Top 10 Small Business Tips During a Recession
By Sonja Mishek
Whether you believe we're in a recession or not, the economy
is on shaky ground right now. And if things continue to spiral
downward, is your business ready to weather a recession?
Here are 10 tips on dealing with a recession for your business:
1) Cut costs cautiously. As soon as the economy starts slowing
down, many business owners think they must cut costs. But
this is a short-term solution. Only cut costs or decrease
your prices if it won't harm your business later. You can
always lower your price - but you can't always raise your
price.
2) Think Sub- contractors - especially if health care costs
are putting a strain on your budget. If you have employees,
consider turning them into sub-contractors. There are very
affordable, month-to-month video web conferencing services
that allow you to still be in close daily contact.
3) Advertise, Advertise, & Advertise! During the last
recession, McDonald's almost tripled their advertising campaign
at a time when their competitors, namely Burger King, were
cutting back. So even though this may seem counter-intuitive,
a recession may be the time to increase your marketing. Hard
economic times weeds out your competition, leaving the field
wide open for you.
4) Plan Long term: The Japanese are famous for planning out
their strategy 15 to 20 years in advance. They follow the
way of the turtle to win the race. And it works! Remember,
marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep marketing every
month, month in and month out, not stopping and starting on
a whim.
5)Choose your marketing techniques wisely. You should be
keeping track of which marketing venues brings you the most
business. Reduce or eliminate those marketing techniques that
aren't paying off for you, or fix them so that they do increase
leads and sales. And consider a form of direct marketing where
you can specifically test target markets without blowing your
hard earned budget.
6) Revamp your marketing tools. For those marketing techniques
that are working for you, this might be the time to revamp
your marketing tools. Could your sales people use more training
to close the deal? Online training cuts costs and time.
7) Automate wherever you can. Find ways to automate any tasks
to reduce the workload on yourself and your staff. What have
you been doing manually that a computer system can do for
you? Take a look at all your daily tasks and see if there
is a computer solution to these time-wasters.
8) Spend your time on what really matters. Have you ever
heard of the 80/20 rule? It's a proven fact that 80% of your
business comes from 20% of your customers. So treat your best
customers like royalty. Spend 80% of your time focusing on
marketing and delivering your product or service.
9) Make do and mend. Because raw materials were in short
supply during World War II, people were encouraged to "make
do and mend" an item instead of simply replacing it.
Consider your own expenditures: do you really need a new computer,
or could you somehow upgrade your existing one for less money?
Do you need a new telephone or can you get by with the old
one for a while longer?
10) Reduce inventories. If you sell a product, and you believe
your sales are going to decrease, this might be a good idea
to reduce inventories and not restock to the same level. This
is a risky strategy (what if the recession only lasts 6 months?),
so be sure you know exactly how long it will take to replenish
inventories once the economy picks back up.
Now is the time to have a plan for dealing with a recession.
It doesn't matter if we are in a recession now or not. These
10 tips will prepare your business for both good times and
not so good times.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sonja_Mishek
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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