Surviving is the first thing that every business owner is focused on in a tight economy. Competition is always there. Some businesses operate on the market without competition. But, it is impossible that this will be the same in the future. Many businesses operate in a tight economy and competitive market.
The time between operating without competition and when the competition will come now is at the lowest level.
Differentiating, using new strategies, and offering value to the customers will make surviving in a tight economy and competitive markets more possible. Who will survive? Only the best and more valuable from the customer’s perspective will survive.
Here is a list of 30 recommendations for small business entrepreneurs to increase their possibility of surviving in these hard conditions.
1. Be Unique. Yes, be unique, and do things that nobody else is doing. Always have many business ideas at your hand and start implementing them to differentiate from your competitors. Your current and future customers will start valuing this.
2. Be positive. You don’t want to be a negative person even the conditions are not promising. Remember that your negativity can easily be transferred to your customers. And, you don’t want this to happen.
3. Be honest. Be honest when operating in a tight economy and competitive market, and your customers will reward your honesty.
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4. Continue with value shipping to the customers. This must be done daily, not only when you are operating in a tight economy and competitive market.
5. Ship everything that you promise. You want to be the person with credibility, so ship everything that you have promised.
6. Learn from your failures. The best learning comes from your failures. And, probably in the conditions of a tight economy and competitive market, you will have some failures. But, it doesn’t matter because you will become a stronger person.
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7. Mistakes are your best source for learning. You will probably make mistakes in these conditions. But again, you will learn from them.
8. Increase your expectations and work to achieve them. Why you will want to have lower expectations when higher expectations increase your motivation and persistence to achieve them.
9. Think strategically. If you think strategically, you will see the lights at the end of the tunnel.
10. Identify your target market. What are your most important customers?
11. Focus on your target market. Don’t spend your energy and time on customers who are not your customers. Focus with all of your energy on your target market.
12. Adjust to changes in your target market. Be prepared to change yourself and your business. You market your products and services in a tight economy, and the competitive market will change.
13. Ask yourself: Who Your Customers Are? Aski this question every morning when you come to your office.
14. Motivate you and your employees. You need to be motivated, but also you need to motivate your employees.
15. Continuously improve each business process. Your business processes are something that brings results for your business. Work on continuous improvement of them. You will save money and better satisfy your customers.
16. Document each improvement process. You want to repeat each success with your improvement efforts. So, document what you have done and use the same thing in the future.
17. Use Upsell with the right products or services. In the short term, when you operate in a tight economy and competitive market, try to increase your revenue.
18. Check your business spending. Control your spending in such conditions. You will need money.
19. Think about costs, but don’t forget to increase sales! Combine your efforts for decreasing costs with increasing sales. It is the winning combination.
20. Don’t cut costs on your marketing efforts! I know that the easiest way is to cut costs on marketing. But, instead of cutting them, try to improve your marketing campaigns.
21. Cut all of your unnecessary expenses. Always there will be many unnecessary expenses that you can eliminate from your business when you operate in a tight economy and competitive market.
22. Try to reduce the amount of time to collect payment from customers! This is important for you to have a positive cash flow in your small business.
23. Try to expand the amount of time for your payments! The same is here. Your cash flow is important in such operating conditions.
24. Every week, look at your cash-flow graphics! You must follow your cash flow and adjust your money flow.
25. Each month, look at your break-even point! How much do you need to sell to break even? This is an important question for you.
26. Never try to compete with large companies on their best competitive elements. You are a small business, and if you want to succeed, find the niche where you will be the strongest on the market.
27. Never stop to find new opportunities. There will always be new opportunities for you. Grab them.
28. Take advantage of those new opportunities when you find them. You need to use them.
29. Look at your inventory levels and try to optimize them. Inventories can be a large part of your small business costs. You need to work on their optimization.
30. Maximize the power of referral! Using this tactic, you will increase your customer base and the income for your small business.
