Are you dealing with the downturn by looking for new business?

[carl12]

How are you responding to the economic downturn? Cutting costs, raising prices or looking for new business? Or a combination!?

Or are you sitting back and riding the storm?

We’ve noticed more people enquiring about new business direct marketing lists, is it just us or are you trying this strategy?

[henry]

Hello friends

At this point it’s more than clear that 2009 will be a challenging year for a great many businesses. Most organizations these days are now actively engaged in activities that are taking a look at what they can do to make the best of the current economic situation.
Some business leaders will be looking at paring things back to the basics while a different sort will be looking at entirely new avenues to survive and thrive. The decisions we make now can greatly affect what happens to our organizations going forward.
The good news is that most enterprises actually have a fair number of compelling options right now if they are willing to think outside the box. While some might look at the social aspects of things like Web 2.0 as marginal subjects when things get tough, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to the deeper implications of Web 2.0 in the enterprise. Many of the more transformational aspects of the 2.0 era now have extensive groundwork laid for them, are available in genuinely enterprise-ready solutions/pilots, and many have just been waiting for the right situation; the driving need for businesses to change and transform in the face of radically different business conditions.

Thanks to all friends

[james34]

How can you be prepared for the “New Normal”?  How can you keep it together when you have clients that are asking more questions and wanting to spend less?  When clients are more skeptical of the markets, their own economic stability, and perhaps their advisor?

When dealing with a new set of circumstances, it is important to take responsibility for your own behavior and perceptions, before you take care of staff, clients, and family.  On an airplane, in case of an emergency, you are encouraged to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.

In charting an action plan to deal with the “New Normal” consider:

Holding your focus:  How much time are you spending on the important aspects of your business?  Does the urgent crowd out taking time to do your own strategic thinking?  Are you working both on and in your business?

Growing your business:  Even in tough economic times, clients and prospects are looking for advisors they can believe in.  How are you doing in looking for new business in a way that is meaningful to your prospects?

Dealing with your clients:  Are there days when you wish for no client contact?  Are you weary of trying to explain what’s going on and how you are dealing with it?  Now is not the time to retreat…now more than ever, clients need to hear from you.

Keeping your sanity:  What are you doing to take care of yourself?  Are you spending time in leisure, time with family and friends?  In order to be the best you can, it is important that you have balance in your life.

[marlon]

Hello friends

Classic “The Wizard of Oz.” Ahhh…do we remember with fondness the world before the late 2008 meltdown?  Days when we felt comfortable with our client relationships, the projections we provided, the consistent upward march of portfolio values?
According to Ian Davis, worldwide managing director for McKinsey and Company, our current situation is not merely a downturn in the economic cycle, but a restructuring of the economic order.  He suggests that for some organizations, short-term survival is the only agenda.  Going forward there will be less financial leverage in the system and an expanded role for government.  He calls what we are facing the “New Normal.”

Thanks for all friends