7 Ways to Recession Proof Your Business

I have been doing a lot of reflecting over the past week over businesses that are being impacted by the pandemic and why Shifts to Success and other companies are thriving or at least will survive propelling them into the entrepreneurial boom after this madness has disappeared.

I thought I would share with you some ways you can help to RECESSION PROOF your business for the future, or perhaps implement these things now to help you through these times…

Before I do that though I must say that is isn’t just ONE particular point that will help, but rather a combination of these things.



1. Marketing Channels

You want to avoid lead source concentration. If the majority of your leads are coming from one place and they go away… You’re in trouble.

 

Get yourself in the frame of mind that you’re operating a media company, within your main business. which generates maximum exposure thus leads, from various sources!

At Shifts to Success, we have members of the Police / NHS find us through:

Our Facebook Community

The Shifts to Success Podcast

Police Officer to Entrepreneur (My book)

YouTube

Google Search (Type in my name or Shifts to Success)

Instagram

Audible

Facebook ads

By having these marketing channels open and operating, there are various ways our target customer can find out about us and contact us.


2. Income

I see it time and time again, that when people and/or businesses start to produce a healthy income into their lives/business, they also increase their lifestyle.

If you want financial security you must ensure you manage your cash effectivity too.

I want to share with you a strategy that I have implemented in both my companies and it is also a strategy I teach our clients at Shifts to Success.

We operate our bank accounts like 6 buckets and we allocate income automatically when it hits the income, account into those buckets.


1. Income account (This is where all revenue arrives into your account)

2. Tax (This is where we put cash aside for tax. We allocate 25% of our income into this account)

3. Profit (This is our profit account. We allocate a minimum of 15% into this account)

4. Trading (This is where we pay our expenses out of. We allocated 55% into this account)

5. Vault (This is our savings account. We allocate around 4% into this account)

6. Contribution (This is our charity account. We allocated 1% into this account)


By doing this strategy it allows us to cover all bases, alleviates stress when it comes to finances and actually ensures the businesses are profitable.

The Vault account, which is the ‘rainy day fund’ would come in handy for a lot of businesses right now, if they built this themselves.



3. Being Lean


One habit we implement at Shifts to Success is to look at our costs every quarter.

Myself, my bookkeeper and my operations manager, will look into every single transaction that has been made and look at the fixed and other various costs within our business.

If we feel something is too high, we will look to renegotiate with suppliers or shop elsewhere.

This has ensured we have stayed lean and increased profits, thus keeping cash within the business.

Having zero personal and business debt also helps us stay lean. (That is not to say all debt is bad, because it isn’t. But having no interest climb up during these times is a good thing)



4. Virtual Team

Myself and my team have been virtual from day one.

I have a team member in Cape Town, South Africa.

I have a team member in London,

I have a team member in Kent.

I have an external team member in Pune, India.

This not only minimises office overheads, but it also means we can carry on working during the global pandemic during the lockdown. I believe having a virtual team allows you to attract better talent as you are not fixed to one geographical location too.


5. Customer Concentration

Just like you don’t want lead source concentration. You don’t want customer concentration either.

If you have a customer and they make up more than 20% of your revenue, then this could be troublesome for you.

If that customer decided to leave for whatever reason, such as a global pandemic well it will impact your business and its cashflow.

Having more customers making up different varying percentages of your revenue is a much better business to have.



6. Create Assets

I am not talking about property here.

I am talking about Business Assets.

At Shifts to Success, we have an online portal, an online community, webinars and zoom sessions, which allows us to still deliver value to our cohorts. So although in-person events have paused, for now, this doesn’t mean our cohorts have to stop building their businesses.

Not only that, but we have my best-selling business book that is being handed out freely at the moment, which means I get to deliver value nationally. We have sent out close to 150 now.

Again, we have other assets that continue to deliver value, such as The Shifts to Success PodcastYouTube, Police Officer Scorecard.

I create these things once, and they continue to deliver value without me being present. I literally transcend space and time, which creates massive leverage.


7. Opportunity

It is easy to think small in times like this.

It is easy to slip back into old ways.

It is easy to listen to the media and all their negativity.

It is easy to not take a calculated risk.

However, it is those who understand that this is a time of huge opportunity, that will prosper.

Great businesses are started out of economic downturns due to the opportunity that is here.

We are going to go through an entrepreneurial BOOM!

In the last two weeks alone 13 members of the police have joined Shifts to Success.

Our value has just shot up hugely, as sadly this virus has put more strain on officers, but also it has put more strain on those who actually have a business right now and there are those who want to understand how they can seize the opportunity that is amongst us.

This has empowered myself and my team more than ever on our Mission at Shifts to Success, which is;

“To enable and empower the entrepreneurial heart inside ex & police officers, so they can live life on their terms, with more income, time and passion”.

As a result of this, we are having more conversations than ever with members of the police and we have some exciting news coming in the next few months!

“Think BIG, there is no fun, in thinking small”

Conclusion:

Take from the above what you will and see if you can implement them into your business. It WILL help.

Protect cash and PREPARE, because when this all blows over, you want to be in a prime position to catapult yourself into a different level of business success.

For those just starting out, PLAN & PREPARE too, as you may be able to change the direction of your life due to this global pandemic and the opportunity, from how the world will change.

If you would like a free copy of my best selling book then click HERE

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