Succeeding in the New Economy :: CBCC 2010 Business Growth Series

One of the first things I did when I moved to Doylestown was to join the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce and if you’re in the area, I highly encourage you to do the same.  The Chamber offers amazing opportunities and tools to help businesses succeed.

Within the Chamber, I work on the Entrepreneurial Assistance Committee, whose mission is to help businesses grow.  In addition to offering hundreds of free business consultations (which are also available to non-members!), including marketing, business management and succession planning, the EAC, produces a yearly educational workshop series.

Sponsored by National Penn Bank, the 2010 series centers on Business Growth and tomorrow’s session is titled “Succeeding in the New Economy”.

I will be presenting along with David Werrett, President of the CBCC and Mario O. Vicario, Jr., CPA Kreicher Miller.  David will present a global view of the economy, Mario will discuss the trends he sees when working with small businesses and what makes them successful and what holds them back, while  I am the case study and will be discussing my philosophy and methods for success in this new economy.  Donald V. Cericola, CPA DVC Financial Services, will be facilitating.

3 SIMPLE STEPS TO SUCCEEDING IN THE NEW ECONOMY

DIVERSIFY

In today’s market, consumers and business are cutting back severely and in some cases, all together.  Avenues of revenue that were free-flowing in 2005/2006 have dried up today.  My answer to this problem is diversification.  As a small business owner, I’ve been told to find my niche and perfect my game within that niche.  For example, one of my specialties is wedding photography.  If I focused soley on marketing to brides, I would be sitting in the corner crying right now.  On average, brides are spending 1/3 of what they were spending on their wedding 5 years ago and I am now competing with pro-sumers who have purchased pro-sumer cameras and are billing themselves as professional photographers,  driving down prices.  Then there’s the bride who is choosing to cut out photography all together and depending on family and friends to cover her event.  If I stayed pidgeon-holed in my niche, I’d be in serious trouble today.  You would never invest all of your money into one stock, so why would you want to depend on all of your income flowing from a single source?  In addition to being a wedding photographer, I am a food photographer, a fashion photographer, a meeting and special events photographer.  I photograph interiors, families and advertising campaigns.  I have teamed with an event planner and am the Photography Director at his company.  I am also the Senior Editor of Nesting Newbies Magazine and develop content as well as contribute my photography services.  I teach Digital Photography workshops.  I sell B2B and B2c.  When weddings are slow during the winter, corporations are throwing holiday parties, planning educational seminars and working on their annual reports.  Since it’s difficult to predict who will be spending what and when, I try to keep as many avenue of income open as possible.   I’m sure you get my point.  Diversify.

BUDGET & FORECAST

Since the market is so volatile and unpredictable, I have cut my spending back to the very bare minimum.  I created a spreadsheet listing all of my monthly expenses, canceled any service that wasn’t crucial to running my business and shopped around for the lowest prices on those expenses that just couldn’t be cut.  I then created a spreadsheet for the entire year and created a forecast showing me what I would be spending and when to expect to pay annual bills.  I added a page to the spreadsheet showing my projected income for contracted jobs.  I used this information to forecast trends in my income and determine the appropriate months to market certain services.  This is a time consuming activity, but well worth the time spent to get a better understanding of the trends within your business.  This is also an effective exercise if you need to open a line of credit during lean times.  When you have a forecast, you prove to the bank that you are a responsible borrower and show them exactly when they can expect to be paid back.

SOCIAL NETWORKING & WARM LEADS

Advertising was one of the big ticket items in my budget and the first expense to be cut.  Since I was cutting my exposure dramatically, I had to find creative ways to market myself.  I started a blog, created a Linked-in profile, a Facebook profile and began Tweeting.  I also joined several different organizations, including the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce and ISES (International Special Events Society) and got involved.  When I had the opportunity to personally connect with someone at a networking event, I looked them up online and connected with them there as a follow-up.  Having the online connection strengthened our live connection.  Social networking also works in the reverse.  There are several people with whom I am connected because we have a mutual colleague in common and when we were at a networking event, it was easy to recognize these people and talk with them, since we already started our relationship online.

Getting involved with an organization is a great way to show colleagues your work ethic first-hand, which makes them more inclined to hire you or recommend you to a friend or another colleague.  This is called a warm lead and if strategized correctly, can be a valuable source of business.  I find that when I am referred thru my network, I am more likely to be hired and my client values and respects my services more because of the personal connections involved.

YOUR ACTION ITEMS:

1.  Diversify

2.  Create a budget and a forecast

3.  Get involved online & with your trade organizations

IN SUM

The most important trait you can have as a business owner is this economy is flexibility.  Be willing to constantly re-evaluate your plan and be flexible with your decisions.  Try new things.  My motto is that it’s better to try something and do it badly than not to do it at all.  The more you do something, the more practiced you’ll become.  There’s a learning curve associated with pretty much everything we do, but if you never try, you’ll never know where it can take you.