Control the Impact of Change on Your Business

This article was written by Bob Leduc, the guru of postcard business marketing... There is nobody who knows more about how to use simple postcards to grow your business.

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Many business owners expect to devote reasonable time and effort to getting their business established. Then, they hope to relax as the business runs itself and continues to grow. This may have been an achievable goal in the past. But it's not today.

Aggressive, innovative competitors and rapidly changing technology make it impossible to establish a system now that will automatically meet all future challenges.

But there are some things you can do to minimize the impact of change on your business - and even benefit from it. Here are 3 of them:

 1. Expect Change 

Develop the habit of looking for the early signs that something is changing and confront it before you start losing business.

Assume a "change is normal" attitude. Recognize that you are never going to reach the point where you know your business so well you can stop learning. Just when you think you've mastered the operation of your business something will change and disrupt your growth.

Make it a habit to look for changes that may be a developing trend. Then try to determine how this trend may impact the growth of your business.

You can develop the best solution to a problem when you catch it early and take your time to carefully work out your response. There's nothing more difficult than trying to make good long term business decisions at the same time you're trying to rescue rapidly falling sales.

 2. Diversify 

Diversification is your best defense against the impact of change. Take defensive action by diversifying in 2 major areas:

1. Diversify the products and/or services you offer.

The primary reason you want to offer a variety of related products or services to your customers is to maximize your earnings. But there's a second reason.

Changing market conditions or an aggressive competitor can cause sales for a product or service to decline, often suddenly. The impact won't be devastating if a variety of other products and services continue to produce business for you.
 

2. Diversify your marketing activities

You will reach more prospects and generate more sales by using a variety of marketing methods instead of just one or two. And it also protects you from suddenly losing a substantial volume of business because one of your marketing methods stopped producing results.

Tip: Keep looking for and testing new marketing tools and old ones you haven't tried yet.

 3. Look for Opportunities Hidden in Change 

The challenge of change often forces you do discover a hidden opportunity you can exploit to gain more business.

For example, I recently spoke with the owner of a sporting goods store. Several years ago a large retail chain started building a new superstore nearby.

The store included a large sporting goods department. Jeff knew he wasn't going to be able to compete with their prices and stay in business.

Instead, he set up a used sporting equipment section in his store and started advertising to buy and sell used equipment. Today most of Jeff's earnings are generated by sales of used equipment.

Tip: When you respond to the challenge change, always look for a hidden opportunity to increase business. You may find a source of additional sales and profits you previously overlooked.

You will never be able to put your business totally on autopilot and have it continually grow. Rapid changes and innovative competition make that impossible. But by following the 3 guidelines revealed in this article, you can minimize the impact of change and actually benefit from it.