As a founding entrepreneur, it is hard not to always be "in love" with "your baby". You created something from nothing, you nurtured it along the way, and you built something really great. Until the point "your baby" stops growing, your profitability falls with increased competition, and the roller coaster starts picking up speed in the wrong direction, with revenues going down, not up as before. It is very easy to want to "stay the course" and hope for things to get better in the future. Depending on the root cause of the fall, like a temporary decline in the economy, it very well could rebound. But, there are times when the root cause cannot be fixed, or worse yet, will continue to "snowball" in the wrong direction. In those scenarios, you need to know when to pull the "ripcord" to save whatever value you have left before your business is worth zero. This post will help you identify what to look for and how to get you and your shareholders a "soft landing" when things start to turn south.
Read the rest of this post in Entrepreneur, which I guest authored this week.
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