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Don’t Get Derailed By Downtime
10 Ways To Keep Your Momentum Going
By Mindy Charski
It’s the new year, and with it, business owners hope, come busy days ahead.
Of course, there will likely be some slow periods, too. Rather than
dread these downtimes, plan to use them to your advantage.
“A slowdown
in business can actually be a great thing because it gives you the opportunity
to ramp up for an even better future,” says Dan Coughlin, author of “Accelerate:
20 Practical Lessons to Boost Business Momentum” (Kaplan Publishing, 2007).
Indeed, a temporary drop in customer requests means there’s more time to
spend on endeavors that can improve your business. Here are some to consider.
1. Enhance Your Brand
Coughlin suggests business owners
ask themselves:
- What makes their products or services effective for customers?
- What is effective about the way they deliver value for customers?
- What value do people perceive they get from the business?
Business
owners should then ask how they could improve in each area.
“Write down
your answers,” Coughlin says. “You now have a to-do list of what to do when
times are slow.”
2. Polish Your Marketing
Think about
whether you’re targeting your message to the right people and reaching them
through the best, most cost-effective vehicles.
“Look at where your
customer base has come from,” says Angie Mohr, author of “Finance & Grow
Your New Business” (Self-Counsel Press, 2008). “If you spent $1,200 for a Yellow
Pages ad, how many customers did you get from that ad? Did that actually make
financial sense for you to do?”
Likewise, get started on creating a Web
site if you don’t have one; if you do, spend time navigating your site to spot
areas for improvement. You can also begin showcasing your expertise on your own
blog.
3. Invest Time In Current Customers
“My best
clients refer the best people,” says Pamela Barc, who offers etiquette training
through her company, Etiquettes Edge in Lake Orion, Mich. “Someone once said,
‘You don’t need to work so hard to obtain more clients, just treat the ones you
have like kings and queens.’”
During slower times, Barc says she keeps a
“periodic presence” by sending hand-addressed birthday cards, for instance, or
notes of encouragement about client accomplishments.
“Sincerity cannot
be faked, but sincere caring has always produced positive professional results,”
she says.
4. Boost Business Alliances
“Normally during
the hustle and bustle and during the busy times, you don’t have the opportunity
to strengthen the relationship like you normally would,” says James B. Evans,
assistant region director for the University of Houston Small Business
Development Center Network.
Invite your clients, suppliers and
prospective customers to lunch, perhaps, or to join you at a sporting event.
“Talk maybe five minutes of shop and then try to enjoy whatever social
event it is,” Evans says. “Don’t make it a total business event.”
If you
have business partners that serve as sales channels, ask if they’d like help
from some of your staffers who don’t have full calendars.
“Whatever you
can do to make that partner more successful selling your product, I would do,”
says Steve Clark, vice president of business incubation services at
TechColumbus, a nonprofit that supports the growth of Central Ohio’s tech
economy.
5. Attend To Financials
Get caught up on your
bookkeeping to know what your current numbers are, Mohr suggests. Then, take a
look back.
“It’s a really good time to sit down and take a breather and
look at the history of what’s happened,” Mohr says. “Make sure you know why your
revenues were two-thirds of what you thought they were going to be, and make
sure you could actually say that out loud if you had a board of directors to
report to.”
Next, do financial planning for the future. Look at your
business plan for ways to improve revenues and profits.
“A lot of
small-business owners don’t understand a business plan is a living, breathing
document and it should change as circumstances change,” Mohr says.
6.
Declutter
Every business can benefit from cleaning out the stacks of
paper and other stuff that seem to haunt its owners.
Shedding “clears
your mind from the distraction of old things hanging around,” says Julie
Morgenstern, author of “When Organizing Isn’t Enough” (Fireside, 2008).
But while many things in those piles are probably now obsolete,
Morgenstern says there may also be “treasures” that can help“ catapult you
forward” in your business.
Old business cards could lead to new
prospects. Forgotten magazine articles could jump-start new product ideas. To
figure out what to keep and what to toss, ask yourself what you would miss if it
all disappeared, she suggests.
Examine your client roster in this same
light. Should you be saying goodbye to problematic customers who require
inappropriate amounts of time?
“There’s no way you can get more
high-quality clients if your time is bogged down with time-consuming, bad
clients,” Morgenstern says.
7. Organize
It’s different
than shedding, says Morgenstern.
“Organizing is all about creating
systems so that you function better,” she says. “You can get organized without
throwing anything out.”
Just don’t try to shed and organize
simultaneously. “It’s too many things to think about at once,” Morgenstern says.
Of course, it’s not just paperwork that may need organizing. Also
consider rejiggering the workload among staffers to gain efficiencies.
8. Hone Your Hiring Approach
Before you’re suddenly faced
with the need to hire, visualize the ideal candidate you’d like to bring aboard
for each position. Study the factors that help your top talent excel, including
their thinking style and drive.
Use this information to help craft
help-wanted ads and interview questions for future job candidates.
“Once
we know what makes the top performers really perform, we can hire and coach to
that benchmark,” says Jay Hargis, a Boston-based vice president at Profiles
International, which offers organizations candidate assessment and employee
development resources.
9. Educate Yourself
Hargis likes
to catch up on industry reading during downtime. “Keeping current is so
important and it is always a struggle,” he says.
Why not browse through
trade publications to learn about new trends and the latest moves of your
competitors?
Attending pertinent conferences and workshops can keep you
up to date, too.
In addition, consider learning new skills and brushing
up on old ones. One convenient option: online courses.
10. Take A
Vacation
Yes, your micro-business can benefit when you take a break
to relax and refresh.
“Most of my best business ideas came to me when I
got away from my business,” Coughlin says. “Business is about applied energy
toward creating value for customers. You need to get away so you can have the
energy for the customers.”