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In an ideal world, everyone who ever put their hearts and souls into a company would have the reward of business success for all their hard work. Unfortunately, this simply is not the case. For many business owners, despite the blood, sweat, and tears they put into their work, their companies begin to falter and, eventually, come crashing down. However, there are signs to look for to see if your company is beginning to take a turn for the worse, and it is possible to stop it in its tracks and turn it around for the better. Here are 3 signs that your company is losing steam, and what you can do about it.

1. You Are Losing Business To Your Competitors

Competition in business is a natural thing. It keeps us on our toes and always progressing. However, if you start seeing that you are losing a huge bulk of your business to other companies in competition with you, it might be a sign that something is going wrong. Take a look at your competitors, and try to find differences in how they market and manage themselves. There must be something that consumers appreciate and would rather pay for, something that you might be missing. It’s always a good idea to do continuous competitor research, even if you re still ahead in the game.

2. You’ve Stopped Growing

No company is able to keep a continuous incline in their growth, it would be impossible. However, if you notice that your growth has stalled for a long period of time, it might be a sign that your company is starting to fail. Although you might still have your loyal customers with you, staying at the same level for so long will only allow others to surpass you and, eventually, beat you out. When you start to see that your growth has gone stale, that’s a sign to start looking for something new to add to the mix. Your old processes have worked for you in the past, but with stagnant growth, you might need to begin looking for other ways to go about your business.

3. You’re Working Extremely Hard with No Benefits

It’s always good to work hard for your business, but sometimes your hard work stops paying off and starts hurting you. If you find yourself putting in more and more hours with little to no reward, you need to take a step back and rethink your strategy. Hard work does help, but when you’re beating a dead horse, you’re not going to reap any rewards from your efforts. Instead, try refocusing your work ethic on new ideas that might prove more profitable.

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Anyone can start his or her own business, but not everyone can be successful at it. Although everyone has a different story, the most successful business owners and entrepreneurs all have a few specific habits they do every day, that make them successful in their company operations and allow them to meet their financial goals. Here are three habits successful business owners do every day that help guarantee them good results.

1. Create a Routine and Stick To It

Although nothing is ever certain or static in the world of business, it’s important to have some sort of daily routine that you can stick to as best you can. While always leaving room for unexpected changes, a routine can help you to make sure that you are making steady progress each day. Not only that, but the daily tasks that fall within your routine will start becoming like second nature to you, which will allow you to complete them faster, and with more efficiency.

2. Start With The Hardest Task First

Although it is much more tempting to get the “low hanging fruits” out of the way first, it is a habit of the most successful business owners to start with (and complete) the most difficult task beforehand. This way, you start off the day with fresh energy and a clear mind, which will allow you the stamina to tackle the most daunting task. When you’ve finished it, and your energy levels are much lower, you can still successfully complete many more, simpler tasks. Doing it in reverse will only cause you to push the difficult task off later and later, and you’ll find you won’t have the strength to deal with it by the end of the day.

3. Keep Track of Your Progress

While working on a daunting project (such as starting a company), sometimes it’s hard to see the progress you’re making, as your daily steps are considerably small in comparison to your end goal. To keep up your motivation, it’s a great idea to keep track of your successes and your progress along the way, so you can look back and see just how far you’ve come in whatever amount of time it’s taken, even if it feels like you’re getting nowhere.

Of course, every entrepreneur is different and has his or her own way of working. However, these tips can help propel your business forward and put you in the ranks with the most successful business owners out there.

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Anyone can start his or her own business, but not everyone can be successful at it. Although everyone has a different story, the most successful business owners and entrepreneurs all have a few specific habits they do every day, that make them successful in their company operations and allow them to meet their financial goals. Here are three habits successful business owners do every day that help guarantee them good results.

1. Embrace Changes Constantly

The world of business is always changing, every single day and business owners who are not constantly able to adapt will soon fall behind. Whether it’s a new technology, a new strategy, or a new way of thinking altogether, it’s important that you never become complacent in your routine. Just because something has been working for the past 3 years, doesn’t mean that one day 1 of year 4, it will continue that way. Business owners who are not afraid of change, even if it’s completely unknown to them, are always able to keep up with the times.

