Small Businesses & Surviving In Tough Economic Times

It’s tough out there isn’t it?

Really tough.

Some might (rightly) say, really REALLY tough.

Fine, we’ve established that fact (well, more asserted it but this isn’t an academic paper so let’s not be pedantic), now how do we move forward? How do businesses, both small and large move in a way that keeps the business alive and more importantly growing. This isn’t going to be easy and there are no magic bullets but what are the alternatives? To shut up shop? Go to the wall? To keep your head down and do what’s always worked in the past, regardless of what’s ahead?

I don’t know about you but none of the above has any appeal to me and that’s why I took steps several months ago to reassess our company in light of the climate we now find ourselves in and restructure how we do what we do without meaningfully changing what we do i.e. our products and services. And you know what, it’s working.

Before I go any further, I want to make clear, this is not some self-aggrandizing effort to brag about my awsomeness. It’s an attempt to impart some thoughts, ideas, hell even a bit of positive thinking so we start, maintain and grow our businesses in what has been in the parlance of my adopted home, Scotland, “at bit of a shocker”.

Also, I really want this to be a 2, 5, 10, 100…… way conversation. Let’s share ideas, challenge principals and generate solutions.

Lastly, I’m going to be writing these articles more ‘on the hoof’ than as part of a grand plan, as I want them to be more fluid; more in response to how the conversation and ideas develop.

The modern world was built in no small part because of specialization and the free exchange of ideas. So, do what you do well and join in the conversation.