How to Beat the Recession Mark Tanner, VP AutoID, POS, Card and Physical Security, North America, Synnex Corporation
Recession-proofing your business, or at least strengthening it to survive an economic slowdown requires smart planning, good decision-making and reviewing your own efficiencies as much as those of your customers. Here are several tips that will not only provide short-term benefits, but will propel long-term growth when the overall economy recovers:
Hire New Staff. Reducing staff is often the first step a company will seriously entertain and it is often the first mistake they make. Turn this into an opportunity by adding to your staff. During a recession, many companies have downsized and begin to lay off productive and valued employees. Look for talented people your competitors are laying off. Bringing in new employees can lead to fresh ideas, creative thinking and it sends a clear message to your existing staff that may be concerned with rumored lay offs. Increasing your staff morale is a valuable asset and will increase productivity.
Be Frugal. Watch your debt very closely. Make smart decisions to avoid unnecessary debt, especially short- term debt affecting your cash flow. Avoid expensive furniture and fixed assets, expensive hotels and off-site meetings. Plan your travel, implement three week advanced flight bookings, negotiate rates with a hotel chain (one with a hot breakfast), shop your car rentals, and purchase personal Internet wireless routers for employees that frequently travel.
Selling on ROI. Driving efficiencies and costs down should be first and foremost on everyone's mind. As fuel surcharges climb, they must either be offset with increased pricing or, better yet, lower costs elsewhere in the business.
Health Care, Public Safety, Education and Government. What do all of these markets have in common? They all have a budget to spend. Health-care services are viewed as a necessity and therefore can be a recession proof market. Develop solutions and market them both on ROI and if you can, work in a "saving lives" statistic. Public Safety is looking for mobile work-force improvements using AIDC technology, accuracy of police officer ticketing and parking enforcement. IP Security provides public safety and can be integrated into wireless mesh networks.
Watch Your Profitability. Keep a careful eye on your profitability and have a clear understanding of the costs of doing business. This includes production costs, product costs, staffing and the cost of providing services for your customers. Understanding the costs of doing business allows you to focus on highly profitable areas and leaves the less profitable areas to your competitors.
Getting More Out of Your Existing Customer Base. Take a close look at your past sales, and look for new opportunities with old customers. There are often similar ways to deploy a solution with the same customer. For example, you have many customers using your warehouse inventory solution to improve their inventory logistics. Could you deploy a similar version of this solution in an accounting department?
New Market Opportunities with Existing Customers. Keep in frequent contact with past customers. It is easier than you think to add incremental technologies to your sales arsenal. Physical IP security, card and access control, time and attendance and digital signage are all technologies that can be quickly learned and have a very short ROI for the customer.
Customer Pricing and Financing. One word: flexibility. Customers want your solutions; it is up to you to make them affordable. Understand your customer's budget and scale your services accordingly. Consider offering several price ranges with increased and reduced service offerings. Bottom-line, get the sale. Spread out the payments to help the customer budget for the complete project.
Article was excerpted from the Oct. 8, 2008 edition of AIM Global's weekly e-newsletter. For more information on AIM, or to become a member, visit http://www.aimglobal.org.
Recession-proofing your business, or at least strengthening it to survive an economic slowdown requires smart planning, good decision-making and reviewing your own efficiencies as much as those of your customers. Here are several tips that will not only provide short-term benefits, but will propel long-term growth when the overall economy recovers:
