How to Prepare Your Company for Growth During Economic Slowdowns

At both of my companies (DPS Telecom and Digitize), things are awesome. Nonetheless, as a CEO, I'm always watching for the next storm on the horizon. I'm watching a world that seems to be holding its breath. The results of the U.S. midterm elections change things. Worldwide inflation (and central bank responses to it) is set to cause all kinds of havoc.

All of this reminds me of previous economic bubbles I've had to steer my way through. 22 years ago (time flies!), it was the dot com collapse. 14 years ago, we had the mortgage crisis.

Business cycles are a reality, whether we like it or not. You must choose to blame the economy or bypass the blame game and succeed anyway.

If you do the right things during slow economic periods, you'll give yourself the greatest possible margin for survival. You'll also be ready for explosive growth once things pick up again.

Let's review what you can do today to build a team, refine your process, and develop superior products.

Now is Your Chance to Build an Outstanding Team of Employees

Economic downturns are a perfect storm for hiring your next generation of great talent. Suddenly, there are a lot more people looking for jobs. Some will be discouraged by working in whatever sector collapsed (dot coms, mortgages, etc.) and triggered the current downturn.

As you know from my earlier articles, I keep my hiring machine running all the time. You probably should, too, because you never know when somebody amazing will walk through your doors. An economic slowdown simply increases the number of people who are applying for work, giving you more "shots on goal" that might uncover an outstanding candidate.

The sudden hiring rush happens at the same time you're likely to see an increase in employee departures. Weird times make people do weird things. I always have at least a few employees leave. Some seek greener pastures in states with a lower cost of living. Some are stressed by the economic outlook and, paradoxically, leave their stable jobs at the worst possible time.

Whatever the reason, you're going to have some chances to upgrade your team with new talent.

Never Allow a Reduced Workload to Doom Your Employees to Self-Imposed Failure

Your sales and marketing teams may never work harder than they do in times like these. Opportunities are hard to come by, so lead generation and outbound calling become massive to meet sales targets.

For engineering, manufacturing, and installation teams, slowdowns can feel almost like an at-work vacation. Suddenly, the inboxes aren't filling nearly as fast. There's less to do. It's possible to waste a lot of time and still complete the work that's available.

It's frustrating to see overloaded or underloaded staff, but your real pain is lurking on the horizon. If you coast through and allow a "good enough" culture to take root at your company, you'll lose a huge chunk of your employees as things speed back up.

Suddenly, you'll be viewed as "moving the goalposts" by simply requiring the same output that was normal a few quarters ago. People will demand huge pay increases or just leave because things are suddenly "too stressful."

There are Actually Many Ways to Keep Your Staff Engaged

You can avoid many of these problems by smoothing out the rhythm for your staff. Keep the workload constant, so it won't have to ramp back up later.

This starts with having good data. You need to know if you are manufacturing 30% fewer widgets than before. Lower volume implies that manufacturing staff should have 30% capacity. That's time you can use on other projects.

This is a good time to start refining procedures. Set aside idle staff hours to verify and update your written SOPs. You can also brainstorm ways to improve efficiency. Slow periods offer the bandwidth needed to build a machine that will run better the next time you're slammed with big orders.

You can also move staff to other areas. Anyone who can play a role in hiring or training can help keep your expanded recruitment process humming along. I have literally had people painting our corporate buildings to stay legitimately busy when things slow down.

"Make work" is a dumb waste of time, and you shouldn't bother with it. If there's truly nothing meaningful that an employee can contribute to your business, layoffs might be the only option left. I simply encourage you to think outside the box. You can help your people find ways to keep their jobs while simultaneously learning new skills.

Build the Products Your Customers Want - Even if They Have No Budget Right Now

As important as survival obviously is, there's more to business than just "not going broke." You need to be thinking about the future to really thrive.

Times like these can be great for tuning into your target market. You can learn which products or services your customers will actually buy when they have money again.

Of course, this is harder than it sounds. People don't always know what they want. Your job is to help them figure it out.

This means talking to your customers–a lot. And I don't mean sending them email surveys (although those can be helpful). I mean actually talking to them on the phone or in person about what they're facing and thinking about how you could help:

1.??What challenges are they working on?

2.??What problems are big enough that they will commit budget dollars when they become available?

3.??What do they buy before, during, and after purchasing from you? Could you supply that for them also?

You need to understand how your customers are thinking so you can continue building the products they want–even if they have no budget right now. When the economy takes off, you want to be first in line to get available dollars.

To that end, be sure you're sending out high-quality sales proposals describing these new products. Include detailed diagrams and an actual price, so there's a real product to be considered when money starts to flow.

If You Make the Right Moves, You Can Survive Today and Thrive Tomorrow

As you can see, everyone on your team (including you) benefits from the proper application of effort during slower times.

If you follow the advice I've given you here, you'll stand the best possible chance of keeping your staff employed, trained, and ready for the future. You'll have a great team, great processes and written procedures, and a great product portfolio.