If you have recently started your own business then you may be wondering what you can do to keep it afloat. You may be aware that as many as ¾ of businesses will fail to make it to their fifth year of trading. While this may seem like a lot, the first three years are the most important. After this time, you should be seeing a rise in customers, sales, and profits. Check out the article below to see how you can keep your business on the right track. 

Set Clear Business Goals

One of the first things you need to do within your company is set clear business goals. These should follow the SMART acronym and be Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. This means you don’t want to set the goal of making a million pounds in a year, nobody would be able to do this. However, you could set a goal similar to making a certain amount of sales in a year. This is far more achievable and will give everyone a boost when they reach it, especially you. 

Have A Business Plan To Follow

Something else you might want to do to see your business excel is create a business plan. This shows you what your plans and goals are for the year to come, you could also create a three or five year one. Ideally, you should already have a business plan in place when you open your company. Your employees should also be included in the business plan so they know what their aims are. If you include financial goals within your plan, make sure your funding is going to the right place. Marketing will take away the most from the Money pot so be sure to spend it wisely. 

Use Tech To Help You 

There are so many forms of tech you can use within your business now, it is no longer working against you. If you are trying to manage everything all at once then you could get software to assist you with this. For instance, you will no longer have to send out invoices to clients or work out who gets paid what each month. Take a look at a business unified solution to help you get further in the business world. 

Think Of Your Employees

Finally, if you want to keep your business on the straight and narrow then it all comes down to the people that you are hiring. If you are employing people who have no idea what they are doing then you are likely to see your business spiraling. Your business could also be at risk if you have a high employee churn rate. This happens when employees come and go in quick succession. You can avoid this by hiring the right people from the start, checking out resumes, and calling references before you hire anyone. 

We hope this gives you some ideas on what you need to do to keep your business from turning into a sinking ship. 

Originally Published on https://www.breakfastleadership.com/

Michael Levitt Chief Burnout Officer

Michael D. Levitt is the founder & Chief Burnout Officer of The Breakfast Leadership Network, a San Diego and Toronto-based burnout consulting firm. He is a Keynote speaker on The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and Burnout. He is the host of the Breakfast Leadership show, a Certified NLP and CBT Therapist, a Fortune 500 consultant, and author of his latest book BURNOUT PROOF.