9 business survival tips for getting through the recession
Monday, February 01, 2010
Print
Email
Tweet This!Save to Favorites
Recommend on Google+
Businesses were not short of advice - good, bad and downright daft - for getting through the recession. This piece in the Telegraph had some pretty sensible suggestions for what entrepreneurs and managers needed to do…
The Telegraph reported some market research from O2 who quizzed businesses that had survived the previous recession. According to the research, the nine things a business needed to focus on were:
1) Get the basics right (proper business planning + accurate financial reporting)
2) Cut costs
3) Careful cash flow management
4) Spend on marketing
5) Determination
6) Hold onto existing customers
7) Diversify your product and customer base
8) Deliver excellent customer service
9) Credit check customers
I can’t argue with any of the items on the list - all make sense. However, I think I would add the following:
10) Simplify business processes - outsource non-essential functions and reduce product or process complexity
11) Invest in training - particularly in key revenue-generating skills (e.g. telephone selling)
12) Innovate - improve existing products sold to existing markets
Are there other suggestions that students would include - what and why?
blog comments powered by Disqus
Strategies to revive the High Street: Mary Portas reports [13 Dec 2011]
Batten down the hatches - strategies for the next downturn [24 Oct 2011]
Shoppers switch stores as income patterns change [11 Oct 2011]
Is the golf business coming out of the bunker? [7 Apr 2011]
Recession? Hair today, gone tomorrow [6 Apr 2011]
The UK Economy - Economic Growth GDP [15 Mar 2011]
The UK Economy - Unemployment [13 Mar 2011]
The Profit Margin Bloodbath of UK Recession [6 Mar 2011]
Euro Disney - an HRM & Finance Nightmare? [24 Nov 2010]
Recession-proof production at Fiat [20 Nov 2010]
JCB - A Great Case Study for Business Students [19 Nov 2010]
Cash flow Clue-doh! The Mystery is Revealed… [2 Nov 2010]
Start-ups - a surge in new businesses post recession [2 Nov 2010]
Google, Profits and Diversification [16 Oct 2010]
Who ate all the pies? [17 Sep 2010]
Businesses prepare for the double-dip [13 Sep 2010]
Can small firms shrug off their recession trauma? [2 Sep 2010]
A beginners guide to GDP [30 Aug 2010]
Recession Strategy - Manufacturing Emerges Leaner and Fitter [25 Aug 2010]
Nissan profits from a recovery in demand [30 Jul 2010]
Dark days for the UK nightclub market [21 Jun 2010]
Emerging Stronger - How UK Businesses Responded to the Recession [14 Jun 2010]
BUSS4 - Recession Strategy Lessons from Four Female Entrepreneurs [6 Jun 2010]
Emerging from Recession - Manufacturing Leads the Way [1 Jun 2010]
Strategy Case Study - Vauxhall/Opel restructuring [24 May 2010]
BUSS4 UK Recession - Data Burn [15 May 2010]
UK Recession - Hotels Suffer Despite the Trend towards Staycations [3 May 2010]
Why Coffee Shops did so well during the UK Recession [25 Apr 2010]
A good example to use when explaining what firms do as they come out of a recession [22 Apr 2010]
Girl Power [12 Apr 2010]
Recession Survival Strategies Cost UK SMEs £16bn [31 Mar 2010]
UK Recession - What Happened to Redundancies? [30 Mar 2010]
Unilever in the recession - the CEO on strategy [25 Mar 2010]
How firms can make the most of the recovery [20 Mar 2010]
Wipeout Challenge - UK Recession [15 Mar 2010]
Motivation and management at John Lewis [11 Mar 2010]
Data watch - what happened to consumer spending in the UK recession? [4 Mar 2010]
BUSS4 and British Airways - a marriage made in heaven [1 Mar 2010]
Whiteboard Challenge - Drawing UK GDP [28 Feb 2010]
Recession strategy - what happens when a market dives by 30%+? [28 Feb 2010]
HRM priorities as firms exit the recession [27 Feb 2010]
Strategy in a recession - cost optimisation not cost minimisation [25 Feb 2010]
An interesting way to describe the Business Cycle [25 Feb 2010]
Strategy in a recession - Don’t Panic Mr Mainwaring! [25 Feb 2010]
Strategy in a recession - global innovators keep investing [25 Feb 2010]
Customers have changed during the recession - how does marketing respond? [19 Feb 2010]
Strategies for the Recession - Insights from Six Restaurant Group CEOs [19 Feb 2010]
BUSS4 - winning insights into recession strategy from annual reports [18 Feb 2010]
A CEO’s take on the effect of the recession on UK restaurants [18 Feb 2010]
Marketing strategy in a recession - is attack better than defence? [17 Feb 2010]
Advertising in the recession - perfect storm or perfect opportunity? [17 Feb 2010]
Branded coffee shops prove resilient to the UK recession [17 Feb 2010]
Recession turns the UK into a fast-food nation [16 Feb 2010]
Strategic reaction to the UK recession - notes and observations [9 Feb 2010]
UK companies conserve cash in the recession - bad news for shareholders? [8 Feb 2010]
