During economic shifts and downturns businesses make grave mistakes that cause them to shut down. 

Whenever the economy is shifting, the tendency is to begin operating from a place of fear and not focus.

What actually happens, instead of business owners combating what is transpiring in the marketplace economically, so that their business not only sustains, but simply thrives, they do things that actually hurt the business.

Here are five things many businesses do during an economic shift or downtime that hurt their business tremendously.

• Number one: They cut their marketing budget.

In 2007-2008 I was so grateful for a conversation I had earlier,two years prior, with someone I was hiring to run an ad for me.

 In hindsight, I realized they probably also had a different level of focus for the marketplace and the economy.

 Although I had been a self-employed business owner for 7 years prior to opening my brick-and-mortar business I was running in 2007, I had not been connected to the economy and the understanding of it in the way I did in my latter years as a business owner. But I do remember getting nervous about everything that was transpiring.

It was the conversation everybody was talking about. “Clients are not spending money, no one has any money”, which was not the truth.

There was definitely this energy from the collective of fear that was hovering over the business community.

I’m so glad I remembered what he shared with me on that day. He said, “One of the biggest things business owners do during an economic downturn, recession, shift in economy, is stop spending on their marketing and their training, out of fear. When those are the areas they need to focus on more so that more people are paying attention to them.”

 When that download, that memory, hit me, it was the best memory I could have ever had. My business went on to earn more money in a two-year time frame, over the 2007 to 2009 period. then it had three years total prior.

We thrived in an economic recession.

• The second thing service based business owners do is thoughtless discounting. Running major sales. Slashing prices.

You can run a promotion without doing a discount. Discounting may seem like the logical thing to do, but it also has the opportunity to devalue a service that was once considered premium in your list of services and offers. Fear causes Business owners to act in desperation and not really considered what happens in the future, in the long run. Thoughtless discounting and slashing prices hurt businesses tremendously, to the point where they definitely can’t sustain in a market that has shifted.

• Number three: They don’t manage cash effectively. It’s fear that’s causes them to be so random with what they’re doing as it relates to money. Fear will cause them to not even pay attention to what’s transpiring in the business. It causes them to not see the slowdown happening. This means they are unable to be proactive. This means they don’t go and get a strategy to help them shift and properly align their business for the times.
• Number four: They fail to adapt to the current market changes. When I think about this, I always am reminded of Blockbuster and how they missed a beautiful opportunity, being leaders in the market, to make a tiny shift to still maintain and thrive. Instead, they went out of business. I also think about other corporations that were being supported by the very people they begin to ignore, the customers. Fear does this in attempts of survival instead of strategy. Failing to adapt to a changing Market is definitely one reason businesses go out of business.

• Number five: They let go of essential staff and forget customer satisfaction. I believe there needs to be an assessment of your business during an economic downturn and there may be spaces where you’re having to do things differently as it relates to money.

But if what you’re doing is going to impact the quality of service that your clients are receiving you are eventually running your business in the ground either way. If you are letting go of essential staff, the ones that really help the engine of your business to run, there’s also the opportunity that the business could fail as well. Instead, you need new strategy.

You need to pivot.

 My business did so well during the 2007-2008 recession.

When the climate began to feel similar in 2020, I went back and documented my process and shared it with my clients. Those clients soared during the pandemic seeing record highs in their business.

I have that same internal knowing, those feelings, in this climate, and now I have documented Five-Thrive Strategies to help you sustain and thrive when the economy shifts.

 You can access those five strategies here.

 I have created them in three forms

• In E book form
• Audio Ebook

and

• In a Five-part video series

You can choose based on your best mode of learning.

“Money never leaves the face of the Earth during an economic downturn it simply exchanges hands and your job becomes learning what to do so your business is connected to those hands.” ~ The Growth Strategist

Tanya Wilson

Business Consultant/ Mindset Coach

Renew Full Circle Consulting

 Renewfullcircle.com