Top 10 Tips for Small Businesses to Weather Financial Crisis

October 7th, 2008 · No Comments

Here is a timely post from http://www.ideablob.com/posts/332 that all small businesses should take to heart in these difficult times.

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Category: Inside ideablob
1. Customers who don’t pay: If a customer is late, you need to take swift action. If you wait beyond 60 days, it’ll probably be too late. As a result, make sure you provide notices to late customers.

2. Finding “good” customers; avoiding “bad” customers: A few bad customers can ruin your company. So, make sure you provide some level of new customer screening. You might want to do a check on D&B®. Another idea is to require a credit application (you can find these forms online at allbusiness.com and at similar web sites).

3. Build your business credit: This can help get new customers as well as financing. To this end, you can set up a credit profile on D&B®. You can also establish business accounts with service providers like UPS® and Staples®.

4. Strong cash flow management: Learn the basics of this topic. You need to carefully watch inventory, receivables and expenditures.

5. Realistic forecasts: It’s natural for business owners to be optimistic. But, the economy has undergone an extreme hit. In other words, be conservative with your revenue forecasts. Chances are it will get harder to find new customers.

6. Focus on existing customers: Who are your most profitable customers? How can you leverage this valuable base?

7. Be responsible: It’s tempting to delay payments to vendors and suppliers. But, this can be a big mistake. You want to make sure you build long-term relationships.

8. Free resources: Consultants can be expensive. So, watch these costs.. What’s more, there are a variety of free resources. For example, Score.org has a program where retired executives can help you with your business.

9. Communication: This is the time to talk to all key constituents, such as customers, suppliers and especially employees. Talk about your strategy and steps you are taking to deal with the current environment.

10. Crazy financings: Beware of proposed financings that are too good to be true. They often are.

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To this list I would add:

11. Pay down existing debt aggressively. It is much easier to survive any crisis with less debt. Imagine what an excellent position a business without any debt would be in during a recession.

To the great success of your business!

Paul Elliott

Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog

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