5 ways to turn Recession into Opportunity for your Business

Sometimes small changes can make a big difference – by just reading the 5 ways to help your company, could give you an idea that could mean the difference between success and ultimate failure.

1. Ensure your headcount is optimized both for today’s uncertainty and tomorrows growth: Evaluate all of your expenses and streamline your operations rather than purely reducing manpower. Look into decreasing salaries or work hours as opposed to the option of letting go of your people. Skilled people can be hard to come by, if the economy was to turn around and you could end up being left behind. Unemployment aggravates the economy’s condition by leaving many people jobless and without money to buy the goods you produce.
2. Examine the profitability of each of your products and customer segments: Look at your customers and decide which customer types or profiles are the most profitable. The same is true of your products, what products or services are you making or selling that are taking away from the ones that maximize your profits. An ideal customer/product profile will help you reduce your expenses and get new clients during recession. Sometimes getting rid of less profitable customers can boost your profits in the long term.
3. Start selling and marketing smarter: If no-one knows you exist, no-one will be able to buy from you. So stay visible, just make sure you plan all marketing and sales sensibly. Create strategic plans, rather than knee-jerk reactions to “great deals” that advertising sales people will persuade you to go for.
4. Look at export markets: with a population of 4m Ireland is not a huge market. I recently spoke with a company whose Irish market had crashed 50%, yet because they have a strong export philosophy, their turnover was level in 2009 and they will grow in 2010
5. Be positive: being positive, staying upbeat, or as Rudyard Kipling says in the poem If, “If you can keep your head, when all about you are losing theirs..” will ensure you attract the best. If you stay strong and positive then your employees will be encouraged to work more efficiently and focus on gaining sales for the company’s benefit.

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