Comments on: Micro Business, Recession and Exporting.

By: Chris Blower

Chris Blower — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:21:44 +0000

I started trading in a public house only nine month ago. In hynsight everyone would agree it would be one of the worst industries at the worst time to begin a business. However, while others are closing all around me on a daily basis I have been able to survive with a few simple steps.
1. Keep overheads to a minimum, review and change your suppliers if there not giving you the best value for money and service.
2. Promote your value for money. Cheapest isn’t the best. Defend your prices in terms of value for money to your customers and then get them to do it for you to potential new customers.
3. Extend your value for money by keeping your customers informed I use an email newsletter to great effect.
4. Work harder but still give yourself a time out day where you are not on site and can’t be contacted. you’ll be amazed at what great ideas you have and how much you can get done when you step away for a bit.

I wish you all the best
Chris !

By: Kevin Baker

Kevin Baker — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:04:50 +0000

Stefan you said “Well as so often the is nothing you can do about this alone..” There are three specific area’s you can concentrate upon:
1. Strategy to uplift sales
2. Move confirmed sales, faster through the business
3. Reduce costs.

Tackling these issues requires an immediate cultural shift within the organisation. Ensure the whole team is informed of the adversity and buys into the three goals. Take advantage of the many hidden wins that exist during a tough climate which includes the opportunity to get everyone really focused, pointing in the same direction, which will naturally lead to achieving productivity.
Good luck!

By: Stefan Töpfer

Stefan Töpfer — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:50:35 +0000

Thank you all for this great discussion.

As I mentioned in my post, Zana Network specialize in exporting - not only for US small business - and can help with advice and grants.

If you want to export you can always sell in your own currency, this will minimize the risk Robert is talking about. Other options are export insurance - google it.

Stefan

By: Robert Moore

Robert Moore — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:14:18 +0000

Exporting for small businesses is a risky strategy. Most notably because of exchange rate risk which makes it hard to budget.

By: Dan Ider

Dan Ider — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:40:31 +0000

Julian, maybe you should look for other markets to exports to also. It looks like art is your niche. You might want to make an information product that tells artists how to sell to the US market, it creates another revenue stream.
Then promote this product with articles using Artemis Pro. I hope that helps to alleviate any money problems.

By: Shama Hyder

Shama Hyder — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:16:44 +0000

Hi Stefan,

I just did an article on this the other day.

http://www.afterthelaunch.com/2008/01/15/selling-in-stormy-times-how-to-market-your-services-during-a-recession/

By: Chris Norton

Chris Norton — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:21:29 +0000

Hi Stefan, I think the whole planet is spooked at the moment with a potential recession on the cards. Every financial market seems to be rising one day and falling hard the following day. I think for small businesses such as ours we just have to try to work smarter. The key factor for small business failure in the dot.com era seemed to be throwing money at companies that had bad business models - we all heard that a fantastic new website had the potential to reach 6 Billion people, so investment companies threw thousands at them. Six months later after 100 people had logged on the websites folded and only the ones with the well thought out business models survived e.g eBay, Amazon etc. I think small businesses and investors just need to be extra careful where they invest but at times of woe, come opportunities.

By: julian

julian — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:21:24 +0000

I export amlost everything I do unfortunately my main market is the USA :-((

By: Kristine Buenavista

Kristine Buenavista — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:46:32 +0000

Small businesses whether online or not will never grow and prosper if you do not take bold steps or risks from time to time. However, you have to consider all the factors if you are thinking of exporting as what you have suggested in this post.

I have read about other means of finding solutions for small business here http://www.online-marketingsolutions.com/Small-Business-Online-Solutions-pg3862.html
I really think it’s helpful.

thanks for posting this.