Help Your Company Succeed

Five Tips to Help Your Company Succeed in a Down Economy

A Down Economy or Recession Affects Everyone

Whether you are in management with a smaller or larger company, you’ll be affected by a down economy. A deep recession typically leaves no one unscathed. These effects may be major or minor depending on your industry, and results depend how you respond to these conditions.

Inaction, always considered a decision, is usually an ineffective action plan during a down economy. Few companies can follow a status quo approach and succeed during a recession. Since the market changes so drastically, the status quo typically doesn’t address these new conditions.

You cannot control the existence of a recession any more than you can create a booming economy by yourself. Like most real-world issues, you can only control how you react to conditions. Your “reaction plan” determines whether your company will prosper or flounder during a recession.

This is not a time to panic or take drastic impulsive measures. After analyzing the effects you and your company face from the down economy, you should consider the following tips to create an action plan that has an opportunity to succeed in these unpleasant conditions.

Five Tips to Help You and Your Company Succeed

There is no “silver bullet” to eliminate the affects of a down economy. To paraphrase Mr. Shakespeare, however, “to keep one’s head while all those around you are losing theirs” is a wise philosophy. Here are some suggestions to put this philosophy into action.

1. Think outside the box. To survive a down economy, you need to become creative, persistent, and inventive. During these difficult periods, management must often chart new, focused territory. For example, uncover one or more niche markets that should welcome your products or services, but are currently unaware they exist. Finding new customers for your specialty has helped many companies weather a recession successfully and provide new income streams when the economy starts growing again. Outside-the-box thinking should help you identify new markets. You can then attack them intelligently and cost-effectively.
   
   
2. Stick with what you know. While a down economy may demand that you find new markets, you should resist the temptation to introduce untested products or services into recessionary economics. Thinking you will improve your chances of success by becoming “all things to all people” may be a huge mistake. Do what you do best and combine this with outstanding customer service. This is a much more effective action plan.
   
   
3. Know your competition better than you know your own company. While always an important philosophy, this action plan is critical in a down economy. You can be quite sure that you and your competition will share fewer customers with fewer dollars to spend on products and services. Simply touting your products as the “best” without knowing all of the strengths and weaknesses of your competition’s products and marketing strategies may not be sufficient to succeed in a recession. You should know everything about your competition so you can counteract their strengths and exploit their weaknesses.
   
   
4. Know your customers and hold on to them tightly. You probably know the axiom that it’s easier and more profitable to keep your own customers than to find new ones. This philosophy moves from “important” to “critical” in a down economy. For example, assume you had to do something you’d never want to do in a recession, like raise prices. If you do nothing else, you might lose customers you already have in addition to those new ones you may not be able to attract. Outside-the-box thinking might generate some ideas to reward current customers – to hold on to them – cost effectively. Loyalty rewards and superior customer service can help you hold on to customers to survive the down economy.
   
   
5. Hire the best employees you can find and afford. You might have created an excellent marketing plan, uncovered new niche markets, become an expert on your competition, and found a way to reward current customers. The only way to make these plans work is to have the best talent available. If you’re blessed with a talented staff, do all in your power to keep them. Should you need improvement, find the best candidates and get them on board. You need as many above-average employees as possible to successfully survive a recession.
   
   

There is no magic potion or revolutionary idea to solve the problem. You do need to remain calm, become creative, and implement your plan. Entice your staff to buy into your plans to create an effective team. You have the opportunity and the tools to succeed in a down economy.