Business Survival in a Recession

It’s no secret that America is facing some hard economic times. What does this mean for business owners? It means a variety of things such as cutting spending in the right areas, maintaining an advertising budget, keeping an eye on the original goal and retention marketing. Each one plays a major role in recession business survival, but they become of utmost importance during a slow economy.

Cut spending in the right areas

Cutting spending is an immediate reaction to recessionary talk and fallout; it’s only natural and logical to get rid of that which you don’t need to stay afloat. But any cuts you make now need to be good for the short and the long term. A business needs to think long and hard before slashing spending in areas that may affect future business operations such as product/service quality and standards, customer service and advertising.

[wcm_restrict]Maintain or increase your advertising budget

Oftentimes the first thing to go in a slow economy is the advertising budget, don’t do this. It may be a cliche, but one to take to heart; if you do nothing, nothing will happen. Becoming invisible will do nothing for you. Use this piece of information to your advantage, if you know others are cutting their advertising, amp yours up. Keep your image in the public view.

Keep and eye on the original goal

You became a business owner for specific reasons; remember those. It may be necessary to deviate from a plan momentarily, but don’t loose sight of optimal business goals. If it was your goal to have 200 new clients by 2010 and 2008 is kicking your butt, don’t slash your goal in half, amp up your sales team and advertising and come out fighting in 2009. And yes, goals sometimes won’t be met, but don’t allow the “recession” to dictate your goals.

Start retention marketing

In a slow economy getting new clients and customers is key; but retaining the ones you have is integral. If you don’t have awesome customer service, now is the time to get it, learn it, and live it. Consumers need a reason to do business with you, a recession is a time for shopping around and looking for something just a little better than what you have. A truism to hold close to your heart, people love to be treated well. Treat your customers and clients like gold, give them good reasons to do business with you and in turn tell their friends and family to do business with you.

A recession is an impermanent event. Every business decision you make during a recession needs to not only be good for the time being, but good in the long run as well.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Emmy Bill is the Owner of E-Learn About and an accomplished writer and Search Engine Optimization Specialist. Find more articles on finance as well as a variety of other topics at E-Learn About on the web at http://e-learnabout.com.