Challenged by the economy?

How can a business thrive during these lean times?

We live with such abundance that we need to take a step back and analyze where we're spending our money.  These can be small expenditures but taken as a whole, they can certainly add up.  Maybe you don't need all of those phone lines or the on-going advertising is just not working.  Sure, you may only save a few hundred dollars but if those costs are recurring, it can add up - and it all falls to the bottom line.  The cost of just one phone line is about $150 a month ... in a year - $1,800 ... 10 years - $18,000.  So, one of the first and easiest ways to put money back in your pocket is to analyze the money that is being wasted.

The next area to consider is to take a good look at your marketing expenditures.  I've always felt that if you cannot analyze the return on your marketing costs, then you have no idea if it is generating a return.  Since companies spend a significant amount of money each month on advertising, this results in a long term recurring expenditure.  It's very important to continue your marketing efforts during lean times, but it's essential to determine where your marketing dollars are working.  A simple question to new prospects, "how did you hear about us", is a great start - however, to make it effective, you need to document and track that prospect.  Documenting the source of your business along with the return, provides an analysis that is invaluable.  In addition, once you know what is most effective, it is possible that you can re-allocate your funds to the advertising that is providing the best return.  Just remember, before you launch a marketing campaign, it is essential that you put in place a method to analyze the results - otherwise, you're just throwing money away.

Productivity is one of the keys to increasing your return from your business.  If personnel are more efficient, they have more time and time equals money.  Business improvements such as creating a paperless business or making information more available for remote employees, could save a significant amount of time.  It's all those menial tasks of writing the same thing down several times in different systems, not only costs time but it is prone to errors - which absorbs more time.  We live in an information age with access to a wealth of information at our fingertips.  The Internet provides access to many free offerings that can significantly increase productivity.  Some of these free offerings that you can access from anywhere with an Internet connection include: Email, Word processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Contact management, CRM systems, Accounting systems, etc. - to name just a few.  The trend is to place more and more applications on the Internet "cloud" - effectively, making all your business information available from anywhere - anytime.

So, take a good look at your costs, marketing effectiveness, and how you can innovate your business, and you just might find that silver lining to help you prosper during these challenging times.