While many businesses are closing their doors, a select few have grown their business revenues during economic recessions.
The best opportunity for businesses in these times is to find the hidden assets in their marketing and business plan.
If sales are down and the cost of doing business continue to rise, it is time to adopt the three "R's" of business turn-around strategists.
The three "R's" refers to Re-evaluate, Retool, and Resource.
These tactics will allow you to gain a foot-hold in your market.
Re-evaluate Take a look at your balance sheet, your business plan and your marketing plan.
Meet with your staff and lay out your plan of action as well as your options.
Be as candid as you can with them about the situation and get everyone focused on finding solutions.
If you don't have a business and marketing plan, now is the time to get it together.
You absolutely cannot wing it during these tumultuous times.
There is no single solution to the problems at hand but there are individual solutions for each market.
Identify your core challenges and begin to tackle them one at a time.
Prioritize your challenges and schedule their solutions.
You can start with the most pressing and delegate them to others in order to stay focused on business building strategies.
Retool Pay close attention to your market.
Many times when things look bad, individual markets change and adjust according to the times.
There might be unique markets opened up to you precisely because of the changing economy.
You might be looking at scrapping a favorite market segment after your evaluation and retooling your business to an emerging market instead.
Resource If you are in financial trouble and are looking at closing your door, you might want to stop for a minute and seriously think about your resources.
Many times the greatest deficit in your business is in resourcefulness.
It might sound harsh but we often find the resources to solve our most pressing problems when we are forced to think clearly.
Gather your people what counsel you.
Contact your advisors in times of crisis and get their opinions on your plans to move forward.
Touch bases with them regularly but in the end, make your own decisions.
While building your resources, make a plan of action for a worst case scenario.
If your particular market is not affected by the current situation, put the above steps in motion and get started shoring up your business.
Make it a priority to have an exit strategy for the future.