4 Business Setbacks You May Not Be Expecting

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We often say that ‘preparing for the unexpected is a good way to plan for the future. This thinking led to companies preparing in advance remote working options. As a result, those who planned ahead were able to face the effects of a global pandemic. This amongst companies that didn’t adapt will be looked at for years to come.

The biggest challenge for this is trying to anticipate what might actually happen in the future. We’re not psychic and able to predict the future precisely. Instead, it’s better for businesses moving forward to think of what issues could exist. It’s smarter to even look at what other companies are doing these days overall to tackle this too.

In this post, we hope to discuss that and more. Without further ado, let us begin:

Obstacles With International Trade

Due to globalization, it’s easy to think trade is more open now than before. And in many cases that is true. But it’s also true that there are stringent requirements and compliance needs to consider when dealing with international clients.

You may not expect just how refined and necessary this process is. Certain regulations, codes, and laws can make exporting to another country more expensive or time-consuming than you had expected. Its here where a way to fix it comes from custom brokers.

Why is a customs broker needed? Because they can help you properly integrate your exports with these measures seamlessly. These are industry professionals whose job is to be caught up with all of these finer details. Overall, having one to work with can help significantly in time and money saved. Sure, you may not expect such immediate obstacles to appear. But you’ll be more surprised by the essential services that can help you reduce this from happening.

Working Culture

It’s unfortunate to say that great working cultures don’t tend to come about on their own. It’s important to make sure that you curate this as well as you can.

For example, making sure that everyone feels safe enough to report harassment to HR is an essential necessity for all businesses, but in many firms, staff can feel as though HR only serves as a department geared towards absolving managers and the brand at large from any responsibility.

Unfortunately, managers that don’t embrace a new working culture will be surprised by these changes. So the one way to be fixing that is changing the work culture. As such, doing the following is a good idea:

  • Develop a healthy interest in how comfortable and supported everyone feels in a working environment,
  • Invest in staff training and bonding experiences
  • Allow the pressure to permeate the social environment

Social Media Backlash

Social media is a fickle beast, its main benefit and drawback being that it connects us to people from all around the world with all kinds of viewpoints. It isn’t uncommon for businesses to put their figurative foot in their mouths, to stir controversy, to look blunt, to seem on-edge, and in some cases, to fall into real backlash.

The Irish-founded airline RyanAir has been known for leveraging social media apps like TikTok to help them gain fame and to become known internationally. Yet it’s also true that social media can also turn on a dime, especially if posts aren’t well-curated, or if they seem old and stale, or if staff do not adhere to proper social media etiquette and privacy measures in their own time, as their feed can reflect on your firm. For this reason, it’s important to properly research and identify exactly what social media means to your firm, how you can utilize it, and what your plans for it may be, especially in essential areas like marketing. 

Product Harm Or Injury

Liability insurance is there for a reason, but it’s also true that the reputational effects of such a problem can be difficult to deal with. For this reason, it’s essential to make sure that your services, products, instructions, safety features, and ultimately legal defenses are properly curated, because even the best and most well-meaning firms can encounter issues, both real and imagined, when it comes to potentially harming those they mean to service.

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