Surviving the Recession

I remember recently being in the car with a few friends of mine. We were driving back from the East coast of Scotland. We were driving through a remote area, it was quite late and we had no mobile phone reception. Suddenly the car bleeps to tell us that we are running out of petrol and had 20 miles left in the tank but it was about 25 miles to the nearest petrol station. Well that whole trip to the station, no one spoke, no one moved and I spent most of the time looking at the mileage counter count down to zero miles left.

Recessions for business are a bit like that I’ve realised. You are looking at the market because things are going well and don’t really have time to check that your business has what it takes to survive. What you shouldn’t do it what we did in the car i.e freeze, not daring to do anything lest you upset the balance and provoke a negative consequence. Now that Gordon has been so good as to tell us what is probably obvious- that we’re heading for recession – it’s time to act urgently so your business will survive. So what do you do?

Firstly make sure that you have unique features about what you offer compared to the competition. Is it product features? Your after-sales service? Your price? Whatever the above is, make sure you know and communicate that to your customers relentlessly. Most businesses fail to remind their existing customers why it’s so good to buy from your company and why they should keep coming back. In these times, however, you can’t afford to lose any of your existing clients.

That’s also about understanding why your customers choose you (and why your non customers do not). You need to be getting out there and asking both your customers and non customers.

If you don’t know, how do you know if they will stay? It is far easier to sell to an existing customer that to a new one. Its also far cheaper meaning they are generally more profitable, other things like price being equal. You need to measure Customer Satisfaction on all the things that you do for your customers.

Take some time to identify the Opportunities and Threats that are out there now and what your businesses capability to cope with them is. We’ve done that so may times for clients recently, it only takes a day and its amazing what comes out that was staring you in the face.

Finally you will get through this only with the help and buy-in of your employees. Most studies show that they are at their most satisfied when they feel their work makes a contribution to the company’s success. Involve them in the above, ensure your company has a clear vision and objectives and that all employees know them inside out and communicate to them relentlessly about what is going good and bad.

Oh and we made it to the petrol station, but to this day don’t ask me how…