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    How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading?

    Despite the best laid plans your business may experience dips in trading every now and again. While these can be stressful periods for your business, and often feel outside of your control, with careful contingency planning and with strong strategies in place your business can navigate slower periods successfully and come back stronger when custom increases again.

    Ways to help you deal with it:

    Action plan

    Cash flow forecasting during unpredictable times

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : High
    A cash flow forecast is an important tool to navigate periods of uncertainty. Our five-point plan explains how to refine your approach.

    ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

    • We explain why each step is important
    • Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

    Action plan

    Identifying and overhauling outdated processes

    Effort : High
    Impact : High
    Poorly performing processes impact productivity and sap employee morale. Follow our five-step plan to fix systems that aren’t working.

    Action plan

    Are your company’s processes fit for purpose?

    Effort : High
    Impact : Medium
    If you’re worried about how efficient a process is, our five-step plan can help you work out whether or not it’s fit for purpose.

    Action plan

    How to predict future trends in your industry

    Effort : Low
    Impact : High
    Follow our action plan to learn how to predict future trends that could affect your business.

    Guide

    An introduction to ensuring your business can navigate a dip in trading

    In an ideal world, every business would enjoy continuous, uninterrupted growth. But in reality, most companies go through periods when trading performance dips.

    GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

    • Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
    • Filled with real-world stories
    • Achievable steps every business can take

    Other support that's available

    Navigating a slow period

    Navigating a slow period

    When business is quiet, it’s time to work on the areas you might otherwise overlook – such as looking at your internal processes or working on personal development. HubSpot has 13 core suggestions.

    Protecting your business

    Protecting your business

    From time to time, business can slump, but there are plenty of ways you can protect your enterprise from slow periods. See what advice Business 2 Community has.

    How other businesses have tackled something similar

    Sidonie Warren - Papersmiths

    Real business story

    Small things businesses can do when revenue falls

    After a fall in revenue, small tweaks turned things around for Papersmiths, a chain of stationery stores in London and Brighton..
    Ben Branson-Gateley, Charlie HR

    Real business story

    Be honest and keep it simple when communicating financial performance to staff

    Communicating financial information with non-finance staff can be a daunting prospect. However, Charlie HR has shown it can build trust, inspire innovation and boost sales..
    Mark Holden - Inn Cornwall

    Real business story

    Sharing financial performance with staff can lead to greater efficiency

    Being open about financial reporting and using incentives tied to performance has helped Inn Cornwall build staff interest turnover and profit..

    The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

    What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

    Select a topic

    Digital

    How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments?

    Leadership & Strategy

    How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs?

    People & Team

    How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I run a better appraisals process? How should I performance manage my staff? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How can I keep my best members of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How can I reduce employee turnover?

    Planning

    How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to scale up my business? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I know when to invest in my business? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals? How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business?

    Sales & Growth

    How can we develop new products and services? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I build a network to support my business? How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How can I identify new customers to target? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth? How do I benchmark my business against competitors?
    All