Startup Guides > 3 Ways To Prevent A Mistake From Destroying Your Business

It's easy for new entrepreneurs and even seasoned business owners to be frazzled and to panic when mistakes happen. As your business grows and employees and partners are stretched thin, the risk of mistakes, errors and accidents increases. Mistakes happen, but they can destroy your brand's reputation - whether your company has made a billing error, sent an embarrassing email with leaked confidential information, or recalled a bad product.

When mistakes happen, what should you do? Here are 3 suggestions for how to deal with unexpected disasters and keep them from destroying your company:

1) Act quickly and fix it.

Take a few seconds to calm down, and then thoroughly investigate the damage that was done and what needs to be done to make it right. That means both taking care of those who were impacted by the mistake and changing your systems to ensure it doesn't happen again. Be sure to apologize to any customers who were inconvenienced.


2) Communicate frequently.

Don't leave people to draw their own conclusions about your intentions because they will assume the worst. Instead, tell them what you're going to do to fix the problem, and keep telling them until the problem has been fixed. Be sure to use all of the communication channels that you would typically use for marketing, including social media, in order to make sure your message reaches your current and prospective customers.

3) Do what you say.

Once you've fixed the error, you need to implement new checks and balances to ensure that the same error doesn't happen again. Be sure to consult an attorney or other legal professional, if necessary, and be prepared with a plan of action for whenever unexpected disasters strike.

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