Ep:16 Smart Business: Proactive Measures to Protect Your Business During a Recession

 Hello and Welcome to another episode of the Brave Pivot Podcast your go-to podcast for all things business and entrepreneurship. I’m excited and grateful that you are here. Thank you for spending your time with me! 

In this week’s episode, I am continuing with the same topic theme as the last two weeks. We are talking about the Recession. This is the third and final episode of the series. Just to recap on what I’ve covered thus far, I started with episode 14, on that episode, I took a deep dive into why launching a start-up during a recession might be your golden ticket to success. 

That episode is entitled 5 Tips on Why Starting a Business During a Recession is a Winning Move – 

In that episode, I shared some hidden opportunities and advantages that you can leverage to start your entrepreneurial journey and turn your small business dreams into reality. 

Next, in episode 15, I wanted to apply a different lens and share with you a different perspective regarding recessions. Instead of talking about the losses that each of those events resulted in, I want to change the focus and turn that around by talking about the gains. And in that episode, I shared historical insights and the invaluable lessons each recession has taught us. My goal for that episode in sharing those lessons was that you take those lessons and practical tips and apply those key learnings so that you can build a stronger and more resilient business. That episode is entitled: Recession 101 A Trip Down Memory Lane and the Lessons We Learned from Them 

 And on today’s episode, I will be closing the series by sharing with you some proactive measures and strategies that you can use to protect your business during a recession. By the end of this podcast, you'll have a clear understanding of how to protect your business during a recession and set yourself up for long-term success. So let's dive in and explore these 5 proactive measures and their associated strategies in detail. 

