Business Management Skills:

Save Your Failing Business

A business crisis presents a special challenge to the entrepreneur. If your business is in crisis and facing the specter of bankruptcy, what you have been doing in the past will no longer work.  You need to start developing your best crisis management skills for business and begin reviving your failing business. The following are the basic crisis management skills for business:

Here are the crisis management principles for business that I believe must be adhered to when you are trying to turn your failing business around:

• 1. OBJECTIVITY.
  This will be the most difficult crisis management skill to develop for the typical entrepreneur. When your business is failing you are likely spending every waking moment thinking about the failure aspect of your business—this must stop! You need to throw away your old business plan, and step back to look at your business in a whole new way. If you are going to save your business, nothing is sacred or untouchable. You may have to tear your business apart and start over in order to save it. This requires objectivity and the willingness to change.
• 2. LEADERSHIP.
  This is the most important crisis management skill required in saving a failing business. A leader will develop a recovery plan and then convince everyone involved—advisors, bankers, creditors, employees, etc.—that you (with everyones’ help) can successfully execute the recovery plan. Then do it. Everyone will be looking for a leader to make the failing business survive. This is where you have to exercise your best leadership skills.
• 3. ANALYSIS.
  You don’t have to be an accountant or research specialist, but you do have to know what all the numbers you work with mean—how each number, whether accounting or operational, impacts your business. You must also be able to develop your own operational numbers more quickly than your bookkeeper or accounting department can. Last week’s, or last month’s numbers won’t help you save your business.
• 4. COMMUNICATION.
  Everyone affected by your business crisis will be concerned about the progress of your turnaround program. This concern can quickly turn to frustration if you don’t communicate with everyone consistently and often. Hone your communication skills and use them constantly.
• 6. PERSEVERANCE.
  When you make the commitment to turn your failing business around, you very likely will have little idea how much time and effort it will take to do this. So, if you have a viable recovery plan and you’re making progress according to that plan—don’t give up! When you run into unforeseen obstacles and problems, keep moving forward according to your recovery plan. Perseverance in the face of all obstacles is necessary.

These are only the major crisis management skills required for business. Obviously, there are many skills and capabilities required that make up these major skill areas, but then, you are an entrepreneur—you have what it takes.  For an expanded presentation about crisis management skills for business, read Be Your Own Turnaround Manager: A Common Sense Guide to Managing a Business Crisis.