For many ambitious entrepreneurs, success can prove elusive –– at least at first. Indeed, a huge number of small businesses fail to survive for even five years. And some businesses with initial promise may be forced to close their doors due to circumstances beyond their control. As such, it’s not unheard of for business leaders to resurrect old plans and relaunch a company from time to time.
The first thing you really need to do is to go back to your existing customers and customer base (including potential customers and the potential customer database) and re-introduce yourself and your business to them. That is your “easy fruit”; it is always easier and less costly to re-convert existing or old customers than to go out to find new customers.
Depending on the business and how you have left it, will the name be changed so that it can work better? Repositioning a product or service under a new name may help convey the message that you are restarting. Or it may help attract a new customer base. It really depends on your business, your reputation as an owner, and the company’s reputation in your market or industry.
Creating or relaunching a grand business or product is not enough. If you want to succeed, you require taking steps to plan and carry out timely and memorable releases so that your products can attract more people’s attention in more regions. In today’s highly competitive market, companies need to start promotional activities before they can really begin selling their products. In addition, companies also need to locate a way to stand out from the ordinary while giving early adopters the correct first impression.
Here, we’ll explain how professionals can re-enter an old market and relaunch their business effectively:
Protect your Intellectual Property
Copyrighted material –– like logos, business names, and other intellectual property –– can expire after a business shuts down. For reference, most copyrighted material will be classified as “abandoned” after three years of non-use. Given that fact, the first step to re-establishing a business is to ensure that you have control over all relevant copyrighted material. If not, take action to re-register your company’s trademarks. Though this step might seem straightforward, it’s obviously essential to building a brand.
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Update, Update and Update
If you’re planning on bringing back an old business idea, then odds are there are at least some aspects of it that you think will prove lucrative in the future. However, don’t simply try to bring back a business exactly as it once existed. Rather, business leaders must update as much relevant information as necessary. Update social media pages, business sites, and other web pages with new content for your customers. Let them know that you’re opening up again and what you’re doing differently this time around. This will give you an easy opportunity to introduce any new products or services as well.
If you are a B2B (business-to-business), then restarting your campaign can be as simple as making some personal phone calls, targeted email (or traditional email) campaigns, and phone follow-up. But if you are a retailer, location is important. If you want to offer a different product or service, you must use the new sign and location before the updated “Grand Opening” campaign. However, if you keep your customers in good standing, then a large-scale “reopening” under your old business badge is also a good strategy.
Identify your Business Marketing Channels
Gone are the days when companies could only sell their products on one or two sales channels. Nowadays, able startups maximize potential sales by targeting as many potential channels as possible. Like traditional TV, radio, and mail shops, modern companies also promote their products on websites, social media pages, and online retail sites. They create email marketing campaigns, use PPC advertising, and even contact customers via text. The more channels you use marketing materials as targets, the more opportunities you have to find new and profitable audiences.
Create a Business Schedule – Stick to it
It is easy to forget the goal when putting effort to launch a new product. Savvy business owners can produce detailed production plans to ensure that the company completes tasks on time and hold team members responsible for their roles. In addition, you should evaluate the timeline to ensure that it covers every necessary task. From conducting market research based on the target audience to getting connected to your favorite blogger or maybe your wanted YouTube star and then setting some clear goals. You need to put the goal on paper and get committed to achieving it while you are trying to sell 1,000 products.
On one hand, it is important to guarantee a realistic schedule. On the other hand, you need to decide on the time of the year that you are looking for to release your new product. You must consider some factors like season, trade shows timings, events of pop culture. You must be clear on your educated and experienced staff for the product launch. Proper judgment will greatly affect your selling. You do not want to see yourself struggling on a new product release for improper planning. You definitely want to avoid understaffed of your experience employee in these vital situations.
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Make Smart Hires
Sometimes partnering up with professionals you’ve worked with before can help you recapture some old magic. On the other hand, your new business venture may benefit from fresh blood and innovative ideas. However, you choose to staff your organization; it’s essential that you bring on capable and qualified professionals to help you get started. Making a few quality hires could prove the difference between launching a business successfully and being forced to go back to the drawing board again.
Convert your Service into a Product
You did very well. Your customers thank you. But you are stuck in a loop. You can only make money within the allowed time of the day. You have been charging for treadmills by the hour for some time. Maybe it’s time to apply this expertise to products. Something that may actually make money while you sleep.
In this era of user-friendly technology, it is not easy to bring the hard-won skills you have honed over the years to products that resonate in the market. If you are a health consultant, you can create a set of cards to provide daily health tips; then sell them on an e-commerce website. If you are a mechanic, you can create an online course to show how to change oil and other basic mechanics. If you look at the big winners in the Internet market, many of them apply their hourly expertise to technology to make a penny.
Learn from Experience and your Mistakes
“Whether you want to open a business that manufactures butterfly needles like us or provides digital marketing services, professionals should bring all their experience to the table when they seek to establish a startup. Remember, everyone in the business world makes mistakes from time to time. Instead of dwelling on any previous errors you’ve made, learn from them; take steps to give your new business every chance at success. After all, practice makes perfect in the long run!” – as nicely elaborated by Rainer Perneker, the CEO of Greiner Bio-One, in one of his recent press releases.
Once you know the thing and the reason for their non-performance, it is the moment to make some modifications. There are two “heaps” that you need to face and they are good things and bad things. Keep the good things – whether it’s your software, products, or even business cards, and learn from the bad. These courses are the most important part of the restart course-study and please do remember them. You need to streamline some positive decisions based on what you have known. This is where your business is reborn and it will be considered a landmark in your business history. You have a valid business again. Let’s go.
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Start your Promotion again
Now you have effectively relaunched the business in a new way, but no one is aware of your presence. Now it is again time to do word-of-mouth to make the world aware of your business. If you can hold an event to herald the restart of your business and promote it in a way that makes people talk about it, then you will be in a good situation to begin your business well. Promoting your business will not be your only purpose. You also need to make it unique and thereby getting rid of the old image of your business. If you can articulate the truth that your business is a leaner business and more mean (perhaps cleaner and more environmentally friendly) and can continue to exist, and then you may be a winner.
Most importantly, business relationships are just another form of interpersonal relationships. Rekindling the “old flame” can be as simple as going back to those people and “reaching out a helping hand”. Some will respond, some will not. However, if you had a good business before the setback, you should be able to reproduce the positive cash flow; you can repeat the business before spending any additional resources to buy new customers. Do remember this is not the end of your journey and planning of it and it has just begun. However, do have the feelings of a fresh and new start and do new your motivation to achieve your goals and dreams.
