How to survive in business before, during and after a crisis

How to survive in business before, during and after a crisis

In 2014 I gave a speech at the Costa Women International Women’s Networking event. Based on this presentation, here are my tips for protecting yourself and your business during hard times and how to take full advantage when things pick up as I believe they now are.

Reducing Risk & Capitalizing on Your Skills

• Seek free professional advice – CADE, Andalucia Lab and others are there to help
• Research, research, research – make sure you know your stuff before you commit yourself to a decision
• Build a network – online and offline, this is a very low cost and direct form of marketing
• Think about what you can do yourselves to reduce costs – make the most of the skills you have
• Learn – There are many tools out there to allow you to do things yourselves and you can learn to do a lot more than you think when you have the time early on
• Be clever with where you put your money – investment is required but can be minimized and managed
• Trade – Can you exchange skills with another business?
• Profile build and have a strong presence online with social media, blogging and offline with PR such as articles and events
• Help others – Support other businesses and be generous with your time and they will help you, consider supporting a charity or community organization to generate PR and goodwill

Plan & Grow

• Have clear objectives
• Make a practical and strategic plan to follow to achieve those objectives
• Make a budget and stick to it
• Make a marketing plan to ensure you are promoting yourself, with or without a budget
• Believe in yourself – you can do it!
• Ask for help as you grow – as the clients come in, or products start selling you need to get help otherwise you will get stuck, don’t be afraid to ask for help or delegate, it’s the only way to grow
• Remain focused on keeping costs low and staying flexible
• Look at recruitment options – can you use freelancers, can you take advantage of the government schemes to take people off long term unemployment to be able to employment with less costs and risk, can you use interns to support you, can you outsource abroad?
• Don’t forget to keep promoting whilst you’re busy to ensure you’re filling the pipe so you’re covering yourself against dips in business
• Create a buffer – Try to use your busy months to create a financial buffer in your business so this can sustain you in quieter times

Capitalise on the Good Times  

• Brighter times are ahead – have faith
• For those people who have survived the crisis, now is the time to capitalise!

Review & Take Stock

• Review what happened – have you lost competitors, has your customer profile changed, has the market changed to reveal new opportunities
• Evaluate your business post-crisis –

1. Look at what areas are most profitable, what is not selling well
2. Be honest to yourself on what you enjoy the most and motivates you the most and what you do not like
3. Look at your monthly commitments in terms of spend and what you could trim and what needs more investment
4. Predict future spending requirements to budget
5. Look at how many enquiries are coming in and how many of those are turning into sales/client
6. Review your marketing – what is working and what is not
7. Consult your customers and network to find out what they think of you, your product and service to see where you could improve or what you’re doing well
8. Look at what is holding you back

Reach for the Stars

• Make  a new plan with more ambitious objectives
• Make the most of partnerships and your network to expand without having to recruit staff – can other companies step in to help when there’s a need and then pull back when not?
• Have a clear promotional strategy which invests time and resources into making sure you are visible and well positioned when more and more people are looking for your product or service.
• Don’t be afraid to dream! Why shouldn’t you be a massive success and make loads of money? Don’t limit yourself by thinking small or not thinking you’re good enough

Evaluate Constantly

• Evaluate and measure any new spending in terms of promotion, staffing and outsourcing and make sure your investments are paying off for you
• Keep an eye on your competitors and make sure you’re not losing out – or find out why if you are
• Keep checking the plan and make sure you’re achieving your objectives and not gone off track
• Check the budget and how everything is performing compared to ROI

Take Advantage of New Opportunities

• Don’t be afraid of change – it can be great
• Grab new opportunities even if they are out of your comfort zone
• Innovate – don’t get stale and tired, trying new things can be great for promotion and motivation
• Show others you’re open to partnerships & mutually beneficial opportunities

Stay Motivated

• Motivation is tough when you have your own business
• Have established working hours which you always follow
• Set yourself clear tasks to achieve each day and tick them off for a sense of satisfaction
• Impose deadlines for yourself
• Reward yourself when you’ve achieved a lot
• Enjoy the benefits of being your own boss and take time off to enjoy when you’re not so busy

When you lose motivation

• If you’re struggling with a task don’t just slog at it – do some other things and come back to it
• We all lose focus – don’t beat yourself up, but if it’s a long term problem then you need to address what is causing you to feel negative
• If you don’t like it find a way to change it!
• Don’t face it alone – Find a business buddy you can brainstorm with, bounce ideas off and share problems

If it isn’t working…..

• Not all businesses succeed
• If your business isn’t working and you’ve really worked at it in the right way and tried everything you can think of don’t be afraid to try something new
• The most successful people have failed businesses behind them, a failed business does not mean you are a failure!
• Sometimes it’s the wrong idea, or the wrong time, but if you’re not afraid to change, you will get there in the end

Believe

• You can do it!
• You are intelligent, capable women, surrounded by people who can help
• Set realistic objectives and work to them in a planned and practical way and you can achieve
• In 5 years time you may be somewhere else than you’d expected but by facing the world of work with positivity and confidence and surrounding yourself with good people you will have achieved a great deal!

For more tips and training like this, download our Introduction to Marketing Webinar, or book for our Marketing Planning training session on 4th November.