Transcript

0:01

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Brave Pivot Podcast, your go-to podcast for all things business and entrepreneurship. I'm excited and grateful that you're here. Thank you for spending your time with me. And this week's episode, I'm continuing with the same topic thing as the last two weeks. We're talking about the recession. This is the third and final episode of the series. Just to recap of what I've covered thus far, I started with episode 14. On that episode, I took a deep dive into why I starting to. During a recession might be your golden Ticket to success. That episode is entitled Five Tips on Why Starting a Business during a Recession is a winning move. In that episode, I shared some hidden opportunities and advantages that you can leverage to start your entrepreneurial journey and turn your small business dreams into reality. Next, in episode 15, I wanted to apply a different lens and share with you a different perspective regarding recessions. Instead of talking about all the losses that each of those events resulted in, I wanted to change the focus and turn that around by talking about the gains. And in that episode, I shared historic insights and invaluable lessons each recession has taught us. My goal for that episode in sharing those lessons was that you took those lessons and practical tips and apply those key learnings so that you can build a stronger, more resilient business. That episode is entitled Recessions 1 0 1, a Trip Down Memory Lane, and the lessons we learned from them. I hope you check out both of those episodes and let me know your thoughts. I'll share those podcast links for you in the show notes so you can take a listen and check them out. And on today's episode, I'll be closing this series by sharing with you some proactive measures and strategies that you can use to protect your business during a recession. By the end of this podcast, you'll have a clear understanding of how to protect your business during a recession and set yourself up for long-term success. Hi, and welcome to the Brave Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Cindy Marie Ferguson. I'm a former corporate girl turned entrepreneur, business educator, and mentor here to help you build a profitable and successful business. After the kids' corporate and chaos. On the podcast, we'll have honesty, meaningful conversations around becoming an entrepreneur, starting a business, building a brand, and my favorite. Systems and processes and so much more. If this sounds like your thing, stick around each Wednesday through guest interviews and solo episodes. I'll be providing insights, tools, business strategies, and actionable support to help you along the way on your entrepreneurial journey. Get ready for some candid conversations, inspirations and invaluable insights. I'm so delighted you're. Let's dive in and get started. Welcome back to the Brave Pivot Podcast. On today's episode, we're on the final episode of the series where I've been talking about the recession. We are rounding out the series with the last episode with proactive measures and strategies on how to protect your business during a recession. Let's start with the first one. Cut unnecessary cost. Now, this one might seem obvious, but it's a good reminder. You wanna reduce expenses without compromising operations or customer service. Now the modifications you make to your business should be seamless and behind the scenes with little to no disruptions to your everyday operations. Also, your customers or clients should not be feeling any impact as a result of any changes you've made to reduce expenses, it's important to deliver consistent customer experience at all times. And of course, during a recession is no exception. As an entrepreneur, we're always on the lookout for cutting costs, but during a recession, cutting costs moves to the forefront of our minds. Here are some strategies for you to consider for cutting those unnecessary costs. Number one, conduct an expense audit. You wanna identify opportunities where you can reduce your expenses. This involves reviewing and taking a critical look at your business expenses, including fixed costs like rent and utilities, and variable costs like marketing and office supplies. By analyzing your expenses, you can identify areas where you can cut back without compromising your business operation or customer experience. Number two, you can renegotiate your contracts. If you have contracts with suppliers or vendors, you might wanna think about reaching out to them and see if you can negotiate better terms. For example, you might be able to negotiate better prices or longer payment terms. Moving on to number three, you wanna utilize technology use technology to automate and streamline your business processes. This can help reduce labor costs and increase efficiency. For example, considered using software that automates your accounting or project management tasks. For accounting, I use QuickBooks and for project management tasks, you guys know I love Asana. Next is number four, which is to consolidate debt. If you have an outstanding debt, consider consolidating it into one loan with the lower interest rate. This can help you save on interest payments and reduce your overall burden. And the last strategy is to cut back on marketing. While marketing is important for business growth, we all know that it can be expensive. Consider cutting back on marketing expenses during a recession and focusing on low cost marketing strategies like social media and email marketing. Moving on to number two, which is to diversify your revenue streams. You wanna create multiple sources of income for your business to mitigate risks. I talked about this in episode 15. However, today I'm gonna go and take a little bit of a deep dive and provide additional strategies and details for each. Diversifying your revenue streams require willingness to explore new opportunities you wanna take, calculated risks, and continuously adapt to changing market conditions. Here's your pro tip. You wanna evaluate your current revenue streams and brainstorm ways to diversify them. To evaluate your current revenue streams, you can begin by identifying all the sources of income for your business. Such as product sales, service fees, advertising revenue, subscription fees, licensing fees, and anything else that brings in revenue. Next, you can analyze each stream's profitability, growth, potential, and risk factor. Once you have a good understanding of your current revenue streams, you can brainstorm ways to diversify them. Some strategies you might wanna consider may include, number one, like creating new products or service. Developing new offerings that supplement and compliment your existing products or services, or you wanna target new customer segments. Number two, expanding your reach. You wanna explore new markets, geographic regions, or distribution channels to expand your customer base. Moving on to number three, developing new partner. Do you wanna try to collaborate with other businesses, influences or affiliates to create new revenue streams or amplify your existing ones? Moving on to number four for diversifying your revenue streams. You wanna monetize your audience if you have a significant following on social media or other platforms you wanna consider monetizing your audience by offering paid content or advertising opportunities. And number five is offering subscriptions or memberships. Consider offering subscription-based services or memberships that provide recurring revenue streams and create customer loyalty. By implementing these strategies, you can increase your revenue, reduce risk, and expand your market reach. Moving on to the third proactive measure, which is to build a cash reserve. Building cash reserves during a recession is one of the most important things you can do to protect your business. During a recession business owners often see a dip in revenue. This can make it difficult to cover expenses and can lead to a cash flow crunch. Building cash reserves during recession