Strategies in a recession - pay freezes stay in place [8 Feb 2010]
Business strategies as we emerge from the recession [7 Feb 2010]
UK Recession - Some Winners and Losers [5 Feb 2010]
Companies that thrived in the UK recession - theme activity [1 Feb 2010]
Recession Tracker for UK Economic Data [1 Feb 2010]
Opportunities for Poundland in the recession [1 Feb 2010]
Video case study - substitute goods benefiting from the recession [1 Feb 2010]
Strategy in a recession - Fusion Systems [1 Feb 2010]
Business priorities in a recession [1 Feb 2010]
Flexible working thrives in the recession [1 Feb 2010]
What business students can learn from how businesses have handled the recession [1 Feb 2010]
Introducing business and the economic environment with Darling’s debt dilemma [27 Jan 2010]
Flight to value has its impact on the Charity Shops [12 Jan 2010]
Where Does Your Money Go? [16 Dec 2009]
Offshoring and Small Businesses [3 Dec 2009]
High street trends - pop-up shops and Poundland niche [28 Nov 2009]
Q&A - What is globalisation? [27 Oct 2009]
Q&A - What are the main causes of unemployment? [27 Oct 2009]
Q&A - What has happened to unemployment in the UK? [27 Oct 2009]
Managing Cash Flow - Beware the Economic Recovery [26 Oct 2009]
Pigging Out in the Recession [26 Oct 2009]
Revision Presentation - Business Cycle and Economic Growth [18 Oct 2009]
V-Water - from start up to exit [4 Oct 2009]
The dramatic slump in advertising revenue continues [18 Sep 2009]
Demand is booming for UK Cinemas [16 Sep 2009]
Is a recession the perfect time to launch a technology start-up? [14 Sep 2009]
Kick-start for retail business [12 Sep 2009]
The tills are alive with the sound of Woolies [3 Sep 2009]
Motivation in practice - how not to do it - lessons from Britain’s bosses [1 Sep 2009]
Video case study: battling for survival in the restaurant trade [31 Aug 2009]
Revision Presentation - Unemployment & Business [30 Aug 2009]
A dramatic fall in business investment [27 Aug 2009]
Plastic car is a blast from the past [25 Aug 2009]
Picking from a growing pool of job hunters [19 Aug 2009]
Banks lend more and charge more at the same time [3 Aug 2009]
Absenteeism - the effect of the fear factor? [20 Jul 2009]
How to improve profitability? - give customers a “staff appraisal” [12 Jul 2009]
Business angels take flight - just when small businesses need them [12 Jul 2009]
Innovation helps firm buck the recession [9 Jul 2009]
Spare capacity prompts a fall in business investment [4 Jul 2009]
Q&A - What is inflation and how is it measured? [1 Jul 2009]
East Coast Rail Line is Nationalised [1 Jul 2009]
The Shape of Things to Come - V, W U or L? [25 Jun 2009]
Have local newspapers entered the final decline phase of their product life cycle [22 Jun 2009]
Budget Hotel Chain Now Feeling the Squeeze [17 Jun 2009]
BUSINESS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER
Get first news of business teaching resources, ideas and other materials from tutor2u. Over 9,400 business teachers from the UK and around the world receive our regular teacher email newsletters. Sign up for free here!
Popular Topic Tags
recession, demand, prices, price, unemployment, profit, economics, costs, investment, inflation, supply, employment, trade, competition, gdp, risk, china, debt, euro, entrepreneur, capacity, production, downturn, innovation, tutor2u, revision, pay, exports, manufacturing, confidence, profits, food, incentives, banks, strategy, globalisation, aqa, expectations, oil, csr, usa, startup, retailers, housing, productivity, sterling, supermarkets, google, economies of scale, mortgage, takeover, cash flow, advertising, quiz, leadership, property, buss4, tesco, economic growth, video, efficiency, enterprise, motivation, stakeholders, apple, deflation, corporate social responsibility, ebea, market share, airlines, pricing, taxation, slowdown, bank of england, acquisition, merger, market failure, borrowing, competitiveness, sustainability, product life cycle, interest rates, credit crunch, budget deficit, aqa business studies, facebook, twitter, aqa business, bbc, nelson thornes, philip allan updates, starbucks, philip allan, monopoly, diversification, recruitment, organic growth, stocks, training, oligopoly, starter activity, shareholders, uk economy, poverty, emerging markets, dollar, government failure, retailing, management, suppliers, buss1, marketing mix, tim harford, cpi, branding, opportunity cost, breakeven, government spending, hodder education, vat, product, customer service, eu, losses, wages, evaluation, india, external growth, wealth, environment, edexcel, location, promotion, technology, information failure, business studies revision, sources of finance, franchise, aqa gce business, elasticity, regulation, spare capacity, welfare, jobs, economic cycle, marketing, zondle, strategic direction, british airways,View all tags for the Business Blog