2. Understand All Finances

It’s simply not enough to look at your expense report or your monthly revenue and claim that you have your finances under control. Successful business owners understand that every cent coming in or out of a company needs to be accounted for. It’s imperative to look at every single expense daily, weekly, monthly, and annually to seek out patterns in your spending, or discover places to cut back. Have you borrowed any funding? Loans come with terms and interest rates that need to be accounted for. Keeping tabs on all of the cash connected to your business will guarantee that you keep afloat and don’t find yourself in any sticky situations with your money.

3. Take Calculated Risks

The very essence of risk-taking is, well, risky. However, all successful business owners have taken more than a few risks within their companies. Of course, that’s not to say you should throw all caution to the wind and take wild risks. But a well thought out, calculated business risk could be the difference between staying safe and making it big. Taking a calculated risk shows creativity, intuition, and faith in your own business and your team members. Being able to predict outcomes and take a leap of faith (and educated one, that is) could bring huge success or valuable lessons in what not to do in the future.

Of course, every entrepreneur is different and has his or her own way of working. However, these tips can help propel your business forward and put you in the ranks with the most successful business owners out there.

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For any business, big or small, there are many important factors that go into it to make sure that it becomes successful. Your products and/or services must be of the highest quality. You’ll need great customer support to keep your consumers happy. And, you’ll need to make sure that your finances are always in order. However, something that might be even more important than these issues, is brand marketing. Even if you are running a tiny company that has only a few employees, marketing your brand well can mean the difference between barely getting off the ground and building an empire. Here are 3 reasons why brand marketing is absolutely vital to your small business.

1. It Makes You Recognizable

Almost anyone on this planet can tell you that the golden arches represent McDonald’s and the green mermaid is for Starbuck’s. If you don’t have a solid, attractive, and recognizable brand, you’ll find that customers will be quick to forget who you are. You need to make sure that your brand image is one that, eventually, people will see and immediately know who you are. Don’t be the random brand that people buy because it was convenient. Instead, be the recognizable brand that people buy because they know you.

You Will Earn More Money

Statistically, it’s shown that customers are willing to pay more for a brand that they know. Basically, having a strong brand will increase your value in the eye of the consumer, and they will feel perfectly fine spending an extra dollar or two to purchase their products and/or services from a brand they know and trust.

You Will Build Relationships With Your Customers

There’s something almost nostalgic about that McDonald’s Happy Meal you used to eat as a kid. Now, imagine your local burger joint sold the same cheeseburger, fries, soda, and even a toy. It does not have the same emotional bond that good old Ronald McDonald has on you. When customers bond with your brand, they feel emotionally connected and invested in your products. This makes them much more likely to stay loyal to your brand, instead of moving to others (even if they offer slightly better prices).

Creating a strong, recognizable brand is extremely important when it comes to creating and running a successful business. Make sure that you have all of the elements there when designing your brand, and make it a good one.

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Starting a business at any age can seem like a daunting task. Even for people with multiple business degrees and years of working experience, becoming an entrepreneur and building a company from the ground up is no easy feat. So to even attempt starting up a small business when you are young and inexperienced sounds like a pretty useless idea. However, starting a company while you’re young can be one of the best things you can do, for reasons you might not expect. Here are 3 reasons why you should start your business while you’re still young.

1. You Have Time To Fail

When embarking on any type of project, you can pretty much expect that there will be errors mistakes, losses, and all-around failures along the journey. So, if you know that you will fail at some point, you might as well get it out of the way early. When you are young, you have the time and the energy to fail, over and over again, and deal with each failure appropriately. You will have to take a few big losses until you earn a big win, and the ambition and energy of youth can be extremely helpful to not become discouraged and give up completely.

2. You Have Less To Lose

Nobody likes to fail, much less see their entire company go completely under. However, when you are already getting older and you have a family of people who are relying on you, it is a much harder hit when everything comes crashing down. The older you are, the more responsibilities and obligations you most likely have, so there is a lot more resting on your shoulders. While you are still young, there is much less at stake, and a failure’s price isn’t nearly as high as it could be in a few years.

