You may have heard the joke about two men faced by a hungry lion. One starts putting on running shoes. The other says “Those shoes won’t help you outrun the lion”. He answers back “I only have to outrun you”.
With a difficult business environment, it is easy to hang on every news report about the economy and recession. To survive though, it is your competition you should be worried about. Those are the ones you have to outrun, not the recession.
Putting on your running shoes
Start with the basics. Identify the competition and ask yourself what makes you stand out. What is your USP (unique selling point)? Even if you are not selling something, you should still have a USP. This is the key reason or reasons people will visit your website and use your business.
Note what is working well for you and what is not. We often spend time improving what is already working well because there is positive reinforcement as we continue to perform those tasks well. Things that are not working as well are often those that you hate to do. Putting time into improving those tasks will usually give you more bang for the buck. You can consider outsourcing such work if you really cannot stand those activities or feel you do not have the expertise to do them well.
Dollars and Sense
Your investment should be making money. While it is OK to invest for the future, your business needs to be making a profit and not just on paper. Domainers can get carried away buying for the future without dealing with the harsh realities of profit and loss. One way to offset this investment is to develop or sell a portion of your portfolio. I try to turn over about 10% of the portfolio each year on average and there are always domain investments that were more about spur of the moment than have legs to go the distance.
I have noticed so much twittering and postings on the recession and hopes of recovery that I think it is just an excuse to avoid facing a difficult business environment. Recessions can force you to face the basics of your business, force you to cut the fat and be a lean, profit making machine that can hit the ground running once the recession is over. Let the lion consume your competition instead of consuming you.
