How Your Business Can Survive an Economic Downturn?

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How Your Business Can Survive an Economic
Downturn?
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Plan For Economic Downturn
During times of economic hardship, businesses can
suffer from a decline in consumer confidence and
decreased sales. Small businesses can be
particularly vulnerable during challenging
economic times. If you have been running your
business or franchise for a while, you know that
ups and downs are a part of business. Market
conditions can change, outside events can affect
demand, and sometimes growth stalls simply due to
the economic climate. As a serious business
owner, having a plan of action during times of
economic uncertainty is vital.
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Protect Your Cash Flow
Cashflow is the lifeblood of all businesses and
comes from sources like payments form customers,
receipt of a loan, monetary infusion from an
investor, or interest on savings or
investments. Money must continue inflowing and
outflowing for optimum business health, with the
obvious goal being that you bring in more income
than you must spend on expenses. So, how to
protect cashflow? Lets find out several ways to
protect cashflow
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Several ways to protect cashflow
1. Know your expenses Keep a detailed record of
your expenses and assess what can be temporarily
be done without, this ensures that expenses are
kept to a minimum while maximizing the chances of
your cashflow being intact. 2. Bundle products
and services Even though discounting is not
always recommended, adding value is. By creating
bundles of products or services, businesses can
inject tremendous amount of perceived and
tangible value into their offerings for very
little cost. 3. Cloud accounting software With
a good cloud accounting tool, you can easily keep
track of your expenses, you can keep a close eye
on your inventory (what has sold and what has
not) and all your transactions. You also can know
exactly how much cash you have, as well as who
needs to pay you.
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Win the Competitions Customers
As a business owner, you must continue to expand
your customer/client base if your business is
going to prosper in tough times. Offer something
more or different than what the other guy does.
Research your competition and see what you can do
to entice their customers into becoming your
customers.
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Make the Most of Current Customers
Current customers can be considered loyal
customers in some respects and can give you many
more sales opportunities. As a business owner,
you cannot afford to ignore the potential
benefits of shifting your sales focus to include
established customers if you want your business
to survive challenging economic times. The key
here is excellent customer service. Ensure that
your customers and clients love what you do or
sell and keep them happy. Which means that the
customer is always right. Identify their needs,
then meet them. You want to retain their business
at all costs.
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Dont Cut Back on Marketing
Many businesses make the mistake of cutting their
marketing budget to the bone in times of economic
uncertainty, or even eliminating it entirely, but
this is exactly when your business needs
marketing the most. Consumers are restless. They
are always looking to make changes in their
buying decisions. Help them find your products
and services and to choose them rather than
others by getting your name out there. Marketing
can be a powerful force multiplier.
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Rework Your Story and Services
While economic downturns are mostly about money
and margins, they are also about narratives.
Growth, branding, prestige, the words
clients love in bull markets give way to words
like ROI and savings in bear markets. A key
strategy for you, the business owner, is to
rework the narrative around your services. Do not
tell clients about growth and brand equity.
Instead, tell them about savings, better ROI, and
getting more from less effort. For example, if
you are selling web design services, you might
have two different narratives for different
economic situations Growth narrative
Best-in-class, bespoke design services for
clients who want nothing but the best
Savings narrative Low-cost design services for
clients who want more from less
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Clean Up Internally
Businesses can pack on a lot of fat during growth
phases. You might hire personnel you do not
really need, buy software that remains
underutilized, and adopt inefficient practices.
An economic downturn is the right time to clean
up internally and cut down on costs. This can be
tough, especially if you have to let people
go. Salaries are one of the biggest expenses for
every business. Cutting down on this can be the
easiest way to keep your business afloat. The
first thing you need to know is how well you are
currently using your resources.
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Conclusion
Surviving and even thriving during challenging
economic times is about making tough decisions
and judicious cutbacks. As a business owner, you
need to go all out to save your best clients. At
the same time, you need to realign your practices
and make better use of resources. At the end of
the day, sustaining a business involves building
industry-beating expertise, attracting strong
clients, and adopting better software ad business
practices.
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About FranFlight
We are passionate about helping franchises grow.
Our system is an all- in-one business management
software that is built and dedicated for the
franchising industry. Instead of providing you
with only one business program, we incorporate
state of the art software, a beautiful uniquely
designed website, and professional internet
marketing services.
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Website https//franflight.com/