One of the most challenging decisions a person must make is if it is time to call it quits on their business. Is it time to say goodbye after days, months, or years of work?
While often having to close a business might be seen as a failure, there is a lot of good business decision-making behind the idea that you should close your business.
Spotting the signs early can mean that you can move forward with the decision that suits what you need to do. The procedure for closing your business will vary based on the industry, and you might need to explore specialist options like restaurant liquidations or acquisition.
Here are a few things to look out for that might indicate it is time to shut up shop.
Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash
Sleep Mode
There are occasions where letting your business stagnate for a while is the best course of action. A dormant status means that your business can cease to trade for a short while and remains in a dormant mode. One benefit of this is that before it happens, you can strip your business of all assets and more – freeing up cash but keeping the business alive.
If you operate in a busy market, this can be a great way to wait for your market to bounce back without taking any risks.
Before you take this step, you’ll need a means of other income to keep you afloat.
Employees
If there seems to be a rumble in the jungle of your employees, and you can’t quite put your finger on it – you or your business might be the issue. When employees that have been around a while start to leave, or you suspect they might be interviewing elsewhere, they might feel uneasy.
It is more likely they feel uneasy if sales haven’t been great for a while and they are starting to worry about their job.
Unfortunately, this is a difficult situation, a lack of funds can lead to a lack of employees, and a lack of employees can lead to you not being able to fulfill your customer or client orders.
If your employees start jumping ship, it’s time to consider closing the doors.
Rising Stress
Running a business comes with plenty of stress, but if you are finding you are unable to reduce your levels no matter how much time you take away from your emails – it might be time to admit the business is too much to handle.
You might not need to close the business; it is possible that you will find someone to take the reins for a while and take a backseat.
If the sound of your emails pinging fills you with dread rather than joy, and you get a big hit of anxiety before you open the doors in the morning, then it is important to consider how your business is impacting your health.
Enthusiasm
There are some days that your business is going to feel like a slog, and that is part and parcel of getting your business off the ground. However, over time both want and excitement fade into something that is more like effort and unwillingness… this is a big neon sign. It’s time to make a different choice.
Feeling trapped in a business that you have built isn’t an idea, and it puts you at risk of losing your sense of purpose too.
If you once believed in the mission and vision of your business but didn’t anymore – then this is a sign that it is not the right business for you at the moment.
Passion can pass for a while, and shortly after, with a jolt of inspiration, you are reinvigorated and ready to make some big decisions and run your business in the best way.
People Aren’t Buying
It can be difficult to tell if your marketing isn’t working or your product isn’t resonating with people. What is even more difficult is if you know that the customers aren’t loving it but aren’t ready to give up on it just yet.
When the love you have for a product isn’t matched by your customers, then you have a problem that no amount of marketing is going to fix.
One of the ways you can turn this ship around, instead of closing the doors, is to get feedback, act on it, and see if that changes the enthusiasm.
If not, you might need to accept that this product or business isn’t making the waves you wanted.
Often the smartest decision can be the most difficult, and when it comes to your business, it’s on your shoulders to get it right.
Perhaps you don’t want to shut down your business yet, and you want to give it one last breath of life, in which case this is the blog post for you: Top 7 Reasons Your Small Business Needs Content Marketing – B2B News Network.
