By Adrian C. Ott


The recent credit market crisis causes us all to reflect about how we approach our businesses. We’ve undoubtedly encountered staff reductions and realized evaporating sales opportunities as companies and consumers retrench their spending. Worst of all, many of us have realized losses to our personal investment portfolios,

Although painful, the bright side is that these changes offer an upside for businesses seeking growth – to take advantage of this, we need to reset our thinking to visualize opportunities in this new landscape. 

Below are five approaches that help you to not just survive, but thrive in an economic downturn:

• As markets dissipate, new industries emerge. Although spending is curtailed, businesses and consumers still need to purchase goods and services. What has changed is that they are spending differently. Adapting to new markets that emerge during these times is pivotal to success in this new market climate. Although real estate mortgages are imploding, foreclosure, and credit counseling services are booming. Print and media advertising is declining, but internet advertising is growing – Google’s recent strong financial results are a testament to this transition.

Alternatively, offering products and services that help companies to downsize or reduce costs could be a vital new revenue source. Rather than further entrenching into your existing market that is going nowhere, consider new market green fields.

• Are you shifting investments in your offerings and marketing campaigns to reflect the realities of economic down cycles? Consider shifting your offerings to reflect buyer realities. Assisting companies to outsource software as a service instead of implementing in-house creates a lower entry point, fewer staffing requirements, and less stress on capital budgets.
• Can you offer services that help customers achieve greater ROI on existing assets rather than buying new equipment?
• Can you help them make existing employees more productive?
• Can you reduce organizational disruption to reduce stress on remaining employees.

Can you make your offerings less financially stressful and easier to digest for your customers?

• Avoid peanut butter budget cuts. Rather than cutting expenses by 10% across the board, use this as an opportunity to “prune the tree” by eliminating less desirable programs in order to focus growth and energy on a few key areas. Use this as an opportunity to rethink what you are doing.
• Your competitors are also cutting back…and are distracted. Markets that seem impossible to penetrate during strong economies present opportunities as competitors curtail efforts. This may evoke a strong entry opportunity that can take hold when markets turn upward. The key is to be poised to take advantage of it. If you can execute a focused strategy quickly while your competitors are consumed by organizational changes and loss of employees to execute, you will achieve the upper hand.
• Start Executing. Although we often want to lick our wounds with corporate change, getting your organization adapted to changes and in motion again is paramount.

As one of my tennis coaches once told me, “If you are losing, change something in your game because you are not doing something right.” In this same spirit, if your firm is struggling, use the downturn as an opportunity to  capture a new market opportunity and re-focus and poise your business for the upturn.