With any Small Business that is finding times hard in this economic environment, there are some fundamentals that make up the starting blocks of recovery.

Cashflow

Preservation of Assets

Reduction of Liabilities

Develop a plan

Cashflow

“Cash is King” and is particularly so when a business is struggling.

Take a close look at the cashflow:

Where is the money coming in from and where is it being spent.
The old 80/20 rule is useful in these examinations,

Income
80% of your income is probably coming from 20% of your customers- so concentrate your efforts on them.

Can you increase your sales by presenting a particularly attractive offer to your existing customers ?

Can you get referrals from your existing customers by offering them an incentive to bring in new customers ?

Instead of spending your advertising on blanket adds, can you spend money directly on existing customers to get more sales,

If you use advertising to bring in customers, look closely at how effective it is – can it be measured, can you reliably say $1 spent on this medium will give me $x worth of sales ?

If your cost of goods /production has gone up, have you increased your sale prices to reflect it ?
If the market can’t take a price increase, can you package something else with it as a cross sell or up sell, that will give you better margin (the classic “Would you like Fries with that ?”, “Would you like to upsize that drink ?” )

Expenses

80% of your expenditure is probably coming from 20 % of your creditors, & the chances are that the Banks or finance companies  are one of the biggest.

Can you reduce your borrowings by using the income to pay off debt rather than your own wages or “luxuries”.

Cut back on anything that is not involved in the money making process (except insurance)
ie make sure every dollar spent is moving towards getting another dollar back from a sale.

If you rely on advertising, don’t cut back on the dollar value, but take a close look at how or where you are spending it. Target your advertising dollar.

Can you do a joint venture with your suppliers where they put up some money or resources for a promotion or supply their product at a discount, ie reduce your input costs and increase your sales at the same time.

Preservation of Assets

Do what you can to ensure existing assets are protected from being lost to a firesale or creditor action.

Talk to your Accountant or Lawyer.

Reduction of Liabilities

Do what you can to reduce your Liabilities, either by selling assets that are saleable, or finding other sources of funds such as investors rather than Bank or Finance company borrowings.

Carefully assess what the income is currently servicing.
Is there lots of high credit card debt or penalty overdraft debt that could be reduced by restructuring  loans or consolidation, ie increase loan on house at 8% to pay off credit card debt at 22%

Look at the Business Holistically and Develop a Plan

Decide on how the Business is going to move forward from the current situation and write at least an overview plan.

Can you make more in the end by spending a little more in one area, rather than insisting that every area cuts back to the bare minimum?

Will  you trade at break even levels for a while – turnover at breakeven is better than no turnover at all.

Most importantly- make sure the staff are with you and that they understand what you are trying to achieve.
If all they see is cutbacks, they will begin worrying about their jobs and productivity will fall.
If they see there is a plan and that they have an input into the viability of the Company (with possibility of reward also) the plan is more likely to succeed.

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