What to do next? Top Ten Priorities in this Economy

This month we are going to list what this author considers the priorities to focus on during this economy.

As has been mentioned in previous Tips, our notorious "Rainy Day" has come, and so this is when we hope you have prepared for it. But if for some reason, you haven't, then below are tips on how to get through this time.  But whether you have prepared or not, these tips will help all of us stay on track and get through these times.

1. Don't Fear!! Remember the universal law that whatever we fear will come to us. There is a reason for everything, fearing the unknown or focusing on the "What if's," will only make that which you don't want to happen, happen for sure.
2. Overcome Fear with Gratefulness!  Look for things to be thankful for in all of your situations. As you are experiencing gratefulness, fear will be overcome, because your focus will have changed.
3. Focus on what you want to be in your life and business. Remember whatever we focus on, expands, so as we are grateful, our focus will change to the positive, and this will create more positive for us and our businesses.
4. Be Open and join together. This is not a time for egos to get in the way of our progress in a difficult economy. This is a good time to be open to your employees, to brainstorm with them, and solicit their help and support. This is not a time to be "embarrassed." It is a time that if an employee offers help, you take it. This is a time where networking with others may help all involved. It is time to be open on all fronts and join together.
5. Be Honest. This is a time to be honest with yourself and all you know. Look at everything without your ego involved as best you can. This is not a time to criticize yourself or anyone else, it is rather a time to be honest and supportive to yourself and to all involved.
6. Be accepting. This is a time to be accepting of ourselves and all those involved in our business. It is better to take the approach, "We are all in this together!" than to try to be the "boss" and struggle as an island unto yourself. You will be surprised what happens when you are open and accept people and situations. This approach can make amazing changes.
7. Trust your Heart! In other words, trust what your heart says, not just what your head says. It has been scientifically proven that there is a higher intelligence in our hearts than our heads. Our hearts will often times know things that our heads just can't fathom.
8. Manage Your Cash Flow! This is time to closely manage your cash flow. You need to know what is coming in and when, and what is going out and when. Remember, Cash is King, so you need to be absolutely sure of what this is and pay very close attention to it. This is when having a good bookkeeper in place with your books in perfect order is imperative. You can't just kind of know, you must know to the dollar.  This may be a time when you need to hire someone to help with your books. You have now discovered, maybe the hard way, that you doing the books yourself, just is not working. The most cost effective way to handle bookkeeping in small business is to outsource this function. This way this expense simply ebbs and flows with your company.
9. Lower Expenses! Again, you want to know exactly what you are spending. Make sure all your rates are appropriate for your usage, like on your cell phone bills, for example. This is a time to check pricing on your commodities to be sure you are getting the best price. Review or audit all your bills for mistakes and over billing or incorrect charges. Know your financials, and check your spending on things like tools, etc.
10. Be Creative. This is a time for brainstorming. It is a time for being creative in your marketing. There are ways to market and not spend a lot of money. We need to get out there and find the business, because it is still there, it just may be a little harder to find. Brainstorm for maybe some new markets. This is a time to find things, you would have never thought of without the crisis situation.
11. Be hopeful and relentless. If we can keep our focus and remain grateful, we can be hopeful and be relentless. Don't give up. There is always a new day and the economy does recover. Count this as an adventure and know that there is a reason for each and every thing. Make this time count for you in your growth as a person, as a business and be a victor on the other side of this.
12. Keep your Employees. Your most important asset is your employees. Do what it takes to keep as many as you can, so that when things turn around, you will have them available. Without employees, most businesses cannot generate income. So again, they are the most valuable asset you have. Maybe change their hours and/or their duties, but keep them and then when things change, you will have very loyal employees, and you cannot put a value on that! It is sometimes a strong temptation to get rid of your employees when you are trying to cut expenses, but the cutting of employees should be your last resort.
13. Crisis Causes Change. I think the #1 thing to remember is that often times without crisis, we human beings just don't change. We all know that the economy was on a bubble and needed to change. We may have had things in our lives that we knew needed to change, but just no motivation to do so. We need to look at crisis and uncertainty as our friend, because that is what will bring us to new places and changes that we have known deep inside have needed to happen. When we look back at this time, I believe we will look at it as maybe one of the greatest gifts in our lives. That is often the case, what seems like the worst of times, really is the greatest gift and once we have gotten thru it and we have made the changes that were so needed, we are then grateful and would not have it any other way. We wouldn't choose to do it again, but would not really have it any other way either.

I have made our Top Ten Tips a Baker's Dozen.  I hope that this brings you encouragement and maybe some tips that will help during this economy. If you find any one of these Tips are of interest to you and you would like to get a more in depth coverage of them, we would like to get your feedback and make the next few months on topics that you would like to hear more about. So write us back and let us know what you think and what we can cover for you.