Game Plan for Entrepreneurs and Businesses in a Troubled Economy

Okay, so this is not the first economic depression the global (and national) economy has experienced—somebody’s got to have a game plan for how big business and small business get through this …right?

Wrong. Everyone who is in business, who was also in business during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, stand up please.

So, are you still sitting down?

Of course you are.

And even if you were an eighteen-year-old entrepreneurial prodigy in 1930, today you are a 97-year-old entrepreneurial legend who hasn’t been through an economic depression during a time when business is built or broken by relational marketing on the internet.

So the game plan for dealing with this economy is one of those ‘good-news/bad-news’ scenarios. The bad news is that there is no game plan, because history doesn’t help us on this one; today’s business environment is unlike any in the past. And the good news is that there is no game plan, which means the doors are wide open for creativity, innovation, hard work, and thinking that is so far outside the box it is off the planet.

Yes, some classic approaches to surviving a down economy are helpful. Tighten your belt, increase your marketing, and look for well placed strategic alliances. Find ways to make your product more affordable by bundling services, offering promotional rates and incentives, and working out payment plans.

But then what?

Strategies for Doing Business in a New World

Try making yourself uncomfortable. (As if the scary economy isn’t doing a good enough job at that already). But what we really mean is that you need to set lofty goals because in so doing, you are pushing your own bell curve higher. Try to fail at the highest possible level. For example, set your new client goals at an unattainable mark; set them so high that if you even reach the 50 percent point, you will be surpassing any goals you have set in the past. Now go full out toward the new target. Push, stretch, excel, and exceed in an effort to reach the goal you thought was impossible.

Think in terms of potato chips, donuts, and cupcakes. What do these three things all have in common and what can they possibly mean for your business or consulting practice? They are all addictive. Have one, and all you can think about is how much you want one

Make your Business Irresistible

more. They may not be good for you, they may not be what you need, but the ‘want factor’ is so high they are almost irresistible. What you provide your clients and customers needs to be addictively irresistible, so that they will rearrange their time, their budget, and their lives in order to have what you offer, and then to have more.

Skydive. Every week, leap into one new idea. … Not nilly-willy, you want a well-packed parachute for a planned, scheduled, and well-timed jump. But you cannot—CANNOT—rely on what you were doing in the past, in a different economy, and on a different marketing and sales planet, to work for you now. If you stay on this plane, circling your target, the plane is eventually going to run out of gas.

…You have no choice but to jump.

(Some videos don’t need an explanation.)