By Peter Minkoff

Running a startup is never easy, especially if you’re a young entrepreneur just trying to make it in the harsh world of business. And once your company is up and running, it’s all about maintaining the image and one of the most efficient ways to do so is by focusing on marketing. Of course, you don’t have to invest the biggest portion of your annual budget on this, but make sure you reach your audience and pass them your message. However, if your revenue stops showing signs of continual growth, perhaps it is time for rebranding. That should help you connect with new customers and clients. Here are five signs that this is precisely what your startup needs.

Wrong kinds of people

Having tons of customers and clients is amazing, but what if these aren’t the people you wanted to attract? Advertising to wrong demographic can be acceptable at first – because, let’s face it, any audience is quite all right when you’re starting – but not when you’re trying to develop and grow. Outgrowing your initial target audience can also have a lot to do with focusing on local clients and as you move onto bigger and better things, you need to find a way to get your message across to other sorts of people, too.

Wrong Marketing

If your startup is young and you want to make a change in the community, as well as become visible on a higher level, you can’t rely on traditional marketing methods. These are, more often than not, quite possibly the worst thing for a startup and something that will ultimately ruin your reputation and prevent you from growing further. Opting for slightly unusual marketing techniques – from guerilla marketing to new online strategies – will help you become more appealing to a younger or slightly unordinary demographic, which is always good.

Wrong philosophy

Most people think that a huge pile of cash is all they need to launch a startup and that’s further from the truth than they can imagine. A sustainable business that’s going to start making money as soon as possible requires lots and lots of planning, thinking ahead, projecting and researching, and all of that has to be done in advance, before you launch your business. And if this is your first startup, you’d better talk to people with experience and your friends who have gone through similar experience. If you notice something is still not working after trying out these invaluable tips, react immediately and change your approach to business. Many CEO’s choose to look into trustworthy business consulting services and this is an idea that seems to be working in most cases. Since these are the people who you can rely on, listening to their suggestions and doing as they tell you can help you save your business.

Wrong branding

Since most startups are founded by a group of enthusiasts who know little or nothing about business, it’s no wonder they often have a wrong approach to branding, too. Trying to cut the initial costs means they’ll go for the cheapest logo and branding, which might be quite all right for starters, but things shouldn’t stay that way in the future. Don’t be afraid to rebrand your startup after a while as this is something the big companies are doing all the time as well and ultimately find it beneficial in the long run.

Wrong move

Being involved in a public scandal or a potentially dangerous situation is one of the worst things that could happen to a startup. If something like this does, however, occur, the chances are your clients and customers are going to associate you with this incident forever, which is why you need to take a new approach and rebrand at once. You don’t have to shut your business down and start with something new, but simply go in another direction and leave the past behind. This way, you’ll attract new clients and, at the same time, show the old ones you’re ready to move on.

Learning from mistakes

While all of these ideas will certainly introduce something positive into your startup, remember that you can’t keep on rebranding year after year. So, learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat them, at least for a while.