The Business Conversation You Should Be Having When Times Are Tough

When times are tough, what kind of conversations should you be having about your business?

Can you carry on telling people that everything is ok?

Even though the outlook is bleak and anything that you can see by looking forward is just as negative, does any amount of telling yourself that it will be ok guarantee that it will be?

Let's just be honest

Honest conversations can save a business.

Rather than telling people that everything is ok and that you don't need any help, it's worth finding the people that can genuinely help you and can do it in a way that gives you what you need, not what they might be selling.

It's time for honest and open conversations.

You have to face up to the realities and start to have brave, honest and transparent conversations about what you're currently experiencing and what will happen if these conditions continue without well-designed actions to change to a better direction.

This is a fairly typical conversation at the moment:

Me:?What are your plans to grow this year?

A:?I don’t have any.

Me:?Why not?

A:?We’re not growing.

Me:?Is that because you don’t have a solid plan to ensure your business grows?

A:?No.?It’s the economy.

Me:?You can still grow in a sluggish economy if you do the right things to make it happen.

A:?If there’s a recession, there’s no point in having a growth plan.

Me:?Most forecasts agree that there will be a significant recession.?That makes it even more important to have a plan to grow that takes those factors into account.

A:?There’s no point.?The market will dictate whether we grow or not.

Me:?Does that mean that you expect outside factors exclusively to dictate how well your company performs?

A:?Obviously not, but we expect our customers to spend less than before.

Me:?Do you expect your income to be lower?

A:?Yes.

Me:?What is the general trend for your costs?

A:?They’re going up.

Me:?So, are you worried about how falling income and rising costs will affect your finances?

A:?Of course I am.

Me:?You had me worried for a second.?At least you’re aware that your business will be affected by a downturn.?

Have you thought about what you will do to ensure that the business can still generate enough money to support you?

A:?We know we’ll have to cut costs.?But doing more could threaten the business.

Me:?Can you tell me a little more about how you think cutting costs could threaten the survival of your business?

A:?Yes.?Off the top of my head, here are a few.

If we cut staff, there won’t be enough people to execute the work.?We’re fully stretched as it is. ?????I’m terrified that we’ll lose a member of staff, so I can’t cut the headcount without affecting our ability to execute the work that we currently have.

If we reduce our sales team, I’m sure the number of orders that the team brings in will decline.

The same goes for marketing, we’re already doing a lot with the budget that we have.?I can’t afford to have fewer enquiries as a result of cutting our marketing.

We’re already working with the lowest costs that we can find for the quality of materials that we use.

We can’t cut down on quality without expecting customers to notice and risk losing our loyal customers.

Me:?Ok that’s reasonable.?It looks like you’ve analysed your costs for any possible savings and thought about potential consequences.

That still leaves you with the prospect of declining income, if things carry on as they are now.

Do you plan to offset the expected decreasing spending per customer by increasing the number of customers that you serve?

?A:?I hadn’t given it much thought.

Me:?How long can the business continue to operate if costs continue to rise like they are?

A:?We won’t last much longer than 6 months.

Me: What if revenue decreases?

A:?We’ll be in serious trouble even sooner.

Me:?How will this affect your personal finances?

A:?My mortgage has already gone up dramatically and everything else is much more expensive.?We rely on the business to pay for it, so we’ll probably end up losing our home.

I can’t avoid that can I?

We already spent most of our cash reserves trying to stay afloat during Covid. So What can I do about this now?

Me:?At the same time as you’re cutting the costs that you’ve already identified, would it help you to work to increase your income?

A:?Yes. Of course it would.

Me:?Would it help you to have a plan for how to do this?

A:?Yes.

Me:?What would you call this plan?

A:?A survival plan.?What would you call it?

Me:?The same thing I call it when I’m helping businesses that are experiencing stable markets or taking advantage of opportunities.?For me, it’s always a Growth Plan because that’s what we’re aiming for to achieve your goals.

We’re always growing income and profit, even when the aim is to safeguard against the risks and pressures of a shrinking market or wider economy.

Me: Would growing your income and profits help you to avoid the consequences of reduced spend per customer and rising costs, that we've discussed?

A: Yes. It would.

Me: If you can see that you're just months or even weeks away from serious issues, the best time to start is as soon as possible.

New income can start coming in within weeks and can be enough to stabilise the business while we work on securing it for the longer term.

When do you want to start working on this?

A: Now. I don't want to close the business.

A:?How much do you charge?

Me:?What if I told you that 90% of the time, my help is paid for by money you’ve already given away??

This way you end up in profit within a few weeks of us starting to work together.

That gives us more time to work on growing your income in a way that is stable and sustainable over the longer term.

The work is structured to be an absolute bargain.?For me that means offering something that costs you a lot less than the costs you're currently experiencing. And we work with you to turn those challenges around by solving those problems permanently.?

Our work is even backed by a solid guarantee.?That you will grow your results or we’ll keep working for free till you do.?

If this is a conversation that you would like to have at the beginning of a professional relationship, what would you like to do next?

If you'd like to have a chat over the phone, zoom or a coffee, then drop me a message.