What Do You Do When Things Go Wrong in Your Business - Virtual Assistants In Action

Entrepreneurs have endless challenging in handling their business. To help you carry the burden, virtual assistants can always give you an extra hand.

You wake up feeling energised to start your day. After all your morning routines, you went straight into your laptop, opened your email, and started on your task right away. Suddenly, heavy rain poured out as if it purposely wants to ruin a good day. You just hoped that even if it were raining so hard, there wouldn’t be a power interruption. Then, it happened. Blackout.

When things don’t go as planned, sometimes we tend to feel discouraged, anxious, stressed, and even hopeless, having difficulty bouncing back to our feet. 

A perfect example was when the Coronavirus pandemic hit the world by storm, causing many concerns on our health primarily and significantly impacted most businesses and economies in general. 

We did not expect it to happen so quickly that it turned most companies around, closing down factories, offices, and stores and, for some, permanently lost their businesses. You can’t do anything but adapt to changes and find new ways to cope and bounce your business back into the market.

But some things happen because of the decisions and mistakes that we make in running our business. Even when we give it our best shot, given clients are best, and produce quality products and services, we encounter issues along the way. 

What do you do, and how do you react when things go wrong outside and within your business?

In 2017, Andy Rubin–the founder and CEO of a smartphone company– owned up the company’s mistakes in accidentally sending a lot of customers’ confidential information to strangers. He acknowledged the mistakes, took responsibility, and apologised to all the affected clients, giving them a free one-year subscription to an identity theft protection service.

It is a concrete example of how you should react when you make a mistake: Listening to your client’s complaints, acknowledging the mistake, taking responsibility for all the damage, and making sure that your customers will not churn after the incident. It would save you from losing your clients and protect your reputation from bad reviews that your potential customers would see.

Things have been piling up in your work office. You have many workloads, a lot of plans for your company, something to delegate, and much more. Sometimes, you just feel like sharing it with other people just for the sake of unburdening yourself with things to do, even with your clients, especially when you’re close with them. 

While this seems acceptable, sharing your problems with your customers is not a bright idea for your business facade and your image as a professional. We also don’t know that they also have issues in their personal or work lives, that sharing your own would likely add up to the negativities they feel, or some don’t care about your problems. It’s best to share your issues with the persons you trust, like your family members, relatives, friends, or even your life coach.

They say that the best teacher is your experience. However, some say that the best teacher is your last mistake. Why?

When you commit a mistake, you will most likely do something about it, right? It happens, especially in your work or business. Just like my previous example, a company made a mistake in sending personal information. Instead of pointing fingers at your team members, you should accept that mistakes are inevitable, take responsibility, and do something about them.

How you deal with all these mistakes will make you grow as a boss, an entrepreneur, or a business owner. You will eventually learn from your personal experience so you would not commit the same mistakes again. Whenever you would face the same situation, you would likely choose another path or make another decision. 

Growing your business requires you to be patient not just with your team but also with yourself. We learn from the past mistakes we encounter within the industry and other people’s experiences. The ability to accept that things will go wrong one way or another is part of running your business. Adapting to these circumstances is another thing, and doing something about them would make your business grow stronger, better, and more successful.

Financial Issues Business 

Business entrepreneurs face disaster-like problems if they encounter financial problems within the company. It involves running out of budget, ineffective investments, and even expenses over income. Sometimes these problems are due to internal and external factors that might suffer the whole system. 

Solution: In company issues regarding finances, the company needs to cut the budget. It requires the business to slow down the expenditures and focus on increasing the revenues. It might include losing some employees, downgrading office sizes and equipment, or saving money for rent and utilities. 

If not yet solve, you may reach out to banks or loaning institutions to lend you extra assets to save the dangers. 

However, the most important key to prevent financial issues is by weighing unnecessary expenses and focusing on essentials. 

Human Resources Issues

Another pain in the necks of business owners would be their employees. Sometimes, it brings them problems regarding the human workforce. 

Most common human resource issues involve fraud or theft. It leads to more complicated situations like the first problem. They might take your belongings and conduct crimes within your organisation. It could also divide the company due to lack of trust with each other. 

In some institutions, employee relationship issues also appear. It may be due to bullying, harassment, and even heavier co-worker miscommunication. Through this, other employees are getting alarmed, tending them to focus on the problems, not in their roles. 

Besides that, business owners also worry about employees who are tardy, irresponsible, and inefficient. It might not be worse than fraud, but these ineffective qualities can still harm the productivity of the operations. 

