We're in a recession, but recessions don't last forever. Recessions, like booms come and go in cycles. Typically there will be recessions of varying severity, every 9 or 10 years. The good news about every recession, is that there will be a recovery. Every slump in economic activity has been followed by recovery, just as every boom has been followed by recession.
We have choices; we can accept the above certainties and make decisions to react to where we are at a given point in time, or we can freeze, and not react to where we are at.
Many people make a lot of money during recessions, because they react to the circumstances they find themselves in and they make decisions to take advantage of those circumstances. 'Those circumstances' include the fact that many other people are 'frozen' and are not making the decisions they need to be making to beat the recession they find themselves in.
Despite what it suits media interests to continously drum into us, unless their memories are deceiving them, anyone who was around during previous recessions, know that we have been in much worse situations in the past and that people who came through those experiences were very well placed to benefit from subsequent recoveries.
Continuing to carry on as you did through the good times is more than likely, not the correct approach to be taking through these different circumstances. Yet the biggest mistake most people are making is not to 'change' what they are doing to suit the changed environment.
To decide what to 'change' or what changes are necessary, it is essential to fully analyse your business by:
- preparing a business plan which identifies where you are now, where you want to go (vision), what actions are required to keep you on the road to where you want to go (strategy);
- documenting systems (procedures/processes) for every role in your business (operations manual);
- allocating responsibilities for each role (who is accountable);
- continually identifying the 'gap' between where you are now and where you need to be;
- taking the actions you identify are required to be taken to close the 'gap' (Act);
- measuring performance and your follow through on actions you identified that you needed to 'ACT' upon (holding yourself and your team to account);
- marketing your business during the recession; too many businesses make the mistake of looking inwards during a recession, instead of looking outwards when competitors are looking inwards. Marketing does not have to be an expensive drain on scarce resourses; the best marketing is looking after every single existing customer in the very best way that you can, and thereby generating referrals;
- business coaching through the recession to keep your focus when it is difficult not to be distracted by firefighting operations;
- working exclusively 'on your business' for at least a 1/2 day every week; too many business people are stuck working 'in their business' every hour available, never taking the time to take an objective view of what they are doing, where they are going and what 'changes' they need to be making to keep on track;
- 'managing' your business every day. There's no point being a busy fool. Too many business owners are 'working' too hard but are not 'managing' enough. Your job is to ensure that the work that is being done by your team is productive work and that it is generating results. You cannot do this job effectively if your allowing yourself to be caught up doing work that someone else should be doing.
If you make a committment to be 10% better at managing, than you are now, that will make a huge difference and can be the difference between going nowhere and going to where you need to go.
Continuing to slog away, without business planning, is akin to working with blindfolds on. Right now and for every day from now on, you need to be able to see where you're going, and you need to be directing where you are going.
Its not going to be easy, its about survival, its about being still standing when the tide turns and the recovery starts. The next two years are the first half of the match; to be still in the game at half time, a lot of groundwork has to be done (planning, strategy, documenting, responsibilities, gap, Act, measuring, marketing, coaching, managing). If your team are not on top of their game, the game will be lost. Its your job to make sure that everyone is on top of their game or that they're replaced. If your not 'managing' on top of your game, you cannot expect to win.
Enda Lewis & Company
Web: www.endalewis.com
Email: elewis@endalewis.com
Phone:
+353-1-6016331
We have choices; we can accept the above certainties and make decisions to react to where we are at a given point in time, or we can freeze, and not react to where we are at.
Many people make a lot of money during recessions, because they react to the circumstances they find themselves in and they make decisions to take advantage of those circumstances. 'Those circumstances' include the fact that many other people are 'frozen' and are not making the decisions they need to be making to beat the recession they find themselves in.
Despite what it suits media interests to continously drum into us, unless their memories are deceiving them, anyone who was around during previous recessions, know that we have been in much worse situations in the past and that people who came through those experiences were very well placed to benefit from subsequent recoveries.
Continuing to carry on as you did through the good times is more than likely, not the correct approach to be taking through these different circumstances. Yet the biggest mistake most people are making is not to 'change' what they are doing to suit the changed environment.
To decide what to 'change' or what changes are necessary, it is essential to fully analyse your business by:
- preparing a business plan which identifies where you are now, where you want to go (vision), what actions are required to keep you on the road to where you want to go (strategy);
- documenting systems (procedures/processes) for every role in your business (operations manual);
- allocating responsibilities for each role (who is accountable);
- continually identifying the 'gap' between where you are now and where you need to be;
- taking the actions you identify are required to be taken to close the 'gap' (Act);
- measuring performance and your follow through on actions you identified that you needed to 'ACT' upon (holding yourself and your team to account);
- marketing your business during the recession; too many businesses make the mistake of looking inwards during a recession, instead of looking outwards when competitors are looking inwards. Marketing does not have to be an expensive drain on scarce resourses; the best marketing is looking after every single existing customer in the very best way that you can, and thereby generating referrals;
- business coaching through the recession to keep your focus when it is difficult not to be distracted by firefighting operations;
- working exclusively 'on your business' for at least a 1/2 day every week; too many business people are stuck working 'in their business' every hour available, never taking the time to take an objective view of what they are doing, where they are going and what 'changes' they need to be making to keep on track;
- 'managing' your business every day. There's no point being a busy fool. Too many business owners are 'working' too hard but are not 'managing' enough. Your job is to ensure that the work that is being done by your team is productive work and that it is generating results. You cannot do this job effectively if your allowing yourself to be caught up doing work that someone else should be doing.
If you make a committment to be 10% better at managing, than you are now, that will make a huge difference and can be the difference between going nowhere and going to where you need to go.
Continuing to slog away, without business planning, is akin to working with blindfolds on. Right now and for every day from now on, you need to be able to see where you're going, and you need to be directing where you are going.
Its not going to be easy, its about survival, its about being still standing when the tide turns and the recovery starts. The next two years are the first half of the match; to be still in the game at half time, a lot of groundwork has to be done (planning, strategy, documenting, responsibilities, gap, Act, measuring, marketing, coaching, managing). If your team are not on top of their game, the game will be lost. Its your job to make sure that everyone is on top of their game or that they're replaced. If your not 'managing' on top of your game, you cannot expect to win.
Enda Lewis & Company
Web: www.endalewis.com
Email: elewis@endalewis.com
Phone:
+353-1-6016331 