Exploiting Your Recession - Finding Opportunities Within Decline

While downturns come and go, it can be hard to ignore a recession when the media puts in your face every day. So beyond living in complete denial, what’s a business owner to do? Why not recognize opportunities that recession can bring to your business?

Here are a few points to ponder:

• Despite everyone preaching to the contrary, demand for most products does not disappear or decline more than 10%. Demand simply morphs and transforms. Take a good look at what your customers are doing to cut back and recognize the choices they’re making and how you can exploit them.



• Identify what your customers want vs. what they need, as these change during a recession. Strangely, some wants actually grow during a recession as people compensate for sacrifice in the strangest ways.



• Fully understand the money vs. time paradigm. Your customers will always have more of one than the other, so figure out how you can exploit this.



• If business is slow, now’s the time to rebuild or extend your Best and Highest Use. It’s a great time to start initiatives and build for sunny days.



• Despite the credit crunch, money is much less expensive to borrow in a recession as the Federal Reserve Bank cuts interest rates. Hunt around, as money is there to borrow, and when you find it, it can be a bargain. Also negotiate aggressively with your service and resource providers. Many are much more flexible than you might expect.



• Find the underserved and neglected in your marketplace. There are many folks and businesses that are not being adequately provided because their suppliers have abandoned them for greener markets. How can you step in?



• Seek out and walk with winners. In any recession, there are many folks who actually do better. Find them, serve them and grow with them.

There is an old saying, “Things are never as good as you think they are or as bad as you think they are.” A recession is precisely so. Don't ignore it rather exploit it just as you would a growing economy. Doing so during a recession is a true test of your business mettle. Rise up and seize it.

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© Copyrighted by Andrew J. Birol, President of Birol Growth Consulting, who helps owners grow their businesses by growing their Best and Highest Use ®. Andy can be reached at (440) 349-1970, by email at abirol@andybirol.com, or on the web at www.andybirol.com.