How To Revive A Failed Business
The sad truth about the business world is that few startups grow and become established, successful companies. Sometimes, businesses can fail even with the best intentions for many reasons. Still, that doesn’t mean failed businesses get consigned to history.
You might not realize it, but some entrepreneurs decide to take over the branding of failed businesses and revive them, eventually turning them into profitable firms. If you enjoy the challenge that such an ambitious objective brings, here’s what you need to know.
Acquire All Branding Rights
One of the first things you need to ensure you get all the branding rights. For example, if there are registered trademarks, you need to contact whoever owns them and negotiate a price for transferring them to your name.
In some cases, you might find the owners are willing to transfer the rights to you for free, while in others, they might request a one-off cash fee or shares in the new business. If the owner isn’t willing to negotiate, it’s worth pursuing a different project.
Acquire All Domain Names
Next, you’ll need to determine if the business in question registered any domain names. The likelihood of that is relatively high for most firms, given how brand new domain names don’t cost much to purchase.
You might be lucky and find the domain names are available to register. In those cases, you only have to pay a domain registrar’s standard fees as you would for any new domain. However, what happens if someone owns the parts you want?
If the domains were the main ones used by the business, you could ask a domain broker service to negotiate a reasonable price to secure their purchase on your behalf. Alternatively, you could wait to see if the current owner lets the domain lapse and buy it that way.
Find Out Why The Business Failed
Now that you’ve got the branding rights and any Internet domain names associated with the business, your next step is to determine why the company failed and now ceases to exist. As you can imagine, it’s pretty straightforward to learn the answers in some cases.
For instance, the business might have shut down because the owner passed away, or they might have lost interest in running it. Sometimes, people inherit businesses from close relatives but have no interest in operating them.
There might be some examples where the business may have failed for other reasons. It could be down to internal politics between business partners, or a lawsuit due to a faulty product might have rendered the company bankrupt.
In any case, you should devote a lot of time to researching why the business ceased operating. Only then can you determine a strategy to revive the brand and make it profitable again.
Work On A Relaunch Strategy
When you have a good idea of why the business failed, you will need to work on a relaunch strategy. As you can appreciate, relaunching a failed brand isn’t quite the same as starting a new business from scratch.
Firstly, you’ll need to consider that there might be some ill-feeling towards the brand if it’s got negative associations. In those situations, your relaunch strategy should include provisions for addressing those associations and turning them into something positive.
Secondly, you must think about which products and services you want to include from the original firm’s lineup, along with any additions you feel would complement them. The last thing you want is history to repeat itself due to poor product and service choices.
Last but not least, you should determine where to source the products you want to sell. The business may have gone bust due to selling inferior quality items, so you should ensure that doesn’t happen again with the brand’s relaunch.
Create A New Website
You will undoubtedly want to sell products and services online, and this is where you can put your newly purchased domain names to good use. There are two options for selling online: creating a self-hosted website and using a third-party e-commerce platform.
If you want control over the technical aspects of your website, you should go with the self-hosted website option. That way, you can adjust any server settings and make performance and security improvements as necessary.
However, if you’d rather someone else take care of that side of things, opt for a platform like Shopify. In either case, it makes sense to pay for a web designer to create your new site for you.
Final Thoughts
Considering the above points will increase your chances of having a successful relaunch of a failed brand.
