Be Successful Here

The question is one which everyone is attempting to find an answer to; how can you grow a business in an economic downturn when many companies are merely struggling to keep the doors open?

Some companies attempt to wait out the downturn and do nothing, but the proactive business owner knows that every attempt should be made to increase sales even with a smaller market share.

Here are a few pointers on growing your business in hard times.

Find Your Direction

The housing industry suffers during a flat economy because people can’t afford to build. Construction companies that make it through the slow times have to diversify and find the building markets that can still provide some work. Other businesses are no different.

If your target market has evaporated, consider changing direction to something that is viable. If it is possible to divide resources to focus on several different potential fronts, find what related fields you might be able to pursue based on competition and market demand.

Increase Opportunity with More Contacts

Some business owners don’t realize that they must work harder during the times when business is slow than they do when times are good. When there is plenty of work on the books, establishing new contacts and clients takes a back seat to production.

When business slows, it is time to invest longer hours beating the streets for new prospects. Increasing visibility by advertising and promoting a more prominent online presence is all part of bringing in more potential customers.

Decrease Overall Costs

If your company is hurting financially, you can well imagine that others in your industry are, too. Some of those companies are suppliers of the raw materials you need to conduct business. During a downturn is the best time to negotiate prices and look for special deals.

If you can lower your production costs, it may be possible to lower your price to clients, making your brand more competitive and attractive in the marketplace. This should help your sales and be reflected in company growth.

When you begin to trim fat, you should look closely at your books to determine where every dollar is going. It may be possible to change up services you receive from attorneys, accountants, insurance providers, and others. Many overhead costs need to be shopped on a regular basis anyway, in both good and bad times.

It’s FREE!

‘Free? Nothing’s free. What kind of scam is this? Free? No way it can be free!”

Well firstly, you’re right, nothing’s free because there is always exchange – tangible or intangible – and energy is neither created nor destroyed; therefore, again, yes, you’re right, nothing is free and there is always exchange and gain.

So I know you must be itching to know, to know the truth, the real truth and now here it is – you are offering voluntary employee benefits at no direct cost to your company.

What this means is that you are offering the voluntary benefits and your employees choose what they want and how much they want and they make their own investment. Therefore, for every bit of coverage your employees get, all you have to cover is setting up the payroll deduction and the pretax savings on that coverage pays for this payroll setup multiple times over – so offering these voluntary employee benefits actually results in immediate net profit.

Wait a Second, Explain this A Bit More, Because I’m No Fool

Now, if you so choose, you can cover a portion or all of your employees coverage, as some of our clients do – covering $50, $100, or $200 of coverage per month for example. And if you are like most businesses, then you simply allow your employees to choose what they want and make their own investment, which is essentially and quickly done because the benefits are simple and affordable.

At the end of the day, all you have done is set up the payroll processing, provided for your employees in a big way, and collected the tax savings.

Other than being able to cater to your employees specifically and personally with your custom-fit employee benefits, offering benefits for free is definitely the most important reason why you need to offer voluntary employee benefits right now.

A Free Solution… Ahh What a Relief

Think of the relief this is bringing, bringing right now – relief from the suffocating squeeze of budget constraints, cutting off the air that was once cashflowing through your company and your brain and many of us have heard that money is about as important as oxygen, and these budget cuts are leaving you short of breath, short of funds, high on job loss, high on shame, high on disappointment, short on pride, short on growth, and short on success.

Being a Six Sigma professional, one could compare me to a carpenter with a hammer – yes, everything looks like a nail! Besides the lack of organizational efficiency and effectiveness and external forces which depend on unsustainable resources, such as oil, where else have we been short-sighted?

The task is overwhelming for a systems thinker like me, so I decided to ask a few of my trusted colleagues, “Why do companies have unnecessary layoffs?”

Here is what I heard:

1. Lack of effective hiring and retention
2. A lack of understanding how to see their businesses as living people, process and tool organisms
3. A lack of collaborative thinking and reflection
4. A lack of long-term incentives
5. Personality conflicts
6. Conflicting priorities
7. Not having the right people at the right place at the right time
8. Lack of cross training
9. Lack of passion being a responsible citizen of our country
10. Low value placed on sustainability
11. Politics – often times managers are not asked about the decision to lay off…only who to lay off
12. A lack of self awareness

For my birthday, a friend of mine and I visited Chef Emeril Lagasse’s restaurant in South Beach. As we are both process professionals, we were amazed at how succinct and quality focused each of the interactions were not only with us as customers – also with one another.

After dinner, we asked our waitress Danae, “How are you able to pull off such a quality focused dining experience?” She answered, “It’s a process.” These words were music to our ears. We both have worked for many Fortune 500 companies whose leaders simply do not understand the importance of the word process.

We were so impressed that we asked to speak with the general manager, Sebastian Tribout. Mr. Tribout advised us that Chef Emeril himself created 15 commandments for our dining experience. I asked him how he was able to get his servers to buy into these commandments. He told me that each employee must earn each role that he or she plays.

In essence, each one is crossed trained and can serve in multiple roles. He went on to say that the turn-over rate in his restaurant is lower than those of other restaurants in the area, and I believe it. His servers look happy, and the team work was like watching a symphony.