The 6 Best Ways Businesses Can Bounce Back from Complications

Guest Post by Gabby Miele

Problems in business can happen to the best of us. Even when you have thoughtfully executed your ideas, you’re still going to come across hurdles that will lead you to fail. And sometimes you may fail big. However, this doesn’t mean the end of your business. 

If anything, it’s a test for how well you can bounce back. It’s your choice whether to fight back or just sit there feeling defeated.

If you have encountered a failure in your business recently, make sure to keep reading because we’ll share with you the best ways that you can bounce back.

1. Identify the problem

When we are struck with failure, it can be hard to look at the reality of the situation. The last thing we want to do is to investigate what really happened. But, this is absolutely the most important step in bouncing back. Go back to the issue and list the factors that could have affected it. Then, rank them by which had the most impact. By knowing what caused the problem, you can then take the right steps to fix it so it doesn’t happen again.

2. Ask for support

So you’ve identified the problem but you are lost on how to solve it. This is the right time to ask for support. Approach your mentor or someone in your industry that you respect. They can give you advice on what step to take next and also some perspective. You’ll find yourself feeling better knowing that setbacks happen to everyone and the best ones grow even stronger from it.

3. Communicate with your customers

If customers are affected by your recent complications, make sure to let them know. No one likes to hear bad news from the wrong party. It’s always better to hear from you. This builds your reputation and keeps your customers’ trust.

4. Get some feedback

This time you want to hear from your employees. They might just have a unique perspective on the situation and give you insights that you never would have thought of yourself. These are the people working in your everyday operations so it’s essential that you get their thoughts.

5. Take care of your financials

Your finances often get the most impact during a company setback. Keep its health in check by ensuring you are not losing even more money than you should be. This may mean cutting back on unnecessary business expenses and fast tracking your other sources of revenue. You may also want to keep direct deposits easier with money transfers. Do this both for your employees and suppliers.

This ensures that the money in your business keeps flowing while you are recovering from the setback. 

6. Shift your focus

When you’re faced with a setback, it’s easy to get stuck because you’re afraid that you’ll make an even bigger mistake. You cannot dwell on your failure long. As we said, how you react to this problem will determine how successful your business will be. If you respond with self-defeat, you will sink even further. More than anything, attitude is important for bouncing back from a business complication.

After you have taken the first essential steps above, it is now time to shift your focus to the solution. This means making a plan for how you’re going to solve a problem. Share with the team what their responsibilities are for this plan and create timelines for when the action steps will be executed. The goal is not to succeed necessarily but to simply move away from the setback so things are running normally again.

Business complications can either make or break you. Which one are you going to be?

Gabby Miele is an Outreach Analyst and Content Manager in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.