{"id":1698,"date":"2015-10-21T00:30:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T00:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/?p=1698"},"modified":"2015-10-22T00:32:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T00:32:25","slug":"how-could-your-business-implode-let-us-count-the-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/how-could-your-business-implode-let-us-count-the-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"How Could Your Business Implode? Let Us Count the Ways."},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"How<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Brett<\/a><\/p>\n
BRETT RELANDER<\/div>\n
CONTRIBUTOR<\/div>\n
Founder of Launch & Hustle and Digital Marketing Consultant Specializing in Social Media & Mobile Marketing<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Image credit: Shutterstock<\/a><\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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There are monsters lurking out there, ready to destroy your startup. These are not the ineffective or balky team members that may give you an occasional headache. No — these are the Godzillas that stalk any successful enterprise with the sole purpose of taking it down. Don\u2019t let these bogeymen scare you out of business. Just make sure you recognize them and avoid them if at all possible.<\/p>\n

1. Predatory lenders.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There is a very active market right now for small business loans. Companies are aggressively pursuing small businesses and pressing them to sign financial instruments at oppressively high interest rates. If you already have a relationship with a regular bank or credit union, always go to them first for financial help and advice. If you must go shopping outside of traditional lending institutions, make sure they are a member of a regulatory board like ABA<\/a> orAAPL<\/a>. In a roundup of the top rated and researched financing options, Business News Daily outlines<\/a> a pretty stellar list of general financing options to choose from in case you can\u2019t get a bank loan.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Cash Crunch: What’s the Best Loan for Your Small Business?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Making your numbers instead of thinking.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Zach Atherton, organizational behavior specialist and founder Utah based Laugh and Learn Workshop<\/a> said, \u201cPerformance management systems always discourage free thinking. If your employees fixate on achieving production numbers, as an example, they will not approach challenges and problems creatively or risk a novel solution. Refusing to consider employee initiative to favor raw numbers will mean a more inefficiently-run business since your workers focus on measurements instead of needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Ex-employees with a grudge.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Employees are let go for a number of reasons. But whatever the reason is, it\u2019s best to work sincerely at doing it professionally and sympathetically. A former employee with a grudge can wreak havoc on today\u2019s social media. If they hit the right buttons, like sexual discrimination or political agenda, they can leave an ugly cloud over a company that lasts for years. If you have any doubt about how an employee is going to handle being let go, Michael Ehline founder of The Accident Law Blog<\/a> says, \u201chave your legal person draw up a document that stipulates what that employee can and cannot say in public about the decision to let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a03 Reasons to Think Again Before Bashing Your Company on Glassdoor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

4. Unhappy customer service staff.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Customer service is seen\u00a0as a dead end job when there are no opportunities for advancement and firm performance expectations in place.\u00a0That mindset creates an ideal environment for slackers and underachievers. Customer Relationship Management software can be an invaluable aid in guiding and motivating your customer service people. Yet only 29 percent<\/a>\u00a0of small businesses use a CRM system.<\/p>\n

5. Neglected\u00a0web design.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Your business is constantly changing and evolving to meet the needs and challenges of your customers and market. Your landing pages, websites, and other online properties, including fan pages and\u00a0apps, must respond to those changes in real time. That requires\u00a0whoever is running your online marketing to be flexible and responsive. I\u2019ve seen many companies go down the drain because they outsourced their online marketing to consultants who were unreachable and much to\u00a0slow responding to requests for updates on simple things like contact forms. Don\u2019t let this happen to you.<\/p>\n

6. Getting on the wrong side of the IRS.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nobody is calling the IRS a “:monster.” They are just doing their job. Just make sure your accounting people are doing THEIR job. Filing on time. Asking for extensions when needed. Keeping up on sales tax. Are you up to date on theNexus<\/a> laws and exemption certificates<\/a>?\u00a0The IRS can be a courtly Dr. Jekyll when you follow the rules, but when you get behind you\u2019ll find they swiftly become a Mr. Hyde. Don\u2019t be that guy!<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0What One Man’s Fight Against the IRS Teaches Us About Entrepreneurship<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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BRETT RELANDER CONTRIBUTOR Founder of Launch & Hustle and Digital Marketing Consultant Specializing in Social Media & Mobile Marketing Image credit: Shutterstock October 21, 2015 There are monsters lurking out there, ready to destroy your startup. These are not the ineffective or balky team members that may give you an occasional headache. No — these … Continue reading How Could Your Business Implode? Let Us Count the Ways.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","pmpro-has-access"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4MGMb-ro","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1699,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions\/1699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}