Changes are coming - How To Survive A Recession in Business
Yes, we are surrounded with a lot of very alarming information at the moment, we thought we would assume the worst and share the science of how to survive a recession in business.
Firstly, about the ‘information’ we are being asked to swallow…
Unprecedented.
Everything is unprecedented these days and I don’t know about you but I’m getting a little numb to it all.
A bit like salted caramel. It was new and a crazy delicious at first but now you cant buy anything that isn’t salted caramel flavour and now, what was once amazing become background noise.
The problem with repeated huge sweeping events coming along every week or so is that its hard to see the real warning signs for what they are.
- Inflation back up to levels not seen since the 70’s?….hmmm thats not going to be much fun in the long term.
- War on Europe’s doorstep causing food prices to rocket?….THAT might have an impact on thing
- Fuel Bills going through the roof?… catastrophically bad for everyone except those big 5 fuel companies
Floods, Fires, ice caps and droughts all trying their best to scrub these stinky polluting humans from the planet?…sounds like something to think about
A government who thinks that the answer to this is to remove the cap on bankers wages? – cos those are the guys that really need a break…
So yeah, its all turning into a huge swamp of recession for us here on this little green island and most people are just frozen in the dazzling beams of ‘How to survive a recession in business‘ to get any real action in place.
While I agree that the situation isn’t great, many businesses have survived bad situations in the past and the smart ones will make it through this mini apocalypse as well.
If you can learn from what the survivors did the last handful of times that capitalism had a spasm then you are way more likely to get through it.
Lets kick right into it…
Step 1: Act as soon as you can.
The media has been warning everyone about the latest recession for a while now but chances are you have been sitting on your hands, waiting to see what will happen before you make any big decisions.
Nope!
You need to get a wriggle on if you want to make the most of this opportunity, and it is an opportunity!
You cant afford to wait for anyone else to make your decisions for you. Its time to make the big decisions on what you want from your business in terms of turnover, profit etc –
Write them down.
This is the new target that you need to spend your time and effort working towards. Nothing else matters at this point, focus makes a HUGE difference.
Next you need to make a list of the barriers you think might get in your way from getting those things. If you haven’t got this stuff nailed down then there will be too many nasty surprises that can pull the rug from underneath your very feet.
Once you have these roadblocks you need to create an action plan of solutions for each one.
This set of targets, barriers and action plan will also help you maintain a feeling of control and purpose when everyone else is panicking and making rash decisions. Great work!
Step 2: Lean into your network.
Everyone needs friends to survive and this is vital when the fan has been hit. The general reaction to bad times is to batten down the hatches, cut those costs and just survive.
Don’t do that. Be visible. Talk more. Help people.
To begin with, get out there and talk to your customers and suppliers about what they see as their biggest challenges over the next 3 to 6 months.
This information will be worth more than its weight in gold. The more you know about their problems the more you can make yourself indispensable to them by solving them.
That means that you will be top of their mind when new opportunities come along and we all need more of that at the moment.
You can double down on this by making sure that you are helping as much as you can. When someone helps us out, there is a part of the brain that kicks in and bonds us together like crazy.
Plus they will owe you one and having favours in interesting places never hurt anyone.
Finally, Refer like crazy.
Make sure that everyone you know, knows that you are a connecting machine. It helps to build your reputation as well as opens more opportunities up to you at the same time.
Step 3: Focus on the area of your business that generates the most return on investment.
When the pandemic hit, we were having a load of conversations with people who were stuck in their own heads.
They complained constantly that their businesses were fine before COVID and that essentially its not fair. They were right. But that doesn’t change anything.
We need to adapt to move forward. Now.
The way to do this scientifically is to take a moment to analyse where the greatest proportion of your income comes from. You might need to speak to your accountant if you struggle with a spreadsheet.
Next you need to generate an action plan to boost sales of that product or service.
- How can you promote it more?
- DO all of your past customers know about it?
- What else can you do to sell more of them?
This product or service needs to be the focus for the next 3 months.
What else can you do?
If this is making sense and you would like more help then KiN are running a series of ‘Ride out the Recession’ workshops that go into much more detail about all of this.
Click here to register your interest.
