Tips for SMBs to maintain business relationships in tough times

It is rightly said " If you want to witness true character of a Man wait till he faces tough times or is in dire straits". That is exactly how it applies to business world fortunately. A few may doubt on how is it so easy but with a  little experience and white hair all the logic comes in naturally. Herein I present a few suggestions on how SMBs can sustain business even in these turbulent times

1. Concentrate on your core technologies and outsource work which is not your expertise, just remember the sole purpose of outsourcing is cost saving and saving of resources which are a prime necessity for business to grow or sustain. Even HR outsourcing and hiring virtual assistants is trend these days, leverage the benefits essentially in the times when everyone else is fearful.
2. Renegotiate your contracts with service providers, take proper legal advice and talk it out with your service provider. They may understand and respect your decisions if you have had a long lasting relationship with them. Make suitable adjustments to your contracts and keep revising them regularly depending on your company and market situations.
3. Look for service providers who act more so as a partner rather than just a simple contract based relationship. This not only improves communication but also working environment where both the parties deal in. Service provider promotes your business further providing valuable links and vice versa.
4. Take the help of a professional consultant; just remember hiring a professional consultant would be still far cheaper than having it analyzed in-house. So do not worry much before taking a consultant’s advice as low margins are far better than huge losses.
5. Trust and communication: The last but not the least, you cannot do much better than being calm and composed when all that could be done has been taken care off. Be patient with your service providers and keep communicating, this keeps the relationship going and sense of insecurity within the service provider camp reduces and hence full commitment assured from them in terms of work quality.

These small suggestions may not have covered everything but they are guidelines any SMB can refer to. Any suggestions and points which I might have missed out are welcome as this is open discussion to benefit all the SMBs/SMEs.

for further good reads on SMBs  and their IT related issues refer

Dr Subbu Murthy's Blog