How To Recession Proof Your Small Business

How To Recession Proof Your Small Business

Small businesses are crucial to our economy. Small businesses are an important source of job growth. Small businesses account for a large majority of jobs in start-ups, a key source of innovation and economic growth.

Here are some tips on how to manage a small business in a recession—stay lean, talk to your customers, and don't stop hiring and marketing, get listed in a business directory so you can be found. To keep your company lean, you should set and measure inventory targets and keep in daily or weekly communication with your sales and operations staffs. You may also want to weed out unprofitable customers (BusinessWeek.com, Oct./Nov., 2007). Every company has customers that cost more than they add to the bottom line. Identify them, evaluate how to make them profitable customers, and if that's not possible, politely hand them to your competition.

To keep from losing business, keep in close touch with your customers by networking with them regularly. Show that you care. Understand how their business is being affected and look for ways you can help. Lasting relationships are built in hard times. And look for new market opportunities, recognizing that when the business climate changes, customer needs will change as well. That may mean new markets will open up for you.

Develop strategies to land more customers. I counsel my clients that if they want to make their companies grow they will have to steal customers from their competitors, period. The pie is shrinking. For the auto repair shops, cars are more reliable and need less frequent service. In the restaurant world there's been overbuilding and the average number of meals eaten out has declined for the first time in a number of years. The successful small business is going to have to win a bigger share of that shrinking pie. The way to do that, particularly for small businesses, is to get listed on the business directory and use effective marketing solutions to generate sales leads for your business. Make sure you give every customer the best experience you can. That means clean restrooms, courteous staff, eye contact, handshakes. You've got to do this better than the other people out there. Another good option for local businesses is community involvement. Join a business networking group or the Chamber of Commerce. Sponsor a Little League team. Let the Girl Scouts do a car wash in your parking lot. This is part of bonding with your community and becoming an established part of it.

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