Would You Grow Your Business Down?

Article Written By: Simon Ackland | SMI Business Impact CEO| Business Impact E-Zine # 11

This statement doesn't seem quite right at first glance, but think about it.

Large companies globally are making cuts including reducing staff numbers, in response to the economic outlook. But will they end up just cutting costs at the expense of growth...and can they still expect to achieve growth in the medium term?

The point is, if you carefully grow your business down, rather than taking rash and ill-thought out cost cuts, you remain in control and it becomes a strategic move.

According to the January 2009 Dun and Bradstreet Business Expectations Report, which surveys 1200 business owners and senior executives, it was revealed that 54% of firms expect declining sales in the March 2009 quarter and 59% expect lower profits.

If expectations like this become reality, then the way forward requires careful thinking by business owners, boards and senior management to achieve continued growth regardless of whether the economy moves up or down. How can you adjust your business to meet market realities and still achieve some growth in profits? We all know it is not always possible, but you owe it to your stakeholders to try. The other point to remember is that when you come out the other side, will you be in a position to leverage the recovery? Here are a few ideas to consider.

Highly Targeted Niche Strategies
What about basic marketing? Most companies make the mistake of trying to market to everyone. Regardless of the state of the economy, it makes sense to adopt niche strategies, afterall, that would cost less...wouldn't it?

If you made targeted offers only to buyers, margins would be increased offsetting some downside from reduced sales. But what if the targetted marketing actually resulted in improved sales? That is highly possible if it is not something you have focused on in your business before.

Online Marketing
What about getting involved in online marketing in a bigger way? This can be very cost effective and automated...the opportunity to do more with less is great in this area. Online also means you can open up new markets...if sales decline in your traditional markets, what new areas could you open up by targeting the same client profile but through different media or in different places?

By the way, did anyone ever say you could only have one website? No reason why you can't run a number of sites designed to pitch a slightly different message to different groups. Just like we don't all want to buy a big Black car, provide some choice and alternatives...make your product or service appeal to new buyers with differing wants and needs. Where is the low hanging fruit for your business?

Social Network Marketing
Its not entirely about silly photos and flippant stories. Social networking is the new frontier in marketing for businesses now. In fact our Digital Marketing Agency has just released a new service for social network optimisation...basically we will create a profile for your business in the top 24 social network sites and create the book marks etc to get you going in this new market space. Don't reject it out of hand...there are 150 million people on Facebook alone and they offer very targeted advertising opportunities in addition to the no cost strategies.

It is all a matter of identifying the best strategies for your particular business and maybe tweaking your offer to suit. Generate some buzz, some viral marketing...you don't have to keep doing things the same old way!

Business Process Automation
SMI Business Impact has always worked with clients in the area of what we like to call "auto-piloting" their business. Most business processes can be systemised and documented for staff and there are many technologies that can assist. Our own research has identified products like Salesforce.com for client relationship management (CRM) and auto-responders on email marketing systems among others.

In addition we have identified an amazing business process automation and document management system that we will be introducing to the market over the next few weeks.

Like all good businesses, SMI is continually seeking opportunities to grow...afterall, why should we only do it for clients. To this end, we have signed an exclusive national distribution arrangement for this system that not only reduces costs permanently but also reduces staff resource requirements thereby producing not only improvements in efficiency but also substantial cost savings and hence ROI. Business process automation will allow businesses to:

• automate projects and processes
• provide enhanced compliance, control and audit trail
• simplify operations and staff training
• ensure consistency of company presentation
• automate document production, revision, storage and retrieval
• improve customer service
• fully customisable to your business; if you can draw a process on paper, it can be automated

This new product has 13 years of development behind it and a client list that includes a top 20 ASX listed company as well as clients in Canada and Israel. Full functionality and cost effectiveness is available to both SME and large enterprises.

There are amazing opportunities to improve your business, it just needs some focus and attention to work out what the best opportunities are for you in your particular market.

Need Some Professional Help?
Need help to work out how best to grow your business down?

What about a 3rd party view of where your business is today and where it could be? What you could do to avoid or minimise any downside from the economic downturn. What new market opportunities might suit your products and services?

Kick-start 2009 and request a F.ree initial consultation with an SMI Business Development Consultant and discover the upside in your business. Simply click on "Apply Now" and we will contact you or give us a call now on (08) 93648555.

To your business success and a prosperous 2009.

Simon Ackland