As a business owner, you love what you do. You love being in control of your day to day routine, being your own boss, being responsible for a business and its team.

But with any business comes risk. Your business could be thriving one month, and the next month sales could be down and you find yourself with little or no customers to market to. To make matters worse, it can be an uphill struggle to recover from a slow period.

Unfortunately, every business will at some point face hard times. It could be a cash crunch, the loss of a key client, or growing too early. But what’s important is recognising the problem and fixing it.

Here are 3 key components of your business that you should assess at the first signs of a struggle.

1. Finances

Before you make any change in your business, you need to know exactly where your business stands financially. If you don’t know the full extent of your finances, you can’t make effective business decisions.

Everything in a business links back to your bottom line, and this is where the concept of “cash is king” really rings true for business owners. Your business could be highly profitable, but if you get to the end of the month and you don’t have the cash to pay the bills, then you are in serious trouble! Worse, if this becomes a repeat habit for your business, the company will inevitably fail, simply because you have run out of cash.

When assessing your company’s finances, it’s a good idea to overestimate expenses and underestimate income. This means giving yourself a financial safety net by allowing for any additional costs that could surprise you. Budgeting is crucial in making sure you don’t take on any financial obligations until you are certain you have the regular income to support this.

2. Team

Your team will always be your greatest asset, and they are a fundamental part of your business operations. But they can also be your greatest downfall. You might have a team member who isn’t delivering to the required standard, or you may have taken on more business than your team can handle.

If these are true for your business, then you need to evaluable how your team can better support you. It could be, for example, that they need more direction, in which case you need to guide them in the right direction so that your service delivery doesn’t deteriorate.

3. Time management

Without realising it, you may find you are taking on far too many responsibilities in your business. A good task to do is audit everything you are doing within your business. Even identifying the smaller jobs, such as customer support, can help identify where your time is being spent.

From there you can evaluate what you are really good at and should keep doing, and you could delegate the remaining responsibilities. Doing so can really help you focus your efforts on effectively supporting your business.

Connecting the components

Whilst it is important to look at each of these areas in isolation, it is worth noting that each component we’ve discussed is linked.

For example, business owners often think that expanding their team is a good option, especially if their current team are working at capacity. However, without evaluating their team, their finances and time commitments together, the act of expanding can often be a nightmare.

In this case, expanding your team firstly would involve evaluating your current team, and see where there are gaps in skillsets and so on. From there, you would want to evaluate your finances, because you would need the cash to finance your recruitment process and also, at some point, pay your new employees’ salary.

Even so, if you haven’t got the time commitment to invest in your recruiting process, the entire plan could do more damage to your business than you once thought. So, when looking at why your business is struggling, it also worth looking at these three components together rather than in isolation.

Take action now

When your business is struggling, it can be really difficult to see the forest between the trees. Even if you’re putting in more hours, and assessing each of the areas we’ve covered, it can be wise to seek expert help.

Speaking to our team can go a long way in guaranteeing your business’ success and helping you see the bigger picture. Visit our website to find out more about how we can help turn your business around with the right systems and support.