Tag Archives: strategy

The Ten Ways SMBs Can Grow During a Downturn

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As an independent consultant and service-business owner, these challenging times (especially here in the midwest) have reminded me what makes a business successful.  I’ve enumerated the elements of my business’s success here–they’re difference-makers for me, and the reasons my firm will outlast our competition during this downturn:

1 - Place customers’ needs above everything. Don’t want to take a call for help on a Saturday night? Tough, your customer is in trouble and they need you.  So put on your snow boots and go help them.

2 – Call your customers even when they’re not calling you.  Demonstrate concern even when there’s no money changing hands.  It will come back in the form of more business.

3 – During lean times, no customer is too small, unless they take your attention from a bigger customer.

4 – Use inexpensive labor resources to decrease your customers’ costs–before they do it on their own.  When a lot of good unemployed talent is on the street, you can take advantage of that talents’ recent availability in order to drive your customers costs down.   It’s called outsourcing, or as I prefer to put it, localsourcing.  You provide less expensive labor options for your clients and get a bigger chunk of their pie at the same time.

5 – Spend money on marketing.  Yes, don’t shrink away from the guerrella marketing attitude that got you to your current success plateau just because there are economic clouds raining outside your office window.  In fact, marketing is received more postitively in a tougher economy that it is when things are hot.  When times are tough, your potential clients are more likely to switch vendors, so don’t stop marketing to them, and maybe they’ll switch to you.

6 – Reward business growth more heavily than normal.  Motivate your business development resources by giving them even bigger rewards for growth.  Assuming you’re not already in the red, put your money where your mouth is and remind your employees that “we’re in grow or die” mode.

7 - Retain your best people.  During downturns, good salespeople are going to get recruited while poor ones will get kicked to the curb.  Keep your best people happy, productive, and let them know how much you appreciate them–so you can keep them out of job interviews.

8 – Only take profitable work.  Don’t get caught in bidding wars just to keep your labor resources working. When we come out of this slump, you’ll regret the burden of a bunch unprofitable work that you took on just to keep your people employed.

9 – Outsource, outsource, outsource.   I already suggesting providing outsourcing.  Now practice what you preach and use it, too. Give your specialized internal projects to a local firm. That new in-house trouble-ticketing system?  That server upgrade your I.T. guy has been putting off?   Shop them locally and you’ll be pleased with the results you get by using a specialist.

10 – Invest in competitive advantage.  While your competition “waits it out”, invest in technologies and alliances that will bring you out ahead.  This might mean refitting your computer network or putting that new customer contact management solution in–so it’s ready to rock when the downturn comes to an end.

Lorain County Chamber news story about my company

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The Lorain County Chamber ran a great story about Best Technology Strategy on their home page today:

Despite the difficult economic climate in northern Ohio, and an abundance of well-entrenched competitors, Ted and his business partner knew that Best Technology Strategy was going to be a success. Picking the company’s area of specialty was the first challenge. Networking and helpdesk support seemed to represent the greatest need among Lorain County businesses, so that’s what the firm started with.

Check the rest of it out.

I.T. outsourcing as a means of dealing with economic difficulties

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From the Best Technology e-mail newsletter, dated today:

With another difficult year behind our region, northeast Ohio is facing a crossroads of challenging business conditions.  Our industrial identity is up in the air, our regional infrastructure is behind much of the country, and our I.T. costs are higher than they ought to be. Yet, there’s never been a better time to trim technology budgets.

The incentive to outsource role-based personnel and I.T. management positions is very high right now.  Here are four reasons why:

1. I.T. employees, some of whom may be “coasting along” during a downturn, often get less work done than consultants, whose ability to earn is based on their work deliverables instead of upon their employment relationship, which is difficult and expensive to sever.  Retaining consulting staff can gain you more value.

2. I.T. employees, especially network administrators and systems support personnel, rarely offer the rich knowledge and expertise of a consulting organization.  When you work with a consultant, you are drawing on the expertise of many.  Moreover, before you ask your I.T. employee to complete a project for your company, consider that a consultant has probably already completed that same project many times before, while this may be your I.T. employee’s first attempt at it.   A consultant can work with your I.T. employees to manage the project through to satisfaction–completing the project, reducing waste, and improving your I.T. employees.

3. Consulting with a third-party reduces your tax liability. As an expense item, I.T. consulting does not incur the same tax burden as an I.T. employee (payroll tax). There’s no sales or use tax associated with I.T. consulting, either.

4. The number of I.T. staff required to support your technology users has shrunk drastically in the last several years, do to improvements in software stability and a more knowledgeable user base.  If you have a single I.T. employee or a small group, which is doing both end-user helpdesk support AND networking support, it is very likely that a consulting organization can reduce your expense and increase the level of service experienced by your users.