5 Business Behaviours to Help You Through an Economic Downturn

Are these the top five business survival behaviours to adopt during a recession?

1: RACE don't CHASE

Stay ahead of the predicted falls in income/sales by reviewing and making cuts in operations. Budget for a worst case scenario.

2: Be CREATIVE and FLEXIBLE

Make an honest appraisal of your business - the systems and service/product offerings to ensure that you are delivering on your value promise

3: INVEST in MARKETING

Numerous case studies have shown that investment in marketing and brand development allow businesses to recover far more rapidly as a recession ends and gain a better share of the market. Promotion in this sense is not a short term fix, but a long term investment.

4: PROMOTE IMAGINATIVELY

At times of downturn the businesses which can promote by developing networks and being creative in getting their message across will capture buyer/client interest.

5: DELIVER your VALUES

Work to ensure that everyone associated with the business is clear about what these are and what is expected of them.

In many ways these seem like good business behaviours at any time!

When money is tight and sales are not flourishing it is likely that businesses (especially SME's) will have a knee jerk reaction to the situation rather than taking time to create a strategic response. The knee jerk reaction can be to 'cut everything' including 'prices' in order to reduce overheads and increase sales. Now whilst some cuts, when carefully considered (as in Race don't Chase), may well be necessary other 'cuts' (prices, marketing, promotion, development) if not part of a longer term strategy could well be ill made and have the opposite effect to the desired one.

The focus needs to be on VALUE - the promotion of your businesses value (and not simply in the one dimensional sense of money/cost), but in all those things you stand for.

Dr Alan Jones in an NLP Trainer, Motivational Speaker and Educational Coach who has worked with a wide range of clients including international organisations, education authorities, professional training providers and individuals. He is an Accredited de Bono Thinking Skills Consultant. He has conducted sales training for many leading companies in the UK.

You can find out more about his work by visiting http://www.aljones.net