Surviving A Recession

Skin care therapist - Elle Dewyngaert said her business is doing "really well" despite the lousy economy.

Dewyngaert, the owner of Tips 2 Toes in Sebring, wants her business to grow. She attended a seminar on helping small businesses survive a recession Tuesday at South Florida Community College and came away with some good tips.

Presented by The Small Business Development Center at USF, the seminar was sponsored by Rep. Denise Grimsley, R- Lake Placid, in partnership with Heartland Workforce, Florida's Heartland Rural Economic Development Initiative and the college. Approximately 25 people attended

"It was positive and wasn't gloom and doom," said Dewyngaert, who started her business in February of last year. "This is good and is going to help me."

"I thought the content was good," said Forrest Steele, owner of Authentic Supply Co. in Lake Placid.

Steele added that it was information business owners probably know but "sometimes you need to be reminded about."

The seminar was led by Bill McKown, a certified business analyst with the USF Small Business Development Center at SFCC.

McKown said small business owners are looking for any kind of help "to sort of navigate the waters in these troubled times."

In developing the strategies, McKown said he contacted some of his colleagues in the USF area and asked them what are some of the things that they see occurring most often with their small businesses and what type of advice were they giving out.

Trimming the income statement is a place to start. McKown suggested trimming operational expenses, control lost inventory, renegotiate with suppliers and be conscious of where every dollar is going.

Know why your customers are buying from you and why do they buy from the competition. Things to consider include having a unique selling proposition, do something to add value to a product or service and create a competitive advantage by doing something nobody else is doing.

It is important to profile customers and determine the target market - the people who are most likely to buy from you. McKown mentioned the 80-20 rule that says 80 percent of your sales will come 20 percent of your clients.

Know the Moments of Truth is another tip. McKown talked about measuring customer satisfaction and having a service recovery procedure in place.

Why do customers leave? The vast majority (67 percent) feel unappreciated by an uncaring company, he said. A total of 15 percent is due to product dissatisfaction.

Other strategies are to squeeze the balance sheet and monitor it on a regular basis; do a strengths/weaknesses analysis; and consider guerilla marketing.

The final step is execute the other strategies every day, McKown said.

"We have had worse times than this," McKown said. "Don't give up and pack it in; you have more control than you think."