1. Audit your costs: Review your outgoings and incoming revenue. This will highlight any costs that seem particularly high and any parts of the business where your revenue has dropped. Have key customers stopped spending, or could you get more creative with some of your costs - such as advertising?
2. Streamline your running costs. Could you cut your utility bills by turning off all electrical equipment every evening or making sure your heating system is energy efficient? Get everyone involved with this, and make it a game, who can save the most money! Have a chart up on the wall, with the winner so far!
3. Assess your staff bill. If you have surplus staff for the work available, look for ways to reduce staff costs. Ask employees if they might be open to voluntary measures, such as reduced hours or pay. Take legal advice if considering changing employees' terms and conditions. Basically, this will have to come from you, no member of staff is going to walk up to you and say "I've noticed we're not as busy, so I could work less time, or take overtime as time off in lieu, to help you out here " Not going to happen, so seize the bull by the horns - Not pleasant, but necessary!
4. Improve your purchasing. Assess the costs of your stock. Are any of your suppliers having special offers, creating buying groups or generally acting responsibly to help retailers? Could you reduce costs without making your products less desirable. Review your utility providers - there are a lot of gains to be made by comparing tariffs from different energy companies.
5. Reduce your stock. Consider whether you can cut back on the level of stock you hold. Can you get hold of or manufacture items quickly enough to satisfy customer orders without having goods sitting in storage for long periods? Aim to keep just enough stock to service your customers' needs. If you look at the multiple retailers, I'd estimate they've cut their stock levels by around 30% this year - you only have to look at the store layouts to see this in action.
6. Look for growth opportunities. With competitors potentially falling by the wayside, look for ways to take advantage and expand into different parts of the market. Can you start that website you've been talking about for ages, run a workshop, have an open evening, team up with the local college?
7. Protect your marketing spend. Cost-cutting is key during a downturn, but continuing to spend on marketing is vital to attract and retain customers. Focus your marketing efforts on your most profitable customers and cost out your advertising and marketing. Calculate how much revenue you need to make for your advertising spend to be worthwhile. Remember there's a key difference between advertising and marketing - if you have no money for advertising, make sure you're still marketing yourself well!
8. Boost staff productivity. Home and work worries can make employees less productive during a recession. Try to increase morale by offering low-cost incentives, such as monthly vouchers for the best performing sales person. Keep employees informed about what's going on in your business if you can, without scaring them ! Promote team spirit - xxxx shop team against the recession - Recession busting ideas from the team!
9. Loyalty schemes - Re-look at any schemes you may have in place, or be thinking about putting in place - Loyalty schemes breed just that - loyalty, and if you're fighting for customers, this will bring them to your door, and make them come to your shop first! It doesn't have to be expensive to run, a few vouchers are usually all it takes, ie spend £100 and get a £10 voucher, which is going to cost you around £3.50 / £4 so its not going to break the bank.
10. Use social media to communicate with your customers - Its cheap and effective and ensures you maintain a presence in the market, even if you have little money for advertising - start a blog, twitter about your shop, or update your newsletter with recession beating tips for your customers.
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