With the threat of a recession looming, businesses and individuals are now starting to panic. How you act during a recession can have a huge effect on how your business fares. With that in mind, we’re sharing some of ideas to keep in mind whilst steering your business through a recession.

Should I cut the marketing budget?

Sadly, marketing is often the first thing to be cut when a business is looking to save money. Sadly, doing this can result in both short and long term loss of income, making the problem worse. If your audience can’t find you, you can’t make sales.While you may have to make cutbacks, try to avoid entirely slashing your marketing budget. Instead, spend some time reviewing your analytics, and make a strategic decision about which areas could be cut back.

Are there problems within the business?

While the economy and other external events may be the driving force behind some of your biggest struggles, that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues within the business, too. Addressing any areas that need some attention, to help you withstand a recession better.

What can you do to adapt the business?

In a recession, many businesses get left behind because they don’t adapt quickly enough. If you’re simply waiting for business to pick up you could be missing out on a chance to grow.

Businesses that adapt to major changes in the market and the economy tend to have more staying power. There could even be new areas of opportunity open to you. But, if you’re unwilling to change and are just waiting for the storm to blow over, you could be left behind.

Risk-averse versus risk taking

Now is probably not the time to take huge risks with your business. However, business always needs some risks to be taken in order to grow and try out new, lucrative things. If the recession causes you to panic and become totally risk-averse, this could end up dampening your future growth. There’s nothing wrong with being cautious, but not taking any risks at all could quickly lead to stagnation.

Are you at risk of making rash staffing decisions?

In the panic of a recession it might seem like a good idea to lighten spending with redundancies, but this could see you run into a couple of different problems. First of all, you’ll have fewer people on hand to help your business come out of the recession. When the recession begins to die down, you could end up emerging in a weaker position than other businesses who kept hold of their staff. Your remaining staff members might also be left overworked with less help at hand which can affect workplace productivity.

There’s also the problem of staff morale. With their colleagues being laid off, they will all wonder “who’s next to go?” This could cause them to look elsewhere for a job they deem more stable so you could end up with a very small workforce with limited help to grow your business.

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About The Author

Kara Copple

An experienced business and finance writer, sometimes moonlighting as a fiction writer and blogger.

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