As the news freaks everyone out about the economy, each us has to take stock of where WE are, rather than panic over what we hear from the media AND from our new President. I am still here to tell you that opportunities abound and this is an amazing time to have a business! But, you have to pay attention!

How can you take stock of where YOU are right now? First, sit down with pen and paper and seriously look at what expenses you have and compare them with your income. Think “cash flow”. You have to have enough money coming in to at least pay all of your bills. And if you do not, something has to go.

I have a personal training client who is a financial planner and for over the last year, he has been telling me about clients who refuse to cut back in order to just be able to live on their retirement a little longer. Now many of those people are about to lose MORE than just a bit of their income! So, what can YOU do without right now?

What do I mean by “do without”? As I said above, this is the time to re-evaluate all of your expenses. If you are a business owner, consider how each expense helps you run your business or helps you generate more income. And look at the income it helps you generate. Are you spending time and money on a product/service that isn’t selling? What IS selling, then? Spend more time promoting THAT product/service instead of trying to bring back something that may never produce revenue.

As you consider the time and money spent on something not producing, you also need to consider the opportunity cost. It is costing you in the missed opportunities for not paying attention to what people DO want, trying to convince them to buy something they DON’T want.

When considering what is helping you generate more income, an easy place to look is at subscriptions and memberships. It may be a professional membership, it may be to a particular journal, it may be for a membership program. Do you use these regularly? Ask yourself about each, “How does this help me generate more income or help me grow my business now?” If it doesn’t, you can always re-join or re-subscribe another year. If it just supplies you with information, how else can you get the same information you are getting from them? And, if you are not reading the journals on a monthly basis or actively participating in that organization, chances are they aren’t providing the value you perceive they are.

But that’s half the equation. Now you need to look at what people are buying from you right now. What are potential or current clients telling you right now? This is where creativity comes in for the entrepreneur. And, if you’re reading this, you are an entrepreneur, right?

There are two things to consider when trying to come up with how to continue to grow your business during tough economic times:

1. How can you offer products or services that are more affordable for your clientele yet also help you continue to grow? This may mean group programs, membership programs, or offering more products that can help your clients meet their needs.
2. Business strategy when the economy slows down is to “widen the net”. This means expand your product or service offerings. Who are you currently offering services to, and how can you expand that to new markets? This doesn’t mean you can ignore your IDEAL client, but it means expanding what you do for them to more people. Also, what other services can you offer that you hadn’t considered in the past? This may go along with #1.

So, as you take stock of your business and personal finances, consider what you can “do without”. Now I’m going to pull my dry cleaning out of my dryer. Dryel is a great product!

If you need help growing your business right now, feel free to take advantage of my free, 30-minute collaborating coaching interview. To set up an appointment, email me at support@meg-enterprises.com.

Margie

One of the traits of an entrepreneur is tolerance to risk. Psychoanalyst Kerry Sulkowicz, MD, calls tolerance to risk “resilience”. And today we are seeing how resilient people are!

What about you? Are you stressing over the economy, or are you taking stock of what you have to offer and looking for new opportunities? If you are stressing out and closing down, you’ll likely end up like so many other businesses that won’t survive 2009. However, if you are a fighter, and a ‘typical’ entrepreneur, you are ready to do what is necessary to find those new opportunities!

The reason that starting a business during an economic downturn is a good idea is that most of these businesses will be starting up with existing, not borrowed, capital. Business that starts without debt has a better chance of survival if things don’t pick up right away.

So, take stock of your bottom line (cash on hand), understand what your ‘burn rate’ is, and exactly how long it will take to you to run out of cash (OOC), determine where you can cut down on costs, if necessary, widen your net for potential clients, ask yourself how best you can INCREASE value to your current, past and potential new clients, and rejoice in this time of the year and economy! This really is a great time to be in business! Don’t let tolerance to risk hold you back, but DO do your due diligence.

Margie

I know this is a little off-topic from what I usually write about, but I was thinking about this after a conversation with a colleague. I’ve heard from many people who say, “I want to go back to school for…” and I often ask why. MANY times they don’t really have a clear-cut reason.

When I graduated in 1990 with my BS degree in nutrition, I also wanted to continue on to get my masters degree. And I always was SURE it would be in an exercise science, particularly kinesiology, which I love. However, when I graduated, my daughter was 10 years old and I felt it was time to put my focus on my child. I knew I could always go back to school later. I don’t regret my decision.

But a funny thing happened along the way to that graduate degree! Through the years, I would look into different exercise science degrees, but there was always something not quite right. I then very seriously looked into one around 2003. But two people asked me the same question on the same day: How did that help me grow my business?

I had to say it didn’t! It DID help my ego, though!

Hm… was that a good enough reason to dig deeply, make that huge commitment of time, money and dedication to a graduate degree? No.

So, I waited…

But, what also started to happen around 2003, is I started coaching other professionals on starting up their own businesses and I felt the need for more knowledge to better help them. I LOVED business coaching from the very beginning. These clients have such a desire. And the success my clients have seen is beyond extremely rewarding. Not only for them, but for me!

So, in September 2005, I returned to school and knew it was the right move. I have been excited through the entire program, and am sure that the time, money and commitment has been worth it. And I can tell how I’m better able to help my clients, too! No longer am I just speaking from things I’ve read about business, or taking from my own experience as a business owner, but I’m speaking from what I have learned from my formal education and from the discussions and debates in classes, as well as the multitudes of essays on each topic. For health professionals, we’ve learned that just reading books before that education really didn’t help us REALLY understand the topic the way we do after that formal education. I’ve learned it’s the same with this education in business.

I will graduate this March with an MBA in Entrepreneurship in just 6 weeks! I take my comp exam in 2 weeks, in fact. This will be a 4-hour essay exam to answer 3 questions about entrepreneurship. I’m almost done! This fact is just starting to dawn on me, and, as I suspected, looking back, it seems like just yesterday when I started.

So, my point is this: If you are considering going back to school, it involves a large commitment from you: Time, money and dedication. Most people I know who go after a graduate or post-graduate degree put a lot of time into the project, and sometimes dedication and interest gets lost along the way. The PROBLEM with this is then it becomes an albatross around their neck that they can’t get rid of! They generally are in too deep to quit, but it takes a lot out of them to keep going! So, you have to be clear what you want to accomplish and why you want that degree.

Meanwhile, though, here’s to going for that dream AND accomplishing it!

Margie