3 essential Tips to help survive a Recession

There is probably a fair amount of advice floating around in cyber space dealing with the recession and how to survive it. Do you need more, you might ask yourself. Well, maybe you could do with this one. Because it’s for ordinary folk. The ones that are rarely spoken to or about.

Tip 1 - Don’t Panic
The very first tip, which I have to constantly remind myself about, is not to panic. It’s hard not to when the newspaper headlines scream disaster, when the TV news is full of shops closing and jobs being lost. Slowly it seeps into your conscious mind. When you find yourself thinking about it all the time, stop reading the media. Switch off when the news comes up.

You will not be able to think through your options, plan for contingencies or function properly if you are in a panic. Besides that it’s a horrible feeling and should be avoided at all costs. And it’s not actually going to help you achieve anything. It’s totally counter productive. Do whatever it takes to stop the panic, whether yoga, meditation, watching funny movies or playing sport. Fill you mind with good things rather than allow panic to take hold.

Tip 2 - Diversify
With other words spread your risk. If you think you might get retrenched, then plan alternative money sources. Of course you can just sit back and expect the worse. But wouldn’t it be better if you were prepared and had some money coming in, just in case. Not only that, but if you don’t lose your job, the extra bit coming in can help hugely with paying off credit card debt, putting a bit more into a bond, or saving towards a deposit for a house.

So how do you do this? It’s a matter of changing your thought process. Have a look at what you are good at. This could be as basic as fixing a lawnmower. Or even being able to mow a lawn. Do you enjoy planting seedlings or painting furniture. What about a basic idea as taking your kid to little league practice. Maybe you can offer a service of picking up kids, or supervising kids so other parents don’t have to go.

You love watching TV and are mad about wrestling? Then start a niche blog on wrestling, talking about your favourite fights, and selling advertising on the blog. You can’t write? Then post photos or search for video that you can put up. There’s loads of content out there, just always acknowledge where you got it from.

You are a stay at home mom with limited time? Have a look around you to see what other mom’s are battling with. What could you do to make their lives easier, and design a service or product around that.  This could be as a special birthday cake maker, making healthy but tasty cookies for school lunches, homework helping service or as a jersey knitter.

When I was a mom with small kids, I used to have great difficulty in finding entertainment for the birthday parties. I would have loved an online resource - no internet in those days - to provide me with info on local clowns, games, treats and any other service for these special events. Add a rating feature to that and you have a winner.  In a recession people will not spend on themselves but they will certainly still spend on their kids.

If you have a small business already making widgets diversify. Offer more than one service. See whether you can also offer a widget fixing service, or a widget recycling service. Paint a widget, rework it or introduce a widget training service.  If you are consulting, then see whether you can offer your service to different audiences in different formats.

With other words, think outside the box. When I first got married, I had just finished at University and was in my first job, teaching at high school. My husband was studying law and was completing his clerkship also called articles in some countries. As a clerk you earn slave wages.

During those first years we added to our regular jobs. My husband lectured in law at the local technical college, I gave recorder lessons to kids and we both continued with our student jobs over the week-end working at the onsite tote at our local horse racing venues. Diversify. Read this article for more ideas on this.

Tip 3 - Pricing
If you are already offering a service or selling a product and have a small business, you will come to realise one thing and that is in times of recession, it is all about the price. If you are looking at supplementing your income by diversifying, then make sure you can provide the widget or service at rock bottom pricing.

People will still need to buy goods and services. They will just be incredibly price conscious. You need to be as well. The mom and pop stores closed down allowing huge supermarket chains to take over. It was all about pricing. It wasn’t about the mom and pop stores not providing the right goods or a friendly service. It was necessity that drove people into supermarkets.

These could also be the right times to go back to old-fashioned trading.  See who you can trade with. You will be surprised how easy that is. You might need an accountant to do your tax returns. The accountant might need his garden replanted. Always ask.

Bonus tip- Don’t go it alone
In difficult times it is vitally important you don’t go it alone. Put a group of people together. Whether you find other moms with toddlers to band together or some work colleagues. Or talk to people you know from your sport club, the pub, the church or your community choir. Talk to people and create a support base.

It is always so much easier when you can cry on somebody’s shoulder or have somebody there to encourage you when the going gets tough. And of course it’s fabulous to celebrate with folk when things actually go well.

As a double bonus tip, sign up to my RSS feed or subscribe to my e-mailed articles. If you have questions about what you could be doing to diversify, leave a comment, drop me a mail on info AT marketingfundi.com. I’ll even write an article about it if it’s a question other readers might like to see an answer to.