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Pitfalls can appear in many different places as a business owner. No matter what industry you occupy or what kind of work you do, there are things that can hurt you and even put you out of business if you aren’t careful. Unfortunately, there are some things which are out of your control. The current Coronavirus pandemic is one of these, putting a lot of businesses in a precarious position. Some are in this situation because the economy has been impacted, for example, if you owned a restaurant when the pandemic started there would have been months without sales or making any money. Some simply can’t cope with this. However, there are a lot of issues that can be navigated by prior planning or thinking on your feet. For example, in the above example, a restaurant might be able to start operating as a takeaway service. Below are some common pitfalls which might appear, and some solutions that might help you navigate them. Of course, it might be hard to apply these directly to your business as all are utterly unique. Take advice, and do your best to apply them to your own business.
Stay Within The Law
It sounds like such simple advice. Stay within the law. However, there are constantly businesses in court, being sued, or in trouble with local authorities. A lot of this can be avoided by following the local laws. Simply being away from what laws govern your industry may keep you out of business and commercial litigation. On the same note, if you operate a facility that is open to customers, or where your staff operates, you need to adhere to safety regulations. This means there are no dangers that can hurt anyone, people are properly trained to use the equipment, and there is appropriate PPE for people to wear. You also need to look after your tax affairs. This means you need to keep well-organized records so you can pay the right amounts of tax. If you mess this up and pay the wrong amount of tax, you might end up with a nasty surprise down the line. Pay the right tax. Not only will the authority charge you for what you’ve not paid, but they might also charge you interest on it, and potentially a penalty. If you feel like you’ve lost control of your bookkeeping here think about hiring an accountant or tax specialist to have a look at this for you. Better than having a red mark against your name.
Hire The Right People
Hiring is tough. Especially if you haven’t done it before. No one will care about your business as much as you. No one will care as you do. However, you need to hire right or you’ll damage your business. The key to hiring right is setting the expectations from the start. To save yourself time, and your applicants, make sure you lay out exactly what you want in the advert. Give key cut off points. For example, if you want the candidates to have a certain qualification put this on as a cut-off point. As part of your essential criteria. If you don’t you’ll end up having to interview a lot of people who simply don’t fit the bill. Remember, unfortunately, there are a lot of people unemployed at the moment. This won’t change, with many experts predicting a global recession on the horizon. If you hire right, your business will increase in productivity across the board. If you have no experience with hiring, look to a recruitment firm to help, or see if any of your friends have experience with hiring. They can help you get it right.
Diversify
Diversifying your business will become extremely important if you want to ride out the coming global recession. Essentially, it means slightly changing what you do to suit the demand. Easier said than done though. Especially if you have to change your whole operation. It depends on what you do. For example, if you’re operating a manufacturing business you might want to branch out into a different product. If you run a services business, think about what else you can offer which will bring in more custom. It’s about looking ahead to the horizon and doing what’s best for your business. If you’re really unsure, it can’t hurt to see what your competitors are doing. Maybe they’ve ventured in a different direction. Is it working? Did they make a mistake? Let someone else do the hard part for you and put in some research. Research is always king and will stop you from making the
