David T. Fagan: 5 Warning Signs that Indicate Total Business Disaster

You should rarely be surprised with a business disaster. There are almost always WARNING signs. The trick is to notice them early enough that you can actually do something about it…and you can almost always do something about it!

Here are Five Warning Signs that should NOT be ignored!

WARNING SIGN #1 There is no movement to be measured.

You must have metrics and alarms that go off when there is no movement in your leads funnel. If you are NOT getting new opt ins on your website, new friends on Facebook, new views on YouTube, connections on Linkedin, and/or the phone just isn’t ringing you have a problem. People should be clicking, commenting, and sharing what you have online. There should be proof that people are interested, intrigued, and fascinated by your business.

WARNING SIGN #2 New customers are coming quicker than past customers are being fulfilled and satisfied.

Whether it’s a product or service, you need for them to be delivered and fulfilled as fast as possible. You can reach a point where new clients and new client sales are paying to get past clients fulfilled. One problem here is that if you stop getting new client business then you lose the income necessary to “keep the doors open” and complete what you have promised to do.

WARNING SIGN #3 Your current team isn’t prepared for your current challenge.

Sometimes the team that got you to where you are now is not the team that will get you to where you need to go. There are different challenges like technology and industry specific experience as an organization evolves. You have to either get your team the training and tools it needs or get a different team. There is no other way.

WARNING SIGN #4 You are becoming irrelevant in the market place.

A successful business will have a certain amount of success to point to; I call this social proof. This includes things like awards, testimonials, endorsements, new certifications, diplomas, degrees, and influential or even celebrity clients. If you go years without new social proof to add, you run the risk of becoming irrelevant and old news.

WARNING SIGN #5 Every month you start over.

Ask yourself if you have been in business for five years or one year five times. Ask yourself if you have been business for one year or one month twelve times. You should be growing a database and sphere of influence. You need to be following up with past leads and prospects. When you don’t, you are essentially starting over every month or every year from scratch like a brand new business. If you can constantly build upon past successes then you can create more momentum and essentially make more money in less time. Having a pipeline of prospects that is constantly full is paramount.

There are more WARNING SIGNS! Do you know what they are? Give us your feed back and any WARNING SIGNS you know of in the comment section below.