Small Business Coaching: Let's Complain About the Recession Only If..

If only I had a dollar for each time I get asked "How's the recession affecting your business?" My answer? "It's not. I've got my own bailout plan."

I feel like I'm almost expected to complain at the sound of the "R" word when it comes up in conversation. But see, I refuse to complain. In fact, I say to business owners, let's complain about the recession only if these 4 things are true for you in your business:

1) You obsess about marketing your biz

And I mean obsess in a good way - an unwavering determination to do consistent marketing. Most of the folks I work with are solo entrepreneurs who sell a service. We do our own marketing. Unfortunately, our marketing tends to be inconsistent. And from my experience that was true long before the "R" thing hit. It may be more accurate to say the recession exposed the flaws or weaknesses in many of our businesses - one of which is inconsistent marketing.

And I don't mean spending more money on marketing necessarily. I mean we get creative and we become determined to discover more no-cost/low-cost marketing options. There are countless no-cost ways you can implement immediately.

As I always say "Marketing is the gas in your business engine." So my question is this... How much are you obsessing about having a multi-pronged approach to consistently marketing your business in this new economy. If you're not, you may not want to complain about recession just yet. You've got some untapped, income-generating marketing actions to take.

2) You have a consistent lead-capture strategy

Running out of leads/prospects? It may not be the economy's fault. Take a look at your web site for starters. Make sure the very first page of your web site invites the visitor to take action - to give you their contact information in exchange for a valuable freebie. This grows your list of prospects every single day and gives you people to follow-up with.

And consider your other forms of marketing and how you make connections. Do you have a way to consistently identify your ideal prospects? And when they show up, do you have an irresistible freebie they would definitely want? If not, then you may not want to complain about the recession just yet. There's an opportunity to plug up the holes in your prospect-attracting and prospect-capture process. The more you grow your list of prospects, the greater your opportunity for increased revenue.

3) You have a tenacious follow-up process

Of course, it's not enough to get leads/prospects. We have to follow up. Take a look at your office desk. Is there a stack of collected business cards, notes to call someone back, and other clues that you have a flawed follow-up process? Here's a true story... right now I'm practically begging another business owner to take my money. I'm the one doing the follow-up phone calls. I truly want what they're selling yet they're a little too busy to sell it to me. Hello?

If you're guilty of not following up with prospects and other contacts... or, if you haven't picked up the phone to connect with some strategic partners lately, then you may not want to complain about the recession just yet. There's a golden opportunity to create a consistent, reliable follow-up process that turns into cash for your business.

4) You commit to massive profit-focused action

As entrepreneurs, we typically are not short on ideas for growing our businesses. We tend to be very creative. But we are often short on action. We get bogged down in the minutia of our businesses.

Might there be a stash of incomplete brilliant ideas that you can turn into money for your business? Is there an opportunity to change how you work each day so that you're truly focused on profit-producing tasks vs. minutia? Then it may not be time to complain about the recession just yet. Wake up tomorrow with a bold and unstoppable determination to bring that idea to reality. Or, take a no-excuses approach to completing that major profit-generating project or task. It may just be the thing that brings in the clients and cash you need.