Select Page

This period of high inflation could lead to a recession. As the Federal Reserve increases the cost of borrowing by raising interest rates, people will slow their spending. A decline in consumer confidence and decreased sales is a real threat to your business. If you don’t take it seriously, you could have a hard time staying above water.  

And the last thing you want to have to do is work for someone other than yourself in a tough labor market, right? 

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to recession-proof your business. Here are a few tips that have something exciting in common. Each of these tips are easier to do if you take advantage of one powerful tool that you might not have considered. But we’ll get to that in just a moment! 

Rethink Your IT Provider 

If you have recurring technology problems resulting in downtime, it’s time to think about a change. Before things get worse. 

Why is that? 
 
First, you can’t afford to lose time and disrupt your cash flow in an economic downturn. Second, a tough economy might see an increase in cyber-criminals, scammers, and identity thieves. 

Questions to consider: Do you pay for IT support as needed? Or do you pay a flat monthly rate? Does your company offer a strong guarantee that you won’t suffer from computer viruses, ransomware, and other cyber threats? Are you sure that their backup solution is efficient enough to get you running again in the event of data loss? Do you have 24/7 monitoring and support? 

These are questions that DatCom can help you answer, but we can also do something that most IT guys can’t. Remember how we said that there’s one powerful tool that ties all our suggestions together? 

Invest in Business Automation 

DatCom has a service called Data Processing Automation (DPA) that can save you incredible amounts of time. Hours that you could be using to strengthen your company. It’s custom software that we build for our clients to reduce workload and increase productivity. 

Those repetitive tasks that your workers do to drive business can be automated, meaning that you use your people in other ways. You could very easily reassign some of your workers to other tasks that you might not be able to focus on during a recession. Such as… 

Focus on Marketing 

In lean times, it’s tempting to stop marketing (or refuse to start) because it can be time-consuming and expensive. But if you were able to redeploy just one person to focus on it, you could hang on to customers or earn new ones that might have been out of your reach without focused marketing. Automation gives you more time to focus on the creative aspects of marketing, but it can also speed up some of the menial tasks, like gathering data for research. 

Hold on Tight to Your Customers 

Your competitors might try to undercut you to steal your customers. It’s always easier to sell to repeat customers, so don’t give them any reason to choose your competitor. Focus on the top 20% of your customers, first. Give them a special offer, survey them, and thank them. Their feedback will help you retain them.  Not only that, but loyal customers can give you access to new leads. Again, all of this is easier if business automation is saving you time. 

Keep in Touch with Your Business Network 

Nurturing your business relationships during hard times can be a life saver. This could mean staying in touch with suppliers in order to find a good deal on hard-to-find inventory. It could mean trading services or crucial information.  

Unfortunately, it’s hard to stay in touch with others when you’ve got your head buried in your own business concerns. If you keep your head down, you’ll miss opportunities.  

At DatCom, we have a passion for helping businesses rise from the mundane.  If you’re concerned about the future of your business, you can get a whole new perspective by giving us a call.