What Are The 5 Signs My Business Has Run Its Course?
When you own a business, it can be difficult to know when you should call it a day and shut shop.
While it’s not a pleasant feeling, knowing you’re going to be closing your business, there are signs you can look out for to say when you should be closing.
If you close at the right time, you can save yourself additional heartbreak and money.
So let’s look at the five warning signs that your business has run its course.
1. Your customers don’t love your product even though you do
Your business should be striving to create a solution to your customer's problems. But what happens if your customers aren’t in love with the solutions you’re providing?
You might think your solution is hitting all the marks your customers are looking for. But if you’re falling short on one or two aspects or features, you aren’t offering the perfect solution.
When this happens, you might feel as though you have something to prove and double down to make it work. But if your solution isn’t the right one, it doesn’t matter how much money you throw into marketing, it’s not going to work.
You either need to re-work your solution, or you need to close the business altogether.
2. Do you still think that business is fun?
When you start running a business, everything is new and exciting. Turning up every day is fun, and you can’t wait to get stuck into whatever the day throws at you.
But when your business starts going through some rough patches, you might find that the fun also disappears.
Rather than looking forward to the challenges being thrown at you, you now look at them with dread. Business is no longer fun, and you’re starting to wonder why you even went into business in the first place.
If this happens to you, it might be a sign that you need to close the business and move on.
3. Taking a full-time job sounds attractive
You’ve been putting in all the hours you can, and you’re still not making money or getting very far in business.
When this happens, you might consider applying for a full-time position that offers you regular pay. When you enter this mindset, you’ve already checked out of your business for the promise of stability.
If you’re not getting the stability you crave from your business, then being in business isn’t right for you, and it could be a sign you need to close the doors.
4. You’ve changed direction a few times, but you’re still not moving forward
Business models change over time; it's inevitable as the market changes and your team changes.
However, if you’ve found that the business is changing direction fairly often, but you’re still not gaining traction with your customers, it could be time to close the doors on the business.
After all, it’s better to be known for what you do rather than have to switch what you do every time you hit a bump in the road.
5. You always have limited funds
No one likes to be stuck with limited funds; whether it’s you personally because you’re sinking all of your money into the business, or whether the business is only just scraping by every month, something isn’t right.
If you find that you’re searching for money every month, it can be a strong sign that you need to close the doors on the business and move on.
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