is a great way to avoid this and ensure that you have the cash you need to keep things running in the financial resources to weather the storm. Here are some strategies to help you build your cash reserve. Number one, you wanna increase revenue. Another way to build cash reserve, of course, is to increase revenue. This can be challenging during a recession, but there's ways to. Look for new markers or customer segments to target or considering launching new products or services that meets the needs of customers during difficult times. Number two, of course, we wanna reduce debt. If you have debt reducing it can help you build cash reserves. This is because debt payments can eat into your cash flow, making it difficult to build reserves. Look for ways to pay off your debt faster, such as refinancing or consolidating loans. Number three, you wanna set cash flow targets. To build cash reserves, you need to have a clear idea of how much cash you need to generate each month. Set cash flow targets and track your progress towards them. This can help you identify areas where you need to cut, cost or increase revenue. And the last strategy to build a cash reserve is to automate savings. Consider setting up an automatic savings transfer from your business account to a separate savings account. This can help you build reserves without even thinking. Moving on to our fourth proactive measure, which is to increase marketing efforts. Now, increasing marketing efforts means investing in strategies to reach new customers and expand your audience, which will allow you to increase revenue and of course, grow your business. Knowing your target audience and understanding their behaviors will enable you to choose the right marketing channels, craft compelling messages, and measure your results to optimize your marketing campaigns. Some strategies you might wanna consider elevating during recession include targeted advertising. Targeted advertising involves placing ads in front of specific audiences based on their demographics, interest, or behaviors. This strategy can help you reach your potential customers who are more likely to be interested in your product or services. You can use platforms like Google Ads or Facebook ads to set up your targeted ad campaigns. Number two, social media marketing. Social media Marketing involves using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote your products or services. You can use organic social media posts or paid social media ads to reach your target audience. Social media marketing can also help you build your brand awareness and engage with your customers. Moving on to number three, which is influencer collaborations. Collaborating with influencers in your industry can help you reach new audiences and builds trust with potential customers. Influencers have a loyal following that trust their recommendations and partnering with them can help you tap into their audience. You can offer influences free products or pay them to promote your products on their social media. Number four, content marketing. Content marketing involves creating valuable content, like blog posts, videos, or infographics to attract and engage your target audience. Content marketing can help you build brand awareness, establish your expertise, and drive traffic to your website. And last on the list is email marketing. Email marketing involves sending targeted messages to your subscriber's inbox to promote your products or services. This strategy can help you nurture leads, build customer loyalty, and drive sales. Overall, increasing your marketing efforts requires a deep understanding of your target audience and their behaviors by investing in the right marketing strategies. And the final proactive measure is to learn from your competitors and peers. During a recession, it's more important than ever for small businesses to stay competitive and find ways to survive and thrive. One way to do this is by learning from your competitors and peers. Learning from your competitors and peers is an excellent way to protect your business during a recession. Arming yourself with knowledge of your competition is a good thing. When done in a professional and constructive manner, it can provide you with a strategy for growth. You wanna conduct your own independent research analysis and find out what's working for them so you know what to start, what to continue, and what to double down in in your business. Conversely, it's equally important to identify what's not working for them, as you may need to stop those activities in your own business. You wanna leverage that data to make informed decisions and know when you need to be flexible and adapt or pivot in your business. Learning from your competitors and peers requires a mindset of a continuous learning, curiosity, and adaptability. You need to stay informed, keep an open mind, and be willing to experiment and take calculated risks. Now here are some strategies for you to consider. Number one, you wanna identify market trends. Your competitors and peers are likely facing the similar challenges and marketing conditions as your business. By analyzing their strategies, offerings, and customer engagement, you can identify market trends and adapt your business to stay ahead of the curve. Notice I didn't say copy. I said adapt. This can help you stay relevant and competitive during a recession. Number two, you wanna find new opportunities. Your competitors and peers may be exploring new markets, product lines, or partnerships that you can learn from more even join. By staying in tune with their activities, you can identify new opportunities for growth and expansion that you may have not even considered otherwise. Moving on to number three, you wanna improve your processes. Your competitors and peers have established best practices or workflows that you can learn from and adapt into your business. By studying their operations, you can identify areas where you can improve your efficiency, productivity, or customer experience, helping you stay ahead of the competition. Last but not least, number four, which is to network and collaborate. Your competitors and peers can also be valuable, networking and collaboration partners. By building relationships with them, you can share insights, resources, and ideas, and even collaborate on joint initiatives that can benefit both of your businesses. Now, today, I covered off on quite a few things. So let me recap those five proactive measures to protect your business during the recession. Starting with number one, cut unnecessary cost. Number two was to diversify your revenue streams. Number three was build the cash reserve. Number four was increase marketing efforts. Number five was learn for your from your competitors and peers.. My friends, protecting your business during a recession requires a combination of strategic planning, proactive measures, and a willingness to adapt to new circumstances. Remember, protecting your business is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires constant evaluation and adaptation As a business owner, it's important to stay informed and to be flexible and open to new opportunities. With diligence and consistency, you can protect your business during recession and set your business up for long-term success. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed our conversation. If something I shared today resonated with you, please tag me@cindymarie.co on Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave an honest five star review. When you do, it helps us to grow the podcast and helps others to find us as well. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you know when the new episodes are being. You can subscribe right from the app that you're using to listen to this podcast, or you can sign up for email alerts@cindymarie.co. Lastly, if there's something you'd like to hear about in a future episode or if you just wanna stop by and say hello, please feel free to DM me@cindymarie.co on Instagram. Thanks again for listening to The Brave Pivot Podcast and I'll see you next time.