It can be a huge blow to your ego when your business isn't performing the way it used to (or the way you think it should). Sometimes there's an obvious external reason (pandemic, anyone?). Sometimes it's not so obvious.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything that you can do. Take heart! Here are a few suggestions to turn around the performance of your business.
Admit that you don't know everything. There are things you don't know you don't know and things you KNOW you don't know. I don't know much about Facebook ads - and I know I don't know much about them. But there are other issues in business I've still not faced, so I don't even know they are a thing!
Some times you have to give way to others who know more, have more experience, and can guide you to make more confident decisions. You don't hire a plumber to do brain surgery, right? Maybe you need an accountant who knows what book value is to help you as you prepare for an IPO. Or maybe you need a marketing pro who understands how to attract your target audience to your business. There comes a time in every business when you need experienced and dedicated professionals to help.
Here at Creative Freedom HQ, I hold regular meetings with each of my team members to make sure we're all on the same page, and to ensure that the right people are focused on the right things inside our company. While I don't have employees, and don't do employee reviews, per se. I've done them in the past when I did have an employee.
Reviews help everyone know what the expectations are and whether or not folks are meeting those expectations. It gives you a chance to head problems off earlier and recognize your team members for a job well done. Many employees want that kind of feedback and some find recognition as important as compensation. Keep that in mind when you're building out your support team.
If you want to fix the problem, you have got to find the root of the issue. You can’t just go around putting random solutions in place in the hopes that one of them will fix it. While you might get lucky once or twice, you won’t know what the problem is, so if it happens again, you still won’t know what to do. Identify where things are going wrong so that you can take the correct steps, and do this by going through your business with a fine tooth comb. You will find it, we guarantee you, it just might take a while.
This isn't an exhaustive list, but it's a place to start. There are plenty of solutions that can work, you just have to experiment to find your groove. Ultimately, that's part of business: experiment and see what works, iterate, and do it again.