How Your Business Can Survive a Bad Economy

Here are some simple tips that may help your organization stay above water in a difficult economy.

Expand into Growth Areas
Many industries in times of economic turmoil have niches that benefit or even prosper by financial crises.
In real estate, new home sales goes down but foreclosure goes up. A dental office may see a decline in patients, yet the dentist will increase spending on marketing to offset these losses. In travel, international trips go down and local weekend getaways go up. Think about your industry and what areas may go up in a bad economy. Can you add a section to your Web site or will a direct mail campaign drive more business?

Cut Costs
There are always costs that can be cut out during the lean times. Bottled water? Drink from the tap. Industry magazine subscriptions? Let them expire. Turn off lights and computers every night and you will be surprised at how much you can save. Outsource your order fulfillment needs to a company like KD Mailing and save money right away.

It’s a Buyers Market
If you have the cash there are always many good deals to be had during bad economic times. Shop the going out of business sales – especially any competition that may be going out of business. You can likely pick up some needed supplies on the cheap.

Take Away Risk
During business downturns people are scared of risk. This is the time when you need professional services to help your organization. You need to make sure every dollar you spend is being done wisely. Instead of trying to create, print and mail 2000 pieces of marketing literature on your own – You should be using a company that can do the job right. Each time, every time, the first time. This will save you money as there is a big difference between hiring a mailing services company to deliver your sales letters and you trying to print and mail them yourself. Do the things yourself that will not have a negative impact on your bottom line if you screw it up, but leave the skilled services to the professionals.

Build Up Your Brand
When new clients come along they want to know you are the best option. It is hard to prove that without giving away too many secrets but think about getting certified by a third party or collecting testimonials. Maybe do some free charity projects in exchange for using them as public case studies of your skills.

Invest in your online business
More and more people are doing their business research online. It doesn’t matter if someone is looking to spend $10,000 on a fixed asset or if they are interested in buying a dog – the first place people look for information (and often to make a purchase) is the Internet. Do you have a quality Web site? Can people find it in the search engines? Do you have traffic? Building your online brand will go a very long way towards helping you to become financially self reliant.