Recession busting tips from SWIBN

SWIBN combined forces with Sligo Chamber for a special event on April 27th to welcome EU Ambassador for Female Entrepreneurship, Judy Greene.

Prior to Judy's presentation we asked members for their recession busting tips - "What changes have you made in your business in the last 12 months?" It took just 15 minutes to generate a list of actions taken by Sligo's pro-active business community. Perhaps you are asking yourself what changes you should make in your business? We've created a useful checklist to help get you thinking:-

Money:

• Return to the old bartering system
• Seek money in advance on certain assignments
• Progress payments on large assignments instead of waiting until end
• Offer discounts regularly

Managing costs/reducing overheads:

• Stop printing statements and email statements at end of each month. Saves on postage and gets a quicker response
• Weekly stocktake
• Renegotiate rent, reduce staff costs ( reception and cleaning staff)
• Only turn on necessary lights
• Operate 'just in time' - to reduce amount of stock held
• Cancel mobile broadband account - use wireless broadband in office and wireless broadband in public areas

Marketing and new media:

• Implement more innovative and personal ways to market the business
• Text promotions
• Build marketing plan using Facebook, Linkedin and Blogger which is free to promote business
• Upgrade website and create a blog
• Build profile via TV programmes - i.e Home Chef

Clients:

• Go out to customer instead of waiting for customer to come in
• Set aside an hour each day to set up appointments in diary
• Follow up within a few working days with your recommendations based on review of client needs
• Re-visit clients on a bi-weekly basis
• Follow-up appointments made when patient is in the clinic
• Send out reminder calls for appointments

Pricing:

• Focus on core/most profitable part of business
• Pricing remains same as 2008/9 - no increases

Training:

• More time on training
• Cross training

New product format:

• Changed photo products - more flexible for smaller sites
• Bank loan to change office into apartment

If you have any recession busting tips to add, please don't hold back. If you are reading this blog, we'd like to hear from you. What's working for you and why?