It is a well-known fact that all businesses go through ups and downs. Yet for new businesses, successfully riding out the lows is critical in the initial stages while the organisation is still finding its feet. A report published by Bloomberg stated that an astonishing eighty percent of all entrepreneurs who start companies actually fail within the first eight months. Although experiencing some issues along the way is a given, how can you maintain a positive trajectory and build upon success, even during the hard times? Starting a business or leading a company is no mean feat, yet through intelligent forward planning you can set your organisation up for stable growth in the long-run. As CEO and Founder of Forever Rose and Al Samadi Group, Ebraheem Al Samadi shares his expert advice on how to be prepared for issues that may arise and important steps every business should take to ensure success.
Create a solid foundation
Building a solid foundation for your organisation is essential for many reasons, one in particular being that any small cracks that could cause big issues down the track have been identified and addressed during the initial stages. It is all about crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s, no matter how unnecessary it may seem. It’s often the little things you choose to brush over that come back to haunt you! Solid building blocks will not only help create a clear understanding and appreciation among staff of the company culture and standard way of operating, but will also help you keep control of the ship and minimise the internal chaos if things do go wrong.
Communicate
Keep your doors open and allow your employees and colleagues to provide feedback about the work environment. This will not only ease tensions between staff, but will also help you to stay “in the know” about the office happenings and allow you to detect any issues that may be bubbling under the surface. Anticipating any potential problems will give you time to devise possible resolutions and handle the situation in a calm and collected manner, rather than putting everyone on edge and jumping to conclusions.
Consider hypothetical scenarios
Although many unforeseen issues will rise out of the blue, pre-empting what could happen and having thought-through responses is ideal for any business. Make a list of ‘what ifs’ and identify how they can be resolved. This way if something does happen, you won’t be caught off guard and will have a plan already in place to guide you.
Stop. Think. Go
Many times the automatic reaction for anyone having to deal with a problematic situation is to rush to a solution and move forward. A quick fix often leads to further small issues in the future and will make work life more stressful for everyone in the office. When faced with any issue, try to stay calm and take your time to think of a long-term resolution. Don’t hesitate to reach out to colleagues for suggestions, they might have ideas that you hadn’t thought of previously.
Learn from past mistakes
It is essential to keep records of your company’s past. With these records, it is easy to track back to see what went wrong before and prevent those situations from happening again. Take some time to review the history and analyse how the situations could have been handled differently. This will also help when it comes to preparing resolutions to hypothetical scenarios. The more you know about your company, the easier it will be to make the right next move.
Written by Ebraheem Al Samadi, CEO of Al Samadi Group and Forever Rose London