One of the keys to surviving a recession is to figure out what your core business really is.
Who are your best customers? What does your business do much better than others?
Once you figure out your “core”, focus on it like crazy.
Here’s why this is a good idea.
In a recession, there is less market demand. So to maintain your personal income, you have to perform better just to offset shrinking demand.
Needless to say the difficulty level of getting your business to grow has gone way up.
You know people say you can work harder or your can work smarter. Realistically, to maintain sales/profits and especially to grow them despite the economy, you gotta do both.
When the stock markets around the world crashed last year, my first reaction was to say “uh oh”.
My second reaction was to tell my wife that “Guess my vacation’s over”–so much for my plans to coast through to the end of the year.
My third reaction was to get busy figuring out my “core”.
Which customers were my “core” customers? Who were the ones that had always bought from me in the past–and thus most likely to continue buying in the future?
Which of my services sold well with the least effort? Which of my offerings were the most relevant to my “core” customers?
In a strong economy, you can afford to experiment outside your core and stumble upon a new growth area for your business. In a declining economy, you have to play to your strong hand–your core.
I then marshalled all resources and shoved them into the core. I pulled members of my team off everything else, and put them on the core.
I shifted my time from other growth areas, and re-focused on the core. It’s all about figuring out the core, and focusing on in it relentlessly.
Frankly, it was an exhausting process. But, now my business is aligned WITH how my “core” customer’s needs–needs that have changed because of the recession.
Instead of “sailing upwind” against the economic winds, I’ve changed a lot of things around to take advantage of how the economic winds are now blowing.
So my business is now “sailing downwind” WITH the recession, instead of against it.
That’s a very big survival secret right there. I suggest you re-read that last paragraph a few times.
Once you’ve repositioned your business to take advantage of the recession, you want to work on getting more business.
If you’re a member of my recession hotline service(www.bailouthotline.com), on our conference call next Tuesday,
I’ll be talking about 9 ways to market your business in a recession for under $50 each.
These are not wimpy marketing strategies. Instead, they are highly effective strategies that happen to not cost much to execute.
Also for those of you who have requested a free copy of my book The Recession-Proof Business, the books will ship out on Monday.
So expect to receive them towards the end of the week. Thanks for your patience, especially for those who have been waiting a few weeks.
In the meanwhile, my challenge to you is to figure out who your “core” customers are.
Determine what product/services represent the “core” of your profits (which incidentally may be different than revenues).
Finally, figure out what you can do to shift resources from everything non-core to the “core”.
Very helpful Victor, thanks