The small business owners guide of the top 10 things you need to review about your business during a recession to beat your competitors.
Ttimes are tough in a recession and small business owners should spend time to review all areas of their business. Not only to review the business and marketing plan but areas that may have been forgotten or not looked at for a while.
There are probably expenses in your business that you have on a standing order or direct debit that go out each month... and each month you promise to look at that cost to reduce it... so now is the time to take action!
Here's our top 10 list of things you should look at in your business:
1) Review Your Business Plan
The majority of businesses have one. The majority of businesses put one together to get bank loans or an overdraft facility but when was the last time your business plan was reviewed - how you are achieving and managing your goals?
Times change and certainly the economy is in a worst state. Looking at what you wrote previously will not only show you where changes may need to occur but will probably prompt you to look at new opportunities or change the way you market and promote your business. If you don't have a business plan yet - get one.
2) Manage Your Cashflow with an Accounting System
One of the most critical success factors when running a business is to ensure you manage your cash flow effectively. Many a profitable business has failed through the lack of cash to pay suppliers and staff so now may be a good time to look at what accounting software you are using (or choose something if you are not accounting for your business on a weekly or monthly basis).
There are many accounting systems on the market today.
3) Get Free listings in the Small Business Directories
Whatever business you are in you will need a contact stream of new customers coming into your business and the internet is a powerful tool. Millions of people are online every day searching for your products and services so even if you don't have a website yet you should get your business listed in the main online directories.
Many online directories do not produce real traffic and the larger more commonly known ones can cost a lot to be listed so search on google for the top uk business directories to get a free listing.
4) Get your Adwords Campaigns Sorted
Many people dip their toes in the water and try Adwords and many are unsuccessful or waste too much money because of the following:
- The ads are not targeted (so quality scores and impressions are low)
- The ads go to the home page (rather than a specific landing page so conversions are low)
- The keywords targeted are too narrow (so impressions are low)
There are adwords experts who can help restore your campaign and really boost your revenues. It's worth exploring the idea of hiring an expert or read and ask questions on some of the PPC forums.
5) Improve Your SEO
Millions of people are online searching for your products right now but if you don't have your website set up correctly for the search engines you are missing out on a lot of business.
SEO is seen as perhaps a murky unknown world and that can be the case as there is a lot of mis-information around the popular forums and it's difficult to know who to believe.
We recommend you read seobook's blog.
6) Spread the word
If business is slow and you need to get sales going again why not contact the people who have previously purchased from you either by email, telephone or face to face.
They may have forgotten your company exists and as they are current customers will have already been through the purchasing process with you and know (and hopefuly) love your products.
You can contact them with a range of special offers or new products that you have.
Additionally, why not run a "member get member" campaign. This is where you ask your current customers to introduce their friends, family or colleagues to your business and offer both parties and incentive or gift when the new customer purchases from you.
7) Cut unnecessary costs
Direct debits and standing orders exist in many businesses for products and services we might not actually require any more. We are mostly good at switching suppliers in our domestic life for telephone, broadband or gas supplier but not in business.
So take a hard look at the costs in your business and look for better deals for all utilities, your webhosting plan, car costs, accountancy and anything else. This doesn't mean cutting the item from your business but being smarter in how the business is run.
8) Check Your Competitors
If you do not do so it may be time to have a look to see what your competitors are up to with regards to both what they sell and how they sell it.
If they have a web business you can check out their news and recruitment pages (the job pages of websites are very interesting for competitor intelligence research because the "about us" page is generally quite up to date - additionally you can see if they are hiring or not which will provide some insights into their financial stability).
You will also see if they have any special offers or have reduced or increased their prices recently. You should also purchase competitor products from time to time to go through their entire order process and see what happens after your purchase - of course you'll also get to try the product and understand if you need to improve yours at all.
9) You Don't Need to Go it Alone
Even if your business is developing and you are networking successfully sometimes you may need the help of others on a one to one basis. Running your business by yourself can sometimes be a lonely experience and not everything you want to achieve gets done.
You may therefore think about having the services of a business mentor or business coach to help you progress faster and focus on those activities that will actually produce the results you want.
10) Train Your Staff
It may seem strange to recommend you invest in staff training but with any downturn your employees may need to undertake different tasks in your organisation rather than have them sitting around doing nothing. You can get other staff members to share their skills and knowledge or invest in some professional training for your company.
Get more information about starting a small business and other areas of developing businesses from small business pro a small business website developed by successful business entrepreneurs.
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Business Development 
Have you set your business goals? Have you developed your strategic plans to achieve your desired business growth?