7 disasters that can befall your business

Being a business owner comes with a lot of responsibility. Part of that responsibility is being prepared for the worst. This guide will take a look at seven of the worst things that can happen to your business – try to have a plan in place for how you would handle each of these eventualities:

1. Your best employee quits unexpectedly

You could have the most successful business in the world and a perfect track record, but if you don’t have great employees, then your business will fail. Someone who knows what they’re doing can take care of 90% of your work for you, freeing up your time so you focus on the tasks at hand. Something as simple as an email can be the start of a downward spiral that leads you to lose a valuable member of your team.

2. New competition opens upright

Even when you have a great business, there are always people who want to take you down a notch by opening up a business right next to yours. If they’re doing something that your customers like better than what you can offer, or at a lower price, then they will attract some of your customers.

3. You get a negative rating

It’s not enough to just have a good business, you need to be able to spread the word about your business. Having positive reviews on sites like Glassdoor and Trustpilot is essential to keep your online search results looking good. If any customers have a bad experience, anyone can read about it.  It can be hard to get fake reviews removed, so by encouraging your best customers to leave reviews, you also protect your business by keeping your overall ratings high.

4. You go into insolvency

If you’re in a bad situation, things can snowball into an avalanche that pushes your business over the edge. If you have to pay for something but don’t have the money then it’s time to start looking at refinancing options or finding out what alternatives might be available to you. In this circumstance, you should hire a professional insolvency advisor like McAlister and Co to help.

5. Your lease expires and/or your building gets repossessed

If you’re doing well then you might be leasing out a property to conduct your business. You should have everything in place before you sign the lease, but sometimes that isn’t enough and something goes wrong afterwards.  Smaller businesses may rent a room in larger premises and the owner may decide they need the space back.  Having awareness that your situation may not be permanent can help you plan ahead.

6. An employee leaves to start a competing business

If you have a good team then your business will be great. Unfortunately, it only takes one disgruntled employee to go and open up their own business in direct competition with you. Not only will they have all of the contacts that they made working for you, but since they were there before then they know exactly what works and what doesn’t work. Also, they might be tempted to poach your best staff.  Contracts can be a big help here, talk to a solicitor about getting non-competition clauses in place for when your people leave.

7. Your accountant is retiring

Even if you think that your accountant knows what they’re doing, it’s important to find out what the consequences would be if they were to retire before you. If there are any savings that could be made then, now is the time to look into them. Your accountant should always keep up on tax law changes and let you know when they’re coming in.

Hopefully, these disasters won’t befall your business, but by having a continuity plan in place to cope with these eventualities will mean that if they do happen, you are prepared.