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The following are plausible symptoms of a failing business:

i. Dwindling Revenue(Sales)
A business revenue should be adequate, incremental, sufficient and sustainable. If the months are passing by, the years are skimming through, but your revenues are only getting lower and lower, then business failure may be imminent.

Causes and Strategies
One or more combinations of the following factors could be responsible for dwindling sales:

(i) Ineffective marketing
To be effective, any marketing effort must make full use of the four Ps that comprise the marketing mix: product, price, place and promotion. Failure in any one of these areas can result in a marketing campaign that falls flat.
The product must be right and in continual demand, the price must be competitive and affordable, the business place or location must generate enough traffic and the promotional activities must be attractive, effective and efficient.

Entrepreneurs should be aware of telltale signs that their marketing strategies are not achieving the desired results.
Also, lack of effective marketing research is a major contributor to dwindling sales. Marketing research plays a vital role in the decision-making processes by supplying relevant, up-to-date and accurate data to the decision-makers. Entrepreneurs need up-to-date information to access customer needs, tastes and wants, market situation, technological change and extent of competition.
The distribution channels are also vital for survival. Ineffective distribution channels would definitely lead to low sales.
A distribution channel (also called a marketing channel) is the path or route decided by the company to deliver its good or service to the customers. The route can be as short as a direct interaction between the company and the customer or can include several interconnected intermediaries like wholesalers, distributors, retailers, or internet etc.

The more accessible and aggressive your distribution channels, the better for sustainable sales growth. For effectiveness, most producers will use a range of channels to distribute, in a multichannel distribution mechanism.
(ii) Your products and/or services no longer have real market value
When sales keep dropping despite adjusting your marketing strategies frequently, with no improvements, it could mean your products or services no longer have real market value, either by virtue of a much better and cheaper alternative or obsolescence. At this juncture, product and business innovation becomes inevitable.
You then need to either innovate or upgrade your product or services to suit your customer tastes or it’s time move into entirely new product or service.

Case Study-IBM
What’s hot today is soon forgotten tomorrow. The fortunes of IBM are testament to this inalienable truth.
In the 1980s, IBM was the computer company, an inventor. But its successful business model soon became its Achilles heel when other companies started to copy the IBM model and began undercutting the computer giant.
IBM had to adapt, keep moving like the great white shark, or die!

So the company shifted its focus from selling home computers to providing IT expertise and services to businesses – a move which saw the company shift from being on the brink of collapse to being recognised as the No. 1 seller of service solutions by 2013.
Had IBM stubbornly stuck to its guns, old line of business and services, it would have joined the ranks of fallen giants.
Industry leaders turn their fortunes around by looking for a gap and putting all their efforts into providing for whatever needs they find within the market.

The ability to move with the times, is far more valuable than having a talent to invent new ideas from scratch.


(iii) Entrance or existence of more aggressive and oppressive competitor
Aggressive and oppressive competitor moves can include price-cutting and increasing spending on marketing, quality, and production capacity. Too much aggressiveness can undermine an organization's success. A small firm that attacks larger rivals, for example, may find itself on the losing end of a price war.

An aggressive and oppressive competitor will apply techniques such as predatory pricing, or below the cost pricing, an aggressive and oppressive pricing strategy of setting the prices low to a point where the offering is not even profitable, just in an attempt to eliminate the competition and get the most market share.

Competition isn’t limited to fellow small businesses. There are giant brands and corporations with big marketing budgets and even bigger name recognition. These larger companies can easily overshadow small businesses, both physically and in the digital world. But, while it may seem like you’re fighting an uphill battle, there are plenty of advantages that small businesses have over their larger competitors.

How to compete with competitors:
o Learn from your competitor and gain competitive advantage
Consider the competition as a challenge to improve your business. Take note of what they might be doing well and take cues from them, whilst reviewing some of your marketing tactics, service offering or customer service strategy.

According to Michael Porter there are three strategies a business can deploy to gain competitive advantage:

1. Cost Leadership
2. Differentiation
3. Focus.


https://www.deeno.com.ng/checkmating-business-failure/

Good stuff