3. You’ll Learn A Lot…Fast

No matter how many books you read and how much business theory you learn, there is nothing better than hands-on, personal experience when it comes to running a business. Whether you like it or not, you will be thrown head-first into the ocean of entrepreneurship and you will have to either sink or swim. This cold-turkey approach may seem extreme, but it is the quickest and most effective way to become a master of running your own company.

Even though it may seem scary to start your own business at a young age, there are huge benefits that you will lose each year that you wait. So, instead of being intimidated, take the leap of faith and try to build your dream company. Who knows? You might even succeed and be set for life by age 30!

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When running your own company, there is never a shortage of work to do. However, even though the number of tasks seems to grow as you complete them, there are ways to stay organized and complete your work in the most efficient way possible. Here are three tips to work smarter, instead of harder, by eliminating the busy work and running your business in the most optimal and effective way.

1. Learn Which Tasks Are Necessary

Most business owners have more tasks at hand than they know what to do with. The unfortunate thing is, many of them keep on completing old tasks and habits that have become obsolete or unnecessary just because “that’s how they’ve always done them.” It’s a good idea to start keeping track of which tasks make you more productive and profitable, and which ones you could do without. You will start to see patterns after a few days or weeks, and you can begin eliminating tasks that are no longer serving you.

2. Get Another Opinion

Even though your company might be your baby, and you trust only yourself to get the job done right, it’s a great idea to ask the opinion of someone else. A fresh pair of eyes with a different perspective could easily pick out mistakes or redundancies that you might have missed. Especially if you’ve been working for hours on end on the same task, someone else with a new perspective might be able to come at it with a new, fresh take.

3. Get a Dream Team

No one person can do everything him or herself, because no one person is excellent at everything. While running a company, it’s best to surround yourself with a trusted team of people, all with different strengths that can benefit your business. For example, if you are very creative but not so good at organizing yourself, it’s good to have another reliable team member to make sure you are staying on track. Building yourself a solid team of people who all have impressive skills is a recipe for a very successful company.

Although it’s important to work hard in your business, it’s more profitable and efficient to cut the unnecessary chaos, and be as productive as possible. Work smarter, not harder, and you’ll find yourself running a successful company, in the most efficient way possible.

Ready to take the first step to reaching your financial goals? Click here for a FREE quote from Onebox Funding, and find the best loan with the lowest rates, today!

When running your own company, there is never a shortage of work to do. However, even though the number of tasks seems to grow as you complete them, there are ways to stay organized and complete your work in the most efficient way possible. Here are three tips to work smarter, instead of harder, by eliminating the busy work and running your business in the most optimal and effective way.

1. Learn Which Tasks Are Necessary

Most business owners have more tasks at hand than they know what to do with. The unfortunate thing is, many of them keep on completing old tasks and habits that have become obsolete or unnecessary just because “that’s how they’ve always done them.” It’s a good idea to start keeping track of which tasks make you more productive and profitable, and which ones you could do without. You will start to see patterns after a few days or weeks, and you can begin eliminating tasks that are no longer serving you.

2. Cut Meetings Times

Unless you are working entirely by yourself, and you never have interactions with your clients, you will most likely have to conduct meetings here and there. Depending on the frequency of your meetings, it’s a good idea to try and keep them as efficient as possible by using the “short and sweet” method. Use your time wisely and efficiently by limiting face to face interactions to only the necessary issues. Anything else can simply be sent via email!

3. Take a Breather

Not doing work when you have mountains of it can seem counter-productive, but there comes a point where taking a total break from all of it is necessary to keep up productivity. Avoiding worker’s burnout and mental block is imperative to keeping your productivity flowing. And sometimes, this requires you to step back from your full schedule and do something else for a while. This will help your brain (and your body) recover to its full strength and mental capacity. Allowing for you to have a more productive time when you do return to work.

Although it’s important to work hard in your business, it’s more profitable and efficient to cut the unnecessary chaos, and be as productive as possible. Work smarter, not harder, with these tips, with more to come in the following Part III of our blog post covering Ways To Reduce Busy Work and Be More Productive.

Ready to take the first step to reaching your financial goals? Click here for a FREE quote from Onebox Funding, and find the best loan with the lowest rates, today!