Grow: Fall Success Tips for Your Biz
October 7, 2009 at 7:30 AM Bill Haman 4 comments
Suggestions During An Economic Downturn
1. Manage your cash flow. Examine your cash flow analysis and look for steps to strengthen your financial position. Cash flow is the difference between your opening cash plus cash receipts less cash expenditure. Cash flow can be improved by managing your accounts receivable. Try to reduce the amount outstanding by collecting aggressively. Review your inventory to determine if there is any surplus which could be sold to generate cash.
2. Meet with your local banker. Reinforce your relationship and inquire as to any strategies they might recommend. This may also be a good time to ask for a line of credit or to increase your existing line. The purpose would be to buy discounted equipment and/or inventory.
3. Contact any and all vendors and creditors to determine if a discount is available for payment in 10 days. Keep your vendor payments current to protect your credit rating.
4. Examine and develop a number of guerilla marketing strategies designed to stimulate sales.
5. Develop strategic alliances with other businesses to expand market penetration or explore new markets domestically or internationally. Talk with sales people who call on you to look for ideas as to how to cut expenses or for ideas for new or improved products and services.
6. Measure your performance compared to your budget to identify and correct weaknesses.
7. Either reinforce or create a board of advisors. These individuals can be a valuable source of information and advice. Look for individuals with a general knowledge of your business. Look outside of your marketing area if necessary for competitive reasons.
8. Concentrate on your customers. Be certain they receive the best possible service and support.
9. Stay calm; Don’t panic: History tells us that economic downturns will not last forever. The horizon is starting to look brighter.
10. Concentrate on your business. Your main priority should be to maintain your current clients and customers. Focus your energy on what you can control in your business.
11. Ask SCORE for help. It’s what we do and it’s free!
Bill Haman, SCORE Cincinnati
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Entry filed under: Finance, Growing, Managing, Marketing, Success. Tags: grow, manage, recession, Success, tips.
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1.
Rita Crank | November 3, 2009 at 2:05 PM
Nobody seems to want to pay for quality, or
reputation. They just want a cheap price.
We apply expensive systems pay legitimate wages
and taxes and have a standard operating procedure and pay a high price for legitimacy. We cannot compete with the “handiman” working out of his truck paying illegal helpers under the table.
How does a reputable established company compete with this? Customers no longer place
loyalty and quality above a cheap price- PRICE IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS in these
terrible times!
2.
Eric | November 3, 2009 at 9:38 PM
I don’t have illegals…but low cost and taking a moment to talk to seniors works for me. I started with one three years ago and now have 75.
3.
Hazel | November 5, 2009 at 11:09 AM
I own a small daycare center (32) and f8ind with parents out of work and never knowing when that will happen it is almost impossible to forecast income in any given period outside of a week. We live in a seriously depressed area but there are childcare centers everywhere trying to get a share of the pie. How do you prepare a business plan when the numbers are constantly changing?
4.
Janet | November 14, 2009 at 1:50 AM
We have more business making custom Native American clothing than we can keep up with. This causes real problems because we can’t provide quick customer service. I ran an ad in a local newspaper for sewing help, but ended up wasting a lot of time & money on people who couldn’t walk their talk. Then we have a few customers who back out on paying for their orders when done, even with down payments.
Some days I’m just overwhelmed with trying to manage the orders, while juggling the ever-increasing credit card bills that we had to use to start the business. We’ve created a monster business that’s gobbling me up!