Turning Around A Struggling Small Business

By Author: Jason Delmar
Total Articles: 335
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With the end of tax season fast approaching, this is often one of the few times that small business owners have a chance to reflect on their results from the previous year. If you were able to come out with a positive cash flow in 2008, consider your business one of the lucky ones. There were literally tens of thousands of small businesses that closed up shop or filed for bankruptcy last year, and the outlook isn't much better for the start of this year.

With the current state of the lending industry, even small businesses that have hard assets are having a problem borrowing any capital. So as a small business owner, what can you do to ensure that your business survives through this tough economy? Here are a few steps that I have taken to help streamline my business and even show positive growth in one of the hardest hit industries- the building and construction industry.

1) Steamline your workforce- no one likes the idea of having to lay employees off, but sometimes it is necessary. When business levels are down, it is often possible to get by with fewer people working at the same time. Even if ...
... you don't want to lay anyone off, you may be able to work it out so that everyone works fewer hours in order to maintain the same staff.

2) Eliminate unnecessary expenses- every business has them if you look hard enough. Take a look at your breakdown of monthly or yearly expenses and see which ones you don't need or can cut back on. In my case, I was able to eliminate the cleaning crew that came into the office, reduced the cell phone plans, and even limited the settings on the thermostat by a few degrees. All of these little changes start to add up.

3) Increased my marketing efforts- yes, that is right, I increased my marketing efforts. Notice I didn't say increase your marketing budget. There are plenty of free and/or less expensive ways of advertising without having to pay the high price of print or radio ads. Internet marketing has been the biggest savior for my business. Page ranking for my site and pay-per-click advertising have helped my sales grow, even when the industry is on the decline.

4) Upsell your customer base- don't just think about where the next customer is going to come from, but also think about what the next item is that you can offer your current customers. Gaining new customers is much harder than maintaining existing customers. Come up with create ways to offer them additional products throught partnerships or affiiliate programs. If you are not familiar with affiliate programs, it is time to start doing some research!

5) Get back to basics- too many business owners try to take on too much responsibility and they get sidetracked from what they are really good at. I don't know a single business owner that can take the entire business on his shoulders (unless it is a startup), so focus on what you are good at and find other people to manage the rest of it.

By taking a few simple steps and making some not so easy decisions, you can position your business to not only survive the economic downturn, but also come out ahead.
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