10 Hot Tips to Recession-Proof Your Business
Preparation is the key to success!
No matter what the market is like, a business that keeps a steady course does best. There are marketing principles that provide the help to capitalize on good times, and remain secure in hard times. By using these principles, a business can not only maintain their success in a bad market, but possibly outperform their competitors.
Tip #1 – Invest in Your Employees
Their skills are your business’s skills, and the more they’re able to adapt from their experience and knowledge, the more your business will be flexible to adapt to new demands. Helping employees meet their training goals helps them feel invested in the company, as well as recognizing their interest in how they want to contribute to the company’s success.
Tip #2 – Use Data to Guide Your Decisions
It’s tempting to run on instincts, but market studies show us that instinct does not pay off as well as we might think. Hard data provides solid ground to move on and respond to, and provides real feedback to inform strategic improvements.
Tip #3 – Be Conscious and Conscientious about Spending
Consciousness is awareness of where your resources are going, and conscientiousness is applying good financial principles and ethics to use resources in the best way possible. Having a plan for how and when you want to expand or contract spending prevents overspending in flush times, and underspending when things get tight.
Tip #4 – Create Strategic Growth
Once you’re aware of data, and have your goals clearly stated, you can begin building strategies that push growth towards your goals. A strong idea of where you’re going will prevent wasteful spending in directions in which you don’t want to grow. Your resources will serve you even better as you allocate only to those things that push your business forward, and to well analyzed risks that provide greater benefits.
Tip #5 – Build an Identity
An easily recognizable identity will help people remember you throughout good times and bad. You’ll be the first they want to support when they have excess in the good times, and they’ll also come to you first when they need your services or products in bad times. A solid identity will serve for years to come, as you become recognizable as a leader in your field.
Tip #6 – Identify What Makes Your Business Unique
Along with building an identity, determine what makes you unique among your competitors. What do you offer that they can’t? These important differences will highlight your value when everyone can buy products and pay for services, and will help you stand out even more as competition falls away when things tighten.
Tip #7 – Cultivate Flexible Price Points
Preparing for your clients and customers to have to tighten their belts means that you will still attract business regardless of clients’ budget size. Empathetic negotiation, with flexibility in mind for your clients, will help them make it through a tough time as well as demonstrating and cultivating loyalty in your relationship with them. Having the ability to scale upward as customers’ budgets improve also means that your clients can spend more to optimize their experience.
Tip #8 – Move Efficiently Throughout All Periods – Good and Bad
A habit of efficient, conscientious movement will help keep practices lean and adaptable, and will let you know where to cut back based on your priorities should you need to. The agility that comes from efficient spending has the added benefit of giving you the ability to take advantage of unexpected opportunities!
Tip #9 – Prioritize Engagement
Studies show that companies that spend more on advertising during economic downturns perform better, as many businesses reduce marketing budgets to cut costs. The drop in competitor presence allows you to take a greater market share. Possibly the best benefit of maintaining or increasing marketing push in a less active market is the inherently expanded visibility because of the lack of competition. This carries through to a more active market, when your expanded presence puts you ahead of competitors who pulled back when the market was more difficult to navigate.
Tip #10 – Study Successful Brands and Their Strategies
Big brands didn’t get big by accident, and their practices can help you adapt and grow, even during the worst economic times. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, when you have previous success to learn from.
In good times and bad, relying on best practices is the key to success. The best practices highlighted above will help to create a business plan that is guided by facts and feedback, and able to pivot on a dime to meet changing needs, while maintaining a loyal customer base even when things get difficult.
No matter what, Rosie’s Creative is here to help you navigate through the changing tides of the economy. We can build strategies that meet your financial and marketing needs, and optimize the advantages you have over competitors. Our experience over more than a decade, and our maintenance of cutting edge marketing practices, provide you with the leverage you need to thrive in good times, and get ahead of the pack in the bad times.
Need help? Rosie’s Creative is always available to help your business succeed. Remember, your first consultation is always free!