We are seeing economic crisis around the world, and for sure here in the UK in 2023 the cost of living has gone through the roof.
When we see this happening, it can cause small business owners to panic. To believe their business will fail, to think that no-one will be able to afford their products or services.
It can leave female entrepreneurs who are small business owners wondering if they’ll be able to pay their own bills, be forced to go and look for a job, and walk away from the business they love.
Economic downturns are not a reason to panic. Nor a reason to walk away from your business.
They are a time to increase your efforts to build and scale your small business instead.
No matter who you are or what you do as a business. No matter who it is you serve.
Know this.
Even in the worst economy, people will ALWAYS find a way to buy the things they want.
There will be millions of people worldwide who are not impacted by a bad economy to the point that it stops them spending money on what they want.
I can bet every dollar I have that you’ll still find Apple shops full of people paying over the odds for the tech they love. That’s just one example, there are thousands and thousands of others out there.
Whether the economy is good or bad, you always have opportunity to grow and scale the business you love.
Whilst other people are panicking and running away from growth and greater revenue, you have to stay sane in that madness.
You have to keep your head down working hard to figure out how to connect with your audience in a way that makes them want to buy.
You have to figure out more ways to market your business so that your products and services land in front of more people (tip: the key is to look further afield than just social media, and indeed the internet itself).
You have to find ways to increase sales to your business through a wider range of products or services you can offer to your customers/clients, and create bundles of products or services you sell that give greater value so that people get really excited about buying.
You have to be visible – consistently.
You have to do more, be more, give more than your competitors.
You have to make your audience not only feel but know in their bones that they are important to you.
You have to stop showing up without strategy and get very clear about the journeys you take your customers/clients on with you that leads them from one product/service they’ve bought, to another, then another, and you have to make sure those products/services are appealing enough that they can’t wait to buy.
You have to stay strong in charging enough to make profit in your business, rather than being sucked in to competing on price that will destroy your business if you go that route.
You have to have more than just a social presence and website. You need a mailing list, sales funnels, upsells, downsells, continuity products and services, marketing strategy, and more.
You need to know your customer inside and out so that you can speak to them at their level, from the place they are at, so that they feel you are reading their mind.
You have to IGNORE that the news and media are reporting about how broke everyone is, and how expensive everything has become, and keep your attention on making your business so bloody amazing for your customers/clients, that they not only want to stick around, but they feel you are the place to buy from no matter what the economy is.
You have to make sure that your business visibility includes you giving call to actions in everything you do. On social media, on blogs, podcasts, videos, sales pages, product descriptions, emails and more – nothing, NOTHING you do should be out there on the www or in the wider world, without you clearly telling your followers, subscribers, customers, clients what you want them to do next.
There’s absolutely no reason whatsoever to stop your business or feel fear in your business, or panic in your business when an economic downturn happens.
On the contrary, you have to level up your game to think about more ways you can show up and serve, more ways you can be visible, more ways you can get customers and clients to come to you.
The small business owners who take action on this will be the female entrepreneurs who thrive during economic downturns. The businesses who fail to take consistent action to grow, who instead shrink and go inwards during this time, are the businesses unlikely to survive.
People need you. People need your products and services,
That will always be the case, no matter the economy.
If you knuckle down and do the work you need to do to get to your ideal customer or client, there’s simply no reason at all that your business can’t thrive and grow – even in a bad economy.