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4 Mistakes Companies Make and How to Avoid Them

Companies often fail due to forced errors or unclear thinking that leads them down the wrong path. Eventually, sales drop, and they’ve been unable to develop winning ideas to replace what’s no longer working.

Published

3 years ago

January 9, 2020

TwinzTech

In this article, we cover four mistakes that companies often make and what do to do instead.

Table of Contents

1. Maintaining High Spending Expecting the Good Times to Never End

When the good times are rolling, the phone doesn’t stop ringing, and the Customer Service team can barely keep up; profits are high. As the founder, you think it will never end. This is the time when overspending inside the business (and outside of it too) runs rampant.

A new reception with marble flooring? Sure… All new high-spec laptops for all employees in the office? Of course! These things deplete the potential of retained earnings to weather times when they’re not so rosy.

Similarly, on a personal level, if you’re spending your salary and dividends from the company as fast as you’re taking them, your situation is not improving.

It’s best to reduce what you’re withdrawing from the company to keep spare cash in the business and, if necessary, take out a payday express loan alternative to shore up your liquid resources.

This way, you won’t need to make a massive draw on the company when you suddenly think that a holiday to Tahiti is worth doing.

Companies Mistakes How to Avoid

2. Not Using Flexible Labour Strategies to Reduce Total Running Costs

When you only have full-time employees, it’s an all or nothing approach to the labor market. This leaves few options other than to let people go when tough times do eventually hit.

Instead, embrace the flexible gig market by letting freelancers handle some of the essential tasks of the business. It will free up your team to focus on the more intensive aspects that they’re best positioned to manage.

Also, it’ll allow you to racket up or down the labor force without needing to let a quarter of the in-house team go during a significant downturn.

3. Failing to Be Open to New Ways of Doing Things

Businesses that are stuck in the mud don’t tend to last. Even if they’ve done business the same way for decades, failing to shift operations to modern methodologies is going to bite them in the end.

If that’s your business and mindset, then you need to shake it off! Your competitors are fully embracing all types of technologies and manufacturing opportunities to get ahead and stay ahead of you.

Automation, overhauled business models, and a host of other changes aren’t useful to ignore because they’re not going away…

4. Not Pivoting to New Business Ideas Fast Enough

When an old business is no longer working, there’s a reluctance to accept that. Even in the tech industry, software companies founded two decades ago that has done well to survive this far usually fail due to a lack of innovation from the top down.

It’s necessary to know when a particular product is near the end of its useful life. There’s a need to continually innovate and pivot to new, innovative software ideas to offer customers a solution that’ll be more competitive in the marketplace.

Businesses don’t run passively regardless of what the ideas of the day are. They take continual work and must evolve to continue to succeed. All business founders need to accept this reality to continue to be successful.

Business

How small businesses can overcome their supply chain challenges

Here are six tips to help your small business overcome its supply chain woes. Staying in control with effective supply chain management.

Published

2 days ago

October 3, 2022

TwinzTech

Increase Your Income Streams with These Three Remote Business Ideas

Managing a supply chain is difficult for every business. Small businesses may have fewer supply chain requirements, but they also don’t have the financial clout of big operations, which suppliers are understandably willing to move mountains for.

Smaller businesses need to use their size to their advantage when dealing with supply chain challenges. While big companies are locked into mega orders and negotiating long-term partnerships, small operations can be nimble in the face of a dynamic market.

Here are six tips to help your small business overcome its supply chain woes.

Table of Contents

1. Always pay on time

It may be obvious, but the first tip is always to pay your vendors in full and on time. Small businesses have enough supply chain issues to deal with. You don’t need to make new ones for yourself.

Manage your cash flow efficiently and keep track of all your payments. This way, you’ll ensure you don’t come into conflict with suppliers and end up paying interest or even potentially ruining business relationships and reducing your options moving forward.

Plenty of payment methods are available for small businesses to better organize accounts payable, including Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments that completely remove the need for cash or checks. Other benefits of ACH payments for your small business include scheduling payment dates and recurring payments, effective cash management so you can hold onto funds for longer, and reduced transaction fees.

2. Identify risk areas

Supply chains are often complex, containing a series of components critical to business operations. Make sure your small business has a clear and comprehensive list of everything it needs, along with multiple suppliers capable of sourcing each piece. Identify any potential risks in your supply where you may only have one or two viable sources.

It’s easy for small businesses to fall into the trap of finding a single supplier that handles everything they need and leave it at that. Unfortunately, this puts the fate of your business in the hands of one vendor. Any problems they have delivering their products is now your problem. There is no reason to introduce this level of risk to your operations, and a much healthier way to run your business is to always give yourself multiple supply chain options.

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You never know if a specific product might become unavailable at short notice. However, as a smaller business needing lower quantities, you can use your agility and develop relationships with multiple suppliers. Try to find entirely separate vendors in different locations that do not work with the same manufacturers.

3. Stock management

Keeping track of your existing stock is critical regardless of the size of the business. You need precise numbers for everything you currently have in stock and estimates for current usage in order to restock in time and never is left short. Accurately forecasting demand is critical for businesses to effectively manage their stock and protect themselves from unplanned product shortages.

While it’s not always possible due to budgetary constraints or storage capacities, if you have a volatile supply chain, there are benefits in trying to increase your inventory levels. In particular, this applies to critical components that are harder to come by. You can do this by bulk buying when you have the opportunity or seeking financing options to invest more into your inventory.

4. Simplifying your supply chain

While it can help to offer a wide range of products, this places additional strain on your supply chain. More products mean expanding your supply chain, dealing with more vendors, and more complicated logistics. Where possible, remove or combine products to simplify your supply chain and save yourself time and headaches. Even larger companies are streamlining the products they offer, consolidating operations, and building supply chain resilience to limit future disruptions.

5. Managing logistics

Even once you source everything you need, you still have the logistical challenge and costs associated with getting it all delivered. With rising fuel prices, logistics costs are snowballing, and small businesses need to work hard to rein in the cost of moving their supply chain products. This may mean making larger orders from fewer suppliers to save money along the way.

6. Use supply chain tools

A range of supply chain tools can help businesses stay on top of their operations. While it may seem like overkill for your small business, Supply Chain Management (SCM) software can help you track inventory, manage logistics, and create a comprehensive real-time database of all your supply chain information.

Staying in control with effective supply chain management

Having steady, reliable, and fast access to everything your business needs is one of the most challenging parts of running a business. Unfortunately, even the biggest and most well-equipped companies in the world have supply chain struggles. But, by using your size to your advantage and identifying multiple sources for each type of inventory, you can remain in control even when inevitable supply chain mishaps occur.