Surviving a slow economy

The economy affects all businesses. However, if you have a small business, a slow economy can really hurt your bottom line. As such, here are a few tips to help you stay in business, and even grow your business through a slow economy.

Loyalty Cards - As a small business owner, how can you get customers to return on a regular basis when there is so much competition? Answer: Reward them. Give them a loyalty card that you print up, and every time they buy your product or service, stamp it with your unique stamp. After 6 visits, reward them with a small token of appreciation. If you’re a restaurant for example, after their 10th visit give them a free entrée when they bring in a guest.

Teach - Whether it’s teaching how to run a restaurant or how to repair your sink. Ask you chef to give a cooking demonstration at your restaurant on a night you’re usually slow or closed. Or if you’re a plumber, offer an afternoon class on how  to perform simple plumbing repairs around the house. Teaching is a cheap way to get your name out there, create credibility for you and your company and position youself as ‘the expert’ in your field.

Public Relations – Have you recently introduced a new service, or developed a new product? Perhaps you’ve hired a new employee. If so, write a press releases and talk about it. It will lend credibility to your business and lead to a larger market share for your company.

Web site Enhancement – Your web site should be enhanced with tags and descriptions in order for the search engines and customers to find you. Also, take a look at your site navigation. Is it easy for the user to navigate through your site? Do you have a method of funneling prospects through your site? Is your web copy relevant to your audience? Don’t lose a prospective customer because of a bad website experience.
 
Referral Programme – Reward customers who refer other clients to you with a discount or small personal item that is useful to them. Customers like to save money, but also appreciate appropriate small gifts.

Keep in contact with your customer – You may discover that 80% of all your sales come from only 20% of your customer base. It is this 20% that should be persuaded to purchase from you again. The best method of obtaining this is to steadily make contact with your customers through a postcard campaign, an eMail newsletter or a phone call etc. The more times you connect with your customer, the better.

Strengthen Your Brand Identity - Is your brand identity or logo living up to your company’s personality? If not, then maybe it’s time to refresh your brand identity to realign your business with your marketing objectives.

Remember, downtime isn't panic time. It's time to catch up on all the little housekeeping, brand-building tasks that have been put off due to time constraints. In addition to positioning yourself for future success, you'll likely find that exercises like these can help to keep yourself, and your staff, both busy and optimistic.