Bajan Sun Magazine - Caribbean Entrepreneurs Vol 1 Issue 9 | Page 72

BAJAN SUN MAGAZINE NOV 2014 How to Survive in Business During a W ading through the political rhetoric gets a bit much at times, whether you are comfortable with the prettied-up language of the term 'economic downturn' or are happier to call a recession a recession; the truth of the matter is that it hurts businesses, especially the small ones. Even if you are confident that your business can weather the storm and endure, the simple facts are that you will probably not prosper during; it will at the very least slow things right down, if not bring them to a grinding halt. So how best to ensure that you can survive? What measures should be taken to make sure that you are still around when things start to pick-up again? Obviously spending money at a time when you may need every scrap of profit, just to subsist, is a no-no. Reducing costs and increasing sales are the only two things that any business should be thinking about when the financial climate is dire, so the first step to take in your recession survival plan is to put a hold on all developmental plans; you may want to be the next Mr. Branson, but expanding when there is no guarantee of turnover let alone profit is a bad idea. Although in a recession you will have your pick of staff, with unemployment soaring, taking on new employees will simply have to wait, as will absolutely all non-essential expenditure. Now is the time when every thrifty idea you have ever had should be re-examined; look