Business Resilience Tips for Entrepreneurs

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As an entrepreneur, you need business resilience to deal with all the challenges and obstacles that arise in the day-to-day life of running a venture.

However, as its own entity, your business must also be resilient. It must not fall apart when things go wrong. Companies need to quickly adapt to disruptions while continuing to operate. In short, a company needs to maintain the brand’s equity, as well as safeguard its people and business assets.

So many organizations are struggling right now due to COVID-19 restrictions and related economic repercussions. There has never been a more critical time to examine how resilient your business is. Therefore, being a strategic planner now can make a world of difference.

Here are some things you can do to help keep your venture up and running for the long term.

Knowing the Most Important Functions for Your Business Will Keep You Resilient

First, understand what the most important business functions are for your organization. Think about it like this: Which crucial process and functions would cause dire consequences if you should need to halt them in a disaster or for some other reason? What would lead to the most expensive issues? Is there a function which, if halted, would affect your business for the long term? What might your business not even be able to recover from?

To determine this list of functions, analyze all operational areas in your company, especially the technical ones. These are often the most at-risk elements from external attacks. Also, to guide you, think of P-words such as people, processes, premises, providers, preparation, performance, and your venture’s profile. What are the most vital functions related to these areas?

Once you’ve become clear on all of these, plan ways to minimize risks. Then work out what to do if any of them were to be suddenly compromised.

Work on Your Firm’s Weak Spots so Your Business Will Remain Resilient

Another area of analysis is determining your firm’s weak spots. Look at where your business is most vulnerable. How might hackers, burglars, rioters, disgruntled employees, terrorists, or natural events affect these things?

For example, on the tech front, what would be at risk first if your website crashed? What about if a cybercriminal locked you out of your systems? Or your company’s computer servers malfunctioned?

Which stock items would be the hardest to replace if your warehouse burned down or were robbed? Also, consider what would happen if your suppliers couldn’t help you adhere to your continuity plans. What would the consequences be if a large part of your workforce were unable to do their jobs?

When you conduct risk assessments like this and understand the different threats to your business operations, you can see where to make changes or updates now. By doing this, your firm can become much more resilient and face challenges head on.

Have a Financial Focus for Better Business Resilience

For many entrepreneurs, one of the biggest problems that comes up in times of crisis has to do with finances. To increase your organization’s business resilience now and into the future, you must always have a financial focus.

Stay on top of cash flow. This way, you always know how much money is in the bank as well as what bills are currently outstanding or will be soon. You’ll also know the value of the payments you’re waiting for customers to make and your monthly fixed costs.

Take steps to manage cash flow effectively. Try to keep a few months’ reserves available. Then, if you ever face disaster, you won’t immediately require a loan or have to sell or close the business.

Create and Share Plans with Partners and Stakeholders

Planning is essential to increasing business resilience. To this end, create a detailed continuity plan. Then present it to your business partners and, where relevant, board members, investors, or other involved parties. Ask them to accept and sign off on this plan.

Also, document things so you don’t have to keep all the information in your head. Know you’ve covered every point and that everyone is on board.

Share this plan with all or at least your key employees. Everyone with responsibilities to handle from the plan should read and acknowledge that they understand their part. You may also need to share the document(s) with other internal or external stakeholders, such as suppliers, accountants, attorneys, and business contractors.

Make your continuity plan as quick and straightforward to execute as possible. You don’t want readers confused by any portions of the plan, including specific terminology. Add things to help people, such as checklists or step-by-step instructions. If you can, add visual aids, too, to demonstrate actions or information.

Plus, train your employees so that all parties can execute their responsibilities quickly and correctly if the worst happens. Fill in gaps in knowledge as needed and test out plans in mock situations to see if there are things that need refining or simplifying.

Allow Yourself to Feel Inspired by Other Entrepreneurs

Take, for example, Adam Guild. This young self-educated entrepreneur dropped out of school as a teenager. At that point in his life, he began to scale his first successful project. Adam says he’s “patient with the outcome but urgent in the process.” This is an attitude which has helped him to be more resilient.

As we’ve seen in recent times on many fronts, businesses can face impossible situations in the blink of an eye. Help your business to survive such disasters by implementing the steps mentioned above and become more resilient.

Keep your business going strong through tough times. Find more ideas by browsing our blog.