Solution: In hiring an employee, it is crucial to verify their identity, see their personal information, and scan their previous jobs. Background screening is vital to check if they have good moral standing and impeccable work ethics. 

If you ensure these qualities to your employees, you are helping your company to be safe from fraud and lazy individuals. 

Moreover, you can also inspire your employees through constant communication. You can also help them become motivated and feel supported in helping, appreciating, and recognising their efforts for the company. Another simple way to guide them as people and professionals are by letting them attend training sessions and seminars to gain knowledge and experiences.

Client Issues 

Inside a company, you not just communicate with your employees but also with your clients and customers. Of course, you should ensure a healthy and strong rapport with them for better business transactions. However, problems with them also come in the way. 

Sometimes, consumers have undesirable feedback from your products and services, making you feel down and unappreciated. Besides that, it also negatively impacts other people, which might prevent them from continuing with your offers. Other than that, these clients can also influence the whole audience, resulting in your lousy image for your company. 

Solution: You should assist your clients right away. It is essential to solve their accusations with you and make a way to divert these negative impressions. Remember, you need to suppress the fire right away before damaging more. In this case, you may give them something to help them feel more comfortable with you.

Transform these negativities through respectful engagements with them. Apologise for your mistake and take responsibility for the issue. You may also reach out to them and send your public offers to help them feel more welcome. 

To prevent these situations, you must never forget contracts signing as it seals the deal between two parties. It would also prove how you are willing to provide them with the service and product they need. If you ensure contracts and give your best to your clients, it could lessen issues about them. 

Please be mindful that people believe that customers are always right. So, you must act instantly to please them to maintain your brand name and legacy. 

Inventory Issues 

Entrepreneurs also face massive challenges within their inventories (if they offer products) and deadlines (if they offer products and services). 

Sometimes, due to various factors, you immensely miss the time and deadline. It seems unprofessional, but it is due to poor time management and unanticipated events. Besides that, inventory problems also include misplacement and disorganised setups, causing more delays. 

Solutions: To solve this problem, you need to handle your schedule board regularly. It should be updated constantly, especially during operations. The details must appear on these projects boards to see how it progresses over time. 

If there's no way to fix and manage this on your own, find someone who can help you with it. 

Natural Calamity and Disaster

Another major problem every business entrepreneurs face is natural calamities and disasters. It includes flood, earthquake, hurricanes, tornado, mudslides, and others. Just this 2020, a worldwide pandemic existed, making every suffer a lot. 

Well, no one can prevent these natural disasters. However, as an entrepreneur, you must arrange solutions before the direct damage. How?

Solution: You may invest in emergency supplies and allocate a budget for everyone’s safety. You must also get prepared before anything happens. So, you may train your employees on proper ways on how to act during emergencies. Besides that, you can also formulate plans to make your company continue to operate within several situations. 

You should take good care of your records, assets, and essential documents before and after the calamity. However, your very best responsibility is to ensure that all your people are safe and sound. 

Through these ways, you can prepare your business for any possible events you might encounter today, tomorrow, on any bad days to come.

However, besides these top problems you may face for your business, there’s one thing you also need to handle. It is to act upon everything discussed! Can you do it on your own? Are you ready to arrange all these things and solve them instantly? 

You are a business owner, but you are not a superhero. That’s why another solution is provided for you. 

The main answer is delegation. Reach out to people and seek help in all the situations you might face today or in the future.

Delegate your tasks by seeking a trustworthy individual that can give you a hand all the time - a virtual assistant. 

Virtual assistants can help you in marketing, bookkeeping, administrative tasks, coordinating the schedule, communication, data entry, etc.

They can also guide you in fixing problems in finances. You may assign them to create a budget schedule to lessen unnecessary expenses. Your virtual assistant can also analyse the factors why you have low income for the period.

Other than that, a virtual assistant can receive assignments from you in dealing with other employees or even engaging with your customers. They may create documents and organise the files using available tools online. Furthermore, a virtual assistant can ensure a healthy rapport with the audience through social media management.

More tasks are ready to get handled by your virtual assistant. You just need to know where you need help and how you want to receive assistance. 

Kaya Services is an outsourcing company in Sydney, Australia. They have a responsible, empowered, and multi-skilled team of virtual assistants from the Philippines. These individuals are talented, experienced, and professional virtual assistants who can support you in all aspects of your company.

Most importantly, Kaya Services can provide you with someone who can help you during light days, especially on the most challenging days of your operations. 

Schedule a call now with Kaya Services and reach out to someone you can rely on throughout your business.