Six Sure Fire Ways to Recession-Proof Your Small Business Now and in the Future

"Recessions happen," as the saying goes.

Recessions are an economic certainty. What isn't certain is whether your business will make it through a recession.

Will it do just fine with a slight re-focusing and tightening of the proverbial belt, or will it dissolve into ruin, as we're seeing happen to many US businesses today?

Whatever you do, don't bury your head in the sand hoping a recession won't happen again, during the lifetime of your business. And don't fall into the trap of believing that the U.S. government will come in and bail you out.

Instead, take action now to recession-proof your small business this year and in the future. How? By taking these six, easy to implement steps to ensure that the productivity and growth of your business continues no matter what the economy does.

Six Sure-fire Ways to Recession-Proof Your Small Business

1. Be known as the business who delivers great products and services. Now, more than ever, this oft repeated maxim is true. Your products and services are a reflection of you, are the frontline calling card for your business, and are the number one way to make your customers trip all over themselves referring others to you.

2. Stand out by offering an astonishing guarantee to your customers, one so amazing that others in your industry would balk at offering it. Delivering on your astonishing guarantee distinguishes you among your competitors and gets your business noticed.

3. Add value, not price. Continuously adding value to your products and services makes you look rich, attractive, and enticing to your customers and prospects. Adding price without value will make you look cheap.

4. Connect to give; don't connect to get. Cultivate mutually beneficial win-win relationships with your customers with emphasis on the "give" part. Ask not what your customer can do for you, but what you can do for your customer. Then deliver.

5. Command time and space this year and create what you see for yourself, not what someone else sees for you. Meet your own sales goals, provide your own growth incentives, and keep abreast of the markets so you can remain on the cutting edge, rather than waiting for someone else to do these things for you.

6. Forget about last year. Whether you did well or not, forget about it. Create a new voice. In the words of T. S. Eliot, "Last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice."

What makes these steps so special? These six steps focus exclusively on strengthening your business from the inside, at its core. They aren't dependent upon outside sources or resources to function or sustain them. They focus on actions you can easily and effectively take now. No long-term planning is required to implement them. They are things that everyone — from solopreneur to company of 20 — can do right now.

Do yourself a favor. Don't be the small business owner who stands idly by with a wait-and-see mindset. Recession-proof your business to ensure increased productivity and growth this year and in the future. Take action on these six steps now to make this your best year ever. You'll be glad you did!