Five practices to sustain business in tough times

Use the current economic downturn to strengthen you operations and create new opportunities.

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What you need to know:

  • While we have no control over external circumstances, we can control what we choose to do about it and how we think.
  • Here are a couple of things I have decided to do.
  • Hopefully, they will help others feeling the strain of the current situation.

This has been a challenging year for a lot of people in business. If you were a fly on the wall during many conversations, you would hear versions of how hard things are. We thought getting through the August elections bring some normalcy back it still looks challenging, given we are going back to the ballot.

This has meant delayed spending by clients, as well as delayed payments; contracts have put on hold; the overall ‘wait and see’ attitude has not helped pay bills. Many are currently figuring out how to keep their businesses afloat. These problems are not restricted to entrepreneurs; even those in employment fear for their jobs.

While we have no control over external circumstances, we can control what we choose to do about it and how we think. Here are a couple of things I have decided to do. Hopefully, they will help others feeling the strain of the current situation.

 

1. Ditch the negative commentary. When things are tough, people vent. It is understandable. We look for people who can relate to our fears. But there should be a limit; your negative state must not take over your life. If all you think about is how tough things are that is exactly what you are going to see. Nobody ever succeeded by talking about how bad things are. Force yourself to seek helpful conversations and information. Be intentional about blocking out negative information. Be ruthless about exiting the poverty support group. You don’t have to read every tweet or post sent out. A very seasoned entrepreneur recently told me that that they do not watch news for this reason. Bad news may sell, but you can choose not to consume it. Do what you have to do to protect your mind.

2. Be creative. Some people realise the most opportunity when things are hard. Aim to be one of them. There’s probably been a point in your life when challenges brought out the best in you. In the same way, use this opportunity to move out of your comfort zone. It may be time to change something around. For example, people making environmentally friendly bags are laughing all the way to the bank! What opportunities could there be for you? One of the students in our entrepreneurship class this year is a photographer. He realised that the family portrait spend had gone down while politicians were spending more. He therefore positioned his service to capitalise on that. Has a spending pattern in your industry shifted? What worked last year may not work in exactly the same way. How can you change/amend/package your product or service? Do you need to look for new markets?

3. Preparation meets opportunity. If business is slow, take the time to work on those things that have always been pending because you are too busy, such as processes and structures. These are areas like creating an operations manual, collecting feedback from customers, getting your accounts in order, thinking through and writing a business plan or strategy, practicing a pitch, updating your individual or company profile, writing job descriptions, and so forth. It is extremely tempting to wait to do these activities when business is better and there is more money. However not having these things in place is the reason why we are losing business.

4. Be prudent with money. If you can’t understand how spending brings you a return, don’t spend. When there is money in a business, we tend to be careless. Tighten the loopholes and always keep a close eye on them even when things improve. Understand whether what you are going through is a short term situation or an indicator that something fundamental has changed in your business. The latter may require more extreme decisions to be made when it comes to spending and expenses within your organisation. Also remember that investment opportunities are best when demand is low. The minute everybody is back on board, the prices shoot up.

5. Last but not least, keep the faith. It’s brought you this far, hasn’t it? Faith is easy to have when things are good. However, it is developed when things are tough. It gets easier to believe when you practice believing. Hold on to why you do what you do (purpose) and where you are going (vision). Resources, money, and opportunities will always be attracted to those who remain convicted even when things seem hard.

 

Waceke runs a programme on entrepreneurship. To sign up, email her at [email protected] Facebook/centonomy or go to  www.centonomy.com