36 Year old business and client of mine. Why is it failing now after all this time. What changed form then until now? A business doesn't become a bad business overnight.
So here we are at the start of a new week and each week has me thinking who is next. I may as well get all my clients together in one room as that list is slowly getting smaller by the week. I have been working on my business for around 14 months or so and it has been hard work. Nothing is built over night and relationships with customers normally develop before the business does with me. That is who I am I suppose and see the strength in knowing the people as part of the foundation for keeping the account forever.
Over the last 5 weeks I have lost two major accounts already and there is nothing I can do. I didn't lose them to a competitor but in an around about way I did as their business will be benefiting others now. I am disappointed obviously, but this creates another opportunity as those people will be moving possibly within the industry to a company I am not supplying . I never leave any reason to burn bridges so my relationships with everyone is on a friendly banter. Maybe my business will grow more from this I don't know, but why not be positive as being negative isn't going to help anything.
It was funny the other day I was in full protection mode with my clients getting them on board. They all agreed with me saying "now is the time to make our circle of trusted people stronger" with words like" we all have to look out for each other now." This was more like me trying to hang on to what I had and I think most of them bought into the idea for now. Business is tough out there and you have to do things to keep everyone together.
I do have a list of clients who I have been working on for about 4-5 months now and they haven't budged from their existing suppliers. This is why I want them so much as that appeals to me that they are lazy and it is too much hassle to change attitude. That is exactly as I see it and if i was the buyers boss they would have been fired years ago. What work are these people really doing but actually costing the company money?
The company that hit the wall this last week was one company that took me about 3 months to land their business. The first order they placed with me they saved over 50 percent of what they had been spending previously. I made a bomb out of them yet I had saved them so much so everyone was happy. This company had been around since 1984 which is considerable being 36 years and yet still failed. This was the company that worried about the front door of it's business, but never worried about what they were throwing away out the back door. I would love to know how much monetary waste they have tossed away over the years.
People make or break a company.
Having the right staff is key and just hiring someone because they fit the experience level or they fit the salary cap for that position doesn't mean anything for the business. I have been disgusted by the standard of staff I have encountered representing their various companies. They don't care as no one knows what they are even up to which I find rather worrying. The one lady I phone twice per week every week just on the off chance she answers her phone and I have been phoning for over a year now. Wait until I get her or her boss on the phone it will be interesting. I think we are at her boss time now and have given her enough rope to hang herself so this week we will be a little more forceful.
I think after the 5 weeks at home many things will change and businesses will be one of them. The fat will have to be cut away and they will have to work differently. Staff that don't perform will be shown the door as they cannot afford passengers anymore. When we are working in a company we tend to know who the passengers are and there was always quite a few free riders.