How Can I Recession-Proof my Small Business?
Aspire Digital Solutions
Implementing digital strategies to build your brand and your business.
What are the strategies I can use to help my business survive in a struggling economy?
The good news is, there are more ways than ever for your small business to not just survive a recession, but thrive in one – and beyond.
Most small business owners know that there is opportunity to improve their business with digital solutions, but many may not be aware of just how beneficial these can be, especially in a recession.
By using low-cost online tools and methods, you can set your small business up for success even when the economy is down – and put yourself in a position to emerge from challenging economic times better and stronger than ever before.
In this brief guide, we’ll cover several things every small business needs to do in order to succeed in a recession – the necessary strategies to not just survive, but thrive, despite a struggling economy – as well as the digital solutions that will enable small businesses to enact those strategies.
Understand that recession is an opportunity
The first step for any business to succeed in a recession is to adopt the right mindset – to understand that recessions are a natural part of the economic cycle, and while they pose great risks, especially to small businesses, they also provide opportunities to grow and thrive.
This may seem counterintuitive or like some kind of “power of positivity” affirmation. But it is a fact backed up by statistical evidence. While economic downturns do force many businesses to close their doors, they’ve also been shown to be periods of innovation and growth for businesses that approach them as such.
A study conducted by global management consulting firm Bain & Co., published in 2019, showed that the number of businesses that substantially improved their profits in the “great” recession of ‘07-’09 was 47% higher than during stable economic periods.
Of course, many businesses lost profitability or closed entirely in the same period. The difference between the two groups was how they approached the challenges posed by a struggling economy.
The Bain report details that the businesses that have fared the worst in recessions and their aftermaths “switched to survival mode, making cuts and reacting defensively,”?whereas?the businesses that succeeded in and after the recession found more efficient ways to do business – streamlining their processes, trimming costs, and increasing their value to customers and clients through digital solutions.
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By doing so, they were able to not just stay in business through the recession, they were able to expand and find new avenues of profitability while their competition stagnated or closed down entirely.
The great news for small business owners today is that the digital solutions that will enable their business to survive and thrive in a recession are more powerful and accessible than ever before.
Adopt digital solutions to drive your business
Recessions are an especially tough challenge for small businesses, which often lack the access to capital that larger ones lean on in a struggling economy.
Fortunately, digital solutions are more affordable and powerful than ever before, putting tools in the hands of small business owners that used to be available only to the largest corporations.
In fact, these digital tools have become so powerful over the last few years that they can become your small business’ marketing, public relations, and analytics departments at a fraction of what these kinds of services used to cost.
It all starts with the basics – a website and social media presence.
More people than ever are using the internet. As of 2020, over 90% of consumers had used the internet to find a local business – a figure that continues to grow year by year (BrightLocal, 2020). This fact alone should be enough to highlight the importance of having a web presence for any kind of small business.
But just having a website or social media page is not enough. Having a web presence becomes truly transformative when your small business’ website and social media are properly optimized for search engines and integrated with some of the many digital solutions now easily accessible to even the smallest of businesses.
By taking advantage of these tools and methods, small businesses can gain valuable insights into their operations, run more efficiently, expand their reach, increase their value to new and existing customers, and identify new, low-cost opportunities for growth.