One thing to keep in mind that all business is cyclical. There will always be good economic times and lousy economic times, it's just a matter of timing and frequency. How hard your business is affected and how long your troubles last depends a great deal on the nature of your home business, your target markets, your capacity to be flexible and your ability to guide the ship through rough waters. You can become a Recession Ninja and not only survive economic recession, but thrive in spite of it!
If times were good and the economy was strong when you started your business, you probably didn't give much thought to what you would do in a slow economic period like an economic recession or other period of hard times. Let's face it - if your revenues and net income are taking a dive, you're in the midst of your own economic recession regardless of what the economy is doing. Ninja battles do not need an official name to be real!
An economic recession - or the period leading up to one - can be an excellent time to take stock of where your home business has been, where you want it to go and how you will achieve your goals.
Seven Steps to Recession Ninja to Boost Business in a Recession
Regardless of the cause or severity of an economic recession or hard times, there are seven steps you will want to take to keep you home business afloat and, in a sense, create your own economic stimulus. This is the path you must follow to become a Recession Ninja!
- Identify the challenges and opportunities
- Develop a plan
- Put your plan into action
- Monitor results
- Make adjustments
- Learn from your successes and failures
- Savor victory
As you go through the seven step process of getting your home business (or yourself) through an economic recession, you'll want to document what you do. Take notes and keep track of what you learn. Having a record of your findings and the results of your actions will help you fine tune the activities that will help get you through the hard times of an economic recession. Additionally, once you have completed the process you'll be able to learn much more from what you've done and what worked and what did not work if you have kept good records of your actions and findings. Finally, you may also come away with some great ideas and techniques that can make good times even better. For Recession Ninjas, knowledge is power!
Step 1: Identify Economic Recession Challenges and Opportunities - Know the Enemy
The first step in getting your home business through an economic recession or other period of hard times is to identify the problems, or challenges (your enemies), as well as the opportunities (your allies) facing your home business at this time.Recession Ninjas must know their friends and enemies!
The challenges and opportunities that face your home business (or your personal life) will likely contain a mix of issues: Those that apply specifically to your home business and those that apply to the economy as a whole.
Feeling Your Customer's Pain in Hard Times
In order to properly identify the challenges and opportunities that an economic recession presents for your business, you first need to look at your target customers or clients. Do you primarily market your product or services to end consumers (the public) or do your restrict your products and services to other businesses. Some home businesses serve both the consumer (B2C business) and other businesses (B2B).Oh, Recession Ninja warrior apprentice, can you possibly defend them all?
One of the most important things you can do is to place yourself in the shoes of your customer or client. To do that you not only need to consider what it might be like to be a customer of your home business, but you'll also want to listen to what your customers are telling you and how they are behaving. In order for your home business to survive and prosper, you can't afford NOT to listen to them. Great Recession Ninjas keep their ear to the ground and are aware of their surroundings!
Consumer Challenges in Economic Recession and Hard Times
If your home business is a B2C business where you deal directly with end consumers, both your existing customers and your prospects may be facing a list of struggles, which may include:
- Loss of employment or reductions in hours
- Budget stress caused by higher gas, utility and food prices
- Tightening of credit lines by creditors
- Lack of consumer confidence in the economy, resulting in reluctance to make purchases
By feeling your customer's pain, you may get ideas on how you can help ease it. This may include offering discounts or coupons, offering loyalty discounts to repeat customers and a host of other ideas that may come to you once you consider your customer's predicament. Determine what you can do for your allies, Recession Ninja warrior apprentice, for they can help you through many battles!
On page 2: Business Challenges in a Recession and Rising Above Them
