8 Steps to Transform Your Failed Business Into a Success Story

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8 Steps to Transform Your Failed Business Into a Success Story 

By Murali Nethi | Edited by Kara McIntyre | Entrepreneur Magazine | August 12, 2024

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No business owner wants to face failure, but sometimes despite their best efforts, a business model just does not work out as planned. But failure does not have to be the end of the road. With some determination and a willingness to think outside the box, it is possible to turn things around by reinventing a failed business idea. It’s also important because reinvention allows you to learn from past mistakes, gain new insights and emerge stronger with an improved strategy.  Here are a few tips that would help your business pass through the bad phase.

1. Analyze what went wrong.  You need to thoroughly look back at what has not been working. You will need to closely examine every aspect of the business from top to bottom to understand what exactly caused it to fail. With an accurate diagnosis of what has not been working, you can then determine the right areas to focus the reinventing efforts on.
2. Modify the core offering.  Once you have identified issues with the original product or service, consider revamping or replacing the core offering. This may involve tweaking features, changing designs, improving quality, switching to a new delivery method and more
3. Overhaul the target audience.  It is also important to review whether aiming at the wrong customer segment is hampering your success. To correct that, you need to look for new demographic, psychographic or geographic groups that may be a better fit.  What is key here is your market research; it will help you identify an optimal new target.
4. Rethink pricing strategies.  Pricing problems are a frequent culprit in business failures. If you think this might be a major issue, consider altering price points, adding package deals and offering discounts. You can also think of implementing new payment options to make the business more affordable and accessible.  Being flexible and creative with how customers pay for products and services can open new doors. For that, you need to do your market comparisons first to ensure any new pricing is competitive and reasonable.
5. Streamline operations.  Inefficient or cumbersome internal procedures could also be draining time and resources away from growing the business. Look for ways to simplify workflows, delegate tasks, improve organization, speed up processes and reduce expenses involved in day-to-day operations.
6. Overhaul marketing strategy.  Another crucial area for reinvention is marketing. You will need to reassess your target messaging, advertising platforms, branding, social media presence and all other promotional avenues. Outdated or ineffective marketing is clearly not helping to improve sales and growth. 
7. Consider partnering or franchising.  Looking into partnerships, alliances or franchising models could open up new revenue streams and expansion opportunities to reinvent sluggish growth.  When one business model is not working well independently, joining forces with others can take a concept further and fast-track your efforts (with built-in support systems).
8. Accept needed changes.  Sometimes more drastic changes than anticipated are necessary to really turn things around from failure to sustainable success. Be open-minded and willing to overhaul aspects you may have initially thought were unchangeable if the reinvention process clearly indicates a major shift is required.  Having a “whatever it takes” mentality will definitely help you get unstuck!

3 key takeaways from the article

1. No business owner wants to face failure, but sometimes despite their best efforts, a business model just does not work out as planned. But failure does not have to be the end of the road. With some determination and a willingness to think outside the box, it is possible to turn things around by reinventing a failed business idea. It’s also important because reinvention allows you to learn from past mistakes, gain new insights and emerge stronger with an improved strategy.  
2. 8 tips that would help your business pass through the bad phase: analyze what went wrong, modify the core offering, overhaul the target audience, Rethink pricing strategies, streamline operations, Overhaul marketing strategy, consider partnering or franchising, and accept needed changes.
3. Reinventing is hard since it means changing a lot of things owners might have wanted to keep the same. But you have to do it for the sake of your business.

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Topics:  Entrepreneur, Growth, Failure, New Businesses, Strategy, Marketing, Product, Research, Segmentation, Pricing, Innovation, Creativity