One of the challenges of being in business is surviving the tough times. This series of articles has strategies to help you manage and grow your business in an economic downturn. Included is information on streamlining operations, maintaining staff and customer confidence, managing finances and cash flow, and spotting opportunities.

When a downturn threatens, you need to take decisive steps to understand the situation and what it means for the future survival of your business.

Planning for a downturn helps you to maximise opportunities and prepare your business to survive and thrive in all circumstances.

   1. Take a closer look
      Do you know what impact the recession will have?
   2. Manage your cost base
      An economic downturn forces companies to re-evaluate their relationship between cost and profits.
   3. Act decisively
      Strong companies won’t sit back and wait for the challenging times to pass.
   4. Focus on what really matters
      Through a downturn, businesses must ensure their customers remain their number one priority.
   5. Plan for different scenarios
      Businesses are facing an uncertain future and conventional business models may no longer be viable.
   6. Recognise the value of your people
      Whether you are struggling to deliver business as usual, or are managing a targeted restructure, a critical first step is to identify the talent that cannot be lost.
   7. Keep control of your cash
      When times are hard, cash is king.
   8. Clear Communication
      Managing your stakeholders effectively in challenging times is crucial to executing a winning strategy.
   9. Streamline Operations
      Now is probably not the time to save money by cutting back your marketing budget, but it is the time to make some hard-nosed decisions about what it is you are going to spend that money on.
  10. Leading for Success
      Now, more than ever, it’s important to take the time to step back from your daily tasks and ask yourself whether you’re equipped to lead your team to success through challenges and uncertainty.
  11. Be Prepared
      Planning for a downturn maximises the opportunities available, enabling the best prepared businesses to come through the bad times reenergised and fit for the future.
  12. Seek the Opportunities
      Recessions reshuffle the decks more than boom times and research shows that gains made during challenging times tend to endure.