and right now, we can say they’re history.
We can’t let you suffer the same fate. This article discusses how you can act decisively and swiftly in this ever-changing world to ensure your business thrives, and the importance of adaptation to changing environments in general.
We’re living in unprecedented times. With so many challenges, only businesses that adapt and adjust will have the upper hand over those that don’t.
It requires altering or even shelving some strategies and plans that were put in place earlier to survive the tides.
We share here some strategies you can use to ensure your business not only stays afloat but remains agile.
1. Be Helpful: New Customer Needs Will Require Quick Response
Normally, customers go for brands that satisfy their new needs. They want assurance that your company will act speedily in case the market faces uncertainties.
Additionally, they want to hear how helpful your products and services are to their “new” daily life.
While not all your brands can provide solutions such as “stay-at-home,, it’s important and helpful if you can respond to your consumers’ new needs as quickly as possible.
Ensuring you do this effectively requires that you first get a comprehensive understanding of what your customers need.
How can you achieve this? First, consider conducting surveys that will help you learn what consumers want. Alternatively, you can generate data from consumers’ analytics. If you can establish what motivates your customers, what influences how they behave, you can easily come up with an action plan that will flow naturally.
With a strong understanding of your customers’ needs, you can improve your ads and, ultimately, your entire business. In fact, businesses that consider their customers’ behavioral insights and use them to generate a course of action outperform their competitors in gross margin and sales growth.
2. Be Personal: Delivery of More Meaningful Messages
Offering a personalized consumer experience is another most useful strategy. It attracts more consumers to your brand.
Keep in mind that potential customers search online for products every day. And since each individual has their unique motivation, this only emphasizes the importance of offering personalization at scale.
Business and market dynamics are changing rapidly. Therefore, use first-party data to ensure you deliver more meaningful and customized messages.
Additionally, let the personalization you offer reflect the present landscape. How? Use technology to reach more and more viewers automatically.
With fine-tuned messages, you can be sure your business will bring a lot more conversions than the same average return on investment.
3. Be Creative: How About a Fresh Approach to Your Marketing?
With the ever-changing business environment, it’s vital to be creative in how you approach your marketing. And not just the content but the context too.
Your existing creative techniques may not be working, thus requiring you to try a new approach. Let it be something that promotes more flexibility.
For example, YouTube has grown very popular, presenting a unique opportunity for you to develop content that targets online video viewing specifically.
Additionally, the quality of your creative content will highly impact the success your advertising achieves. Therefore, come up with fresh efforts that consider your digital campaigns, user experience, and online stores.
An example would be to ensure your website loads fast enough (no delays whatsoever) and has checkout process optimization. Don’t work hard to draw a potential customer to your site, only to lose them.
Strategies to Adapt and Pivot to Change in The Business Environment
Here are some tips to help you adapt and pivot to the new business environment to avoid crumbling.
Adopt New Ways of Thinking
Try to move away from any distractions and focus. Why not think outside the box as you try to visualize a new plan?
Eliminate the fixed mindset you’ve been relying upon and change the way you work. Travel to learn about new cultures and how you can acquire a small business loan and expand your business there.
You’ll realize fresh ideas start to pop into your mind. When this happens, ensure you document each of these ideas. That’s one highly effective way to discover solutions to help you thrive in the new environment.
Try to Adapt Your Pace Quickly
Although it’s never easy, we can never stress enough the importance of adapting to change in business.
For example, are you struggling with getting back to business after a pandemic? Granted, it takes time as you’re likely to run into several organizational challenges. Nevertheless, you can reduce the problems that come with this by adapting your rhythm to the new environment fast.
Work with a timeline, and try to adjust your behaviors to fit the new environment. Doing so will help you adapt and pivot faster.
Improve the Internal Structure of Your Business
While trying to adapt to changes in the business environment, many businesses focus on improving the quality of products and services they offer. But, on the contrary, this should never be your priority. Instead, focus on improving your company’s internal operations.
Many people forget that without an internal business structure functioning properly, the external system will fail. Therefore, a complete overhaul of your entire business to improve the internal processes should be your primary goal as you try to adapt and pivot.
When you focus on improving your business’s internal structure, it becomes easier to weather any storm, including surviving a recession.
How Do You Respond to Rapid Changes in Business?
Here’s an outline of three tips on responding to changes in the business environment:
- Set your course: Establish a compelling vision that will endure a changing market or products. Let it resonate well with your employees. With a true north, your company will easily define its value even when rapid changes happen in the industry.
- Ensure your employees know: The only way to ensure your workers rally behind you as you refine your vision for your business is by making them understand. Ensure they feel that they’re part and parcel of making that vision a reality.
- Let learning be a trend: Establish a culture of employee development, which is imperative in ensuring your workforce is adaptive and can cope with changes in the business environment. Otherwise, a company that’s not shaping its future will not care to offer its employees learning opportunities.
Final Thought
Change is inevitable and can happen at any time. With markets constantly evolving, you can’t clearly and precisely prepare for the future. However, your business can still survive and thrive. Research and keep well-informed in readiness for any possible changes.
Prepare for these changes in the business environment by applying our tips and integrating them into the day-to-day activities of your organization.
Click here for more details on financing options or call 214-629-7223 or email jthomas@fmconsulting.net for more information. Or, apply now.
An Outsourced CEO and expert witness, Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting, turnaround and brokerage firm specializing in the gym and sports industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars, webinars and workshops across the globe on the practical skills required to successfully overcome obscurity, improve sales, build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Visit his Web site at: www.fmconsulting.net or www.youtube.com/gymconsultant.
