Has the blow-back from the US economic crisis affected your business yet?
If so what pull-back approach are you taking?
Are you cutting advertising as a result of efforts to trim costs?
Have your client account payments been affected?
These are just a few of the questions that small business owner such as myself and my clients are discussing. I had one client tell me that his own client base had just simply stopped paying on time. We have experienced several client situations where we have had to turn client accounts over for collection for the first time in eight years.
In a tough economy, such as ours, it is important to keep a cool head and focus on your business longevity. Many of us will be able to weather this storm and come out stronger, unlike some industries such as the real estate and the mortgage industry, where the crisis is so deep that some firms are being driven out of business.
So what do you do when times are tough for your business? One quick comment, it is not the US alone, but a global issue. I have chatted with several contemporaries in Spain and the United Kingdom who are experiencing many of the same issues that we are in the US in regards to draw-down and pull-back.
This is what my firm is doing:
1. Getting very proactive with slow payers to bring them into line with our payment terms.
2. Working with a collection agency for the first time in eight years to collect accounts over 90 days old.
3. Reviewing carefully our spending history. This is not necessarily a time to just routinely upgrade software. I have purchased some upgrades but made very careful selections, but others, I will defer to later or indefinitely.
4. Carefully reviewed my business profitability. If I cannot offer a service profitably, I have dropped it or realigned it to be profitable; factoring in the cost of credit card processing and overhead has been extremely important in some of my most recent decisions in regards to pricing models.
5. Stopped doing business with clients that simply will not pay on time and sap my available time with collection efforts.
What have you done to keep you business afloat in these trying times? Click add your comment below and leave me a note. I would be most interested in hearing what you are doing to move your business forward.