11 May Are You Stuck in a Rut?
No matter how good your business was to begin with, there is every chance you’ll get stuck in a rut eventually. Some ruts are borne out of success, where you end up achieving what you set out to with your business and not touching it because it works. This leads you to settle, and that can mean getting into a rut so deep you don’t even realise you’re in it until things stop working for you.
This isn’t meant to sound doom and gloom. But it has to be said that even the most successful businesses have gone under or been in danger of doing so because they haven’t changed to adapt to the conditions around them.
You only need to think of businesses like Woolworths to know this is true. This was a hugely successful institution for decades, only to fail a few years back. You can bet the rise of the internet and the success of other stores led to its downfall. The sad thing is that Woolworths never changed its business model. It was assumed that because it had succeeded for many years it would continue to do so for many more years too. Of course we all know this wasn’t the case. It failed mainly because it kept on ploughing the same rut, even though it wasn’t working.
It’s always a good idea to make sure you pay attention to your surroundings and not just your business. Sometimes a brand new website, a whole new rebrand or even a new direction can mean the difference between success and failure. As we’ve seen, the length of time you spend in business does not matter. What matters is how you use that experience and knowledge to keep going to bigger and better successes in the future.
If you think your business is in a rut, it’s time to do something about it. Take a step back and see where you started compared to where you are now. Think about whether you can achieve more with a brand new direction, a new website or a new approach. The chances are you can.