At this point, we’re several years into a period of economic slowdown, and if your small business has survived this long, congratulations! Consider yourself among the lucky– Most start-up companies face a challenging road even during periods of broad economic growth, and this recession has hit the small business landscape especially hard.
But pause for a moment before you celebrate. While experts maintain that the worst is over, the road to full recovery will take some time, and as your business climbs back from the brink, your competitors will be doing the same. How can you make sure your company stays healthy and stable as the small business picture slowly improves?
Re-examine Your Product or Service
Stay agile and recognize that in life, as in business, it’s never a bad idea to remain open to change and revision. Take a hard analytical look at your core offerings and see how they can be adapted to an evolving consumer marketplace. How can you change the shape, nature, or delivery of your product in order to better please your target audience?
Review Your Staffing Strategy
Changes to your staffing strategy can include anything from how you reach out to potential applicants to the way you review and evaluate your employees every year. Are you paying your staff enough to keep up with market rates? Are you overpaying new employees who haven’t yet proven themselves? Are you offering rewards and retention policies that work as well as they did when they were first implemented?
Make Changes to Your Technology Infrastructure
If you haven’t yet consolidated your back office management systems onto the same software platform, now is the time. Don’t use different, incompatible programs to handle payroll, inventory management, accounting and HR. Bring these utilities together using a small business data management system that relies on secure, offsite servers. Some call this “the cloud”. You can call it a simple, inexpensive and sophisticated way to manage and protect your data.
Revise Your Marketing Plan
Who exactly are your customers, and what do they want? You answered this question when you first launched your business, but that answer may have changed during the intervening years. Examine the shift and then make a decision: will you follow your new customer base and let the old one go? Or will you change your offerings to win the old base back?
Alter Your Approach to Profits
This move can be challenging, especially for business owners who aren’t comfortable with change. But it may be time to scale back on profits, cut the fat, and invest more back into your business. This may require reevaluating your definition of success. But in this shifting and highly competitive business landscape, success may simply mean survival.
Are you doing everything you can to help your business thrive? For more specific advice on revaluating your staffing, marketing, and management strategies, contact the Houton small business pros at Expert Staffing. We have the tools you need to stay flexible and get ahead.