When any entrepreneur launches his business venture, he intends to run it for an indefinite period of time. However, I have noticed that it’s not the case with many in reality. No doubt the economy is rough and it is next to impossible for a wholesale business to survive in the industry without facing hard times. My experience has helped me learn that no matter what extent a wholesale supplier controls their business during the bad times, there are certain challenges and threats which can render them helpless.
I believe factors such as socioeconomic changes, customer demands, rising competition, globalization, and raid advancement in technology impacts your business and sometimes makes your future survival in the industry quite uncertain. Those wholesale suppliers who know the art of developing resilience and adopt wise strategies to overcome hard times are the ones who get to thrive in the wholesale industry.
What is Business Resilience?
Resilience is the ability of a wholesale business to get back on track after facing hard times. After facing failure wholesale suppliers who bend their business to bounce back to their original position enjoy the long term variability for their business venture.
Though hard times cannot be avoided completely, with the perfect resilience, the impact of hard times can be lessened. This plays a role in bringing the business back to its original shape. Being a wholesale supplier myself, I would suggest that wholesale suppliers adopt the following six strategies to overcome the impact of the bad times on your business:
1: Conduct SWOT Analysis
I believe that now when wholesale suppliers are facing a setback, the time to play the victim is over. It’s the time to think, focus and analyse what is wrong with your business and make every effort to change the situation.
For this purpose, I would recommend to conduct SWOT analysis of your business which could help you to evaluate or exploit your strengths and opportunities and address your weaknesses and threats. This evaluation helps you to proceed towards your goals with a clear frame of mind.
2: Adopt Low Cost Strategy
If your wholesale products are not able to create their demand in the market even though they don’t lack features and offer a different/better quality than other similar products in the market, it’s the time to reset your price and adopt a low cost strategy.
Low cost strategy allows wholesale suppliers to slash down the price of a product and collect the same revenue by increasing the volume of products sold. Once you overcome the hard times, you can again make your prices competitive.
3: Don’t Fire Employees
During hard times, many wholesale suppliers downsize their employee force in order to control the cost of operations. I believe this is not only a cruel strategy but it also takes your business closer towards failure.
As a gentle owner of a business, you must communicate the true position of the business with your employees and ask them to put every effort to set its track towards the path of recovery. Value your employees during the bad times and you will see how they all will try their best to overcome the bad times.
4: Regard Your Customers
The best way to overcome hard times is by working on customer relationship management and building customer loyalty. Regard your customers by offering incentives, discounts, free gifts, or free delivery services. I do the same and I can’t even tell you how much customer loyalty I have won.
Make sure that you respect your customers when they visit your store. You can also maintain healthy relationships with them by wishing them well on their birthdays and sending letters of appreciation and thanks from time to time.
5: Seek Help From Outside
Upon seeing their business under a huge mountain of debt, many wholesale suppliers lose hope and consider filing for bankruptcy of their business. I am telling you, it is the greatest mistake indeed. This is because it not only ends your business but also leaves a very negative impact on your credit report.
As a wholesale supplier, if you ever feel that you cannot fix the credit issues of your business, you must seek help from third parties like debt counsellors, debt consolidation companies, and debt settlement companies. Taking their help is far better than losing your business.
In short I would like to say that with a little motivation, high morale, confidence, and timely measures, wholesale suppliers can easily overcome the bad times. Adopt the above-mentioned strategies during bad times and make a roaring comeback in the wholesale industry.
Julie Robert is a B2B wholesale trade and B2B marketing expert at Wholesale Pages. She writes frequently on the topics related to UK Wholesalers and Wholesale Supplies.
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