Fighting The Recession: How 28 LinkedIn Professionals Take Charge

There’s a spirit of taking charge, re-invention, adaption, investment and optimism in the stories we’ve collected from LinkedIn members on how they’re beating tough economic times. We’ve been collating stories for four months and sharing them with up to a million LinkedIn members as part of our volunteer effort to inspire, educate and connect. We are seeing an exciting shift in attitude as companies of all sizes apply an even more determined effort to focus on the good to come while being realistic about today.

Would you like to share your story about succeeding in a tough economy?

If you have a story about how you're beating the recession by thinking out of the box or just simply improving what your company does we're interested in sharing it. We could circulate your story to over One Million LinkedIn professionals and syndicate it through our blog system. Please be patient about when we can publish as this service is offered on a volunteer basis.

 

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Practical Examples Of What Companies Are Doing To Take Control

Story 1 – Revaluating Opportunities In Existing Accounts

– “Life has been tough for the last few months. During the best times all needed is a good product and inventory followed. We run a newspaper bushiness which ran into trouble. What our key customers used to contribute was 70% and the rest small medium SME business was about 20%.The 20% was a ocean of customers where we doubled investment by them and turned around 80% of them. We realized that many small accounts where we did not give adequate time and energy were the real people with cash in Hand. Today they contribute to 50% business and its just growing. We needed to re adjust floor process and had a lot of feet on street took us to reach there. The 70% customers were shrinking as they were totally hit. In a media company which had so many verticals and business groups all have forgotten strategy- PPTS- Laptops: the mantra is " Show us the money"- even our analysis and research wing got into selling - operations Logistics - everyone is today a part sales bringing in their share of revenue.” Rajnish Nair Media Professional

 

Story 2 – Invest In Future Value – “In those times, we invest. Though the revenue might be lower, those investments will bring back a lot of value when the markets will pick back up.” Razvan Iliescu Owner, Bell Gateway

Story 3 – Discounts And Incentives – “On the rate front, we have created a program for our home and garden clients that gives them discounts for starting their spring advertising campaign by a certain time. We also throw in a free spot color coupon in one zone. This helped close our losses in that sector from 40 to 5% in one month.” Jenny DeRosa Bergeron Advertising Sales Consultant at ReminderNews

Story 4 – Focus On Growth and Expansion – “The first item I would like to point out, is we are growing and hiring, not aggressively, but we are hiring. In a recession what many companies fail to realize is a recession will eventually end. Therefore, caution should be used on removing employees, layoffs, etc. Talent is extremely difficult to obtain. Yes, this could be debated. However personal experience would likely prevail. When a company downsizes crucial talent the company opens the door to losing intellectual knowledge to the competition. Organizations should look at strategies to keep the crucial intellectual talent, even in the extreme. In today's market cutting salaries may be the way to help the organization keep talent. Executives could offer reduced salaries to key individuals and lower the salary as well. I did, so we could use funds to bring on additional talent to grow. I created a niche market and need people to run it. It appears we will be successful and see profit enhanced greatly.

Another successful strategy is to watch what you spend; no surprise. However, spending is necessary to grow. Money is cheap right now. It is challenging at this time to get financing or lines extended. No excuse, money is available, especially for the companies that were smart on how debt was created. We use very little debt, and only tap our credit lines when we have strategic acquisitions and or purchases to generate cash flow and significant profits. The word significant is what helps repay lines. Strategy is important in an environment like today. Never make a hap haphazardly decision because you can and are excited about it. Have the data available, go through the data often and significantly, run a worse case scenario for you contingency plan. I cannot stress enough how important this is. I could share many scenarios that killed deals and we came out great, and scenarios that were extremely effective and profitable. Today is the time to spend for expansion, growth, acquisitions, hiring, or improving your organization. Do this strategically and in 2 years your return should be tripled. Key word strategically.” Whitney Stevens CEO at IMMI Turbines

Story 5 – Stay The Course – “Continue to look forward, avoid TV and the horrible news channels!!! Don't let the negative get to you. We act as if nothing has happened, invest in advertising and marketing and move forward.” Alex Matthes, CCIM Real Estate Consultan at Re/Max Masters, CCIM

Story 6 – Create A New Company That Meets Current Needs – “We have been observing what has been going on on the market since the slump, listened to many entrepreneurs and inside voices of bigger companies and ... launched a totally new company :) We saw the opportunity in outsourcing freelancers (as in their work, not physically) to companies that are paying a lot for interactive agencies. We put a few PMs on top of that, stirred it up ... and it worked like charm. It shows that the possibilities are endless even in a bearish economy.” Kacper Sulisz Founder at YellowProjects.com

Story 7 – Be A Bold Entrepreneur – “We're acting as if the recession doesn't exist. I know it sounds flippant and ill-informed, but it’s amazing how much better your business gets when you ignore the 11 o'clock news, stop living in fear and get back to being the bold entrepreneur you always hoped to be. If you're waiting for somebody else "to turn the economy around", guess what...? Its up to you. Get busy. Assess your markets. Find new opportunities. Make new deals. Forge alliances.” Paul Griffin Executive Producer at The Vortex Project

Story 8 – Expand Service Offerings – “There are opportunities, as well as challenges, available during a recession. We've added SEO/SEM online visibility campaigns (incorporating LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Squidoo, etc) to our standard book publicity campaigns (and as an a la carte package) and we're offering them both as full campaigns, as well as day-long staff trainings to writers, publishers, and publicists. We've found that while the funds for marketing/publicity have often dried up, many publishing companies and book-industry companies have realized they need to devote some attention to Web 2.0 and are funding these campaigns; when they're not able to fund a whole campaign, they can justify a relatively inexpensive day of staff training, which lets their staff take the initiative in-house.” Fern Reiss CEO, Expertizing.com

Story 9 – Extend New Ideas to Meet Client’s Budget – “I have added workbooks to my client offerings. Some companies do not want to pay for personalized consulting. A workbook brings them through the major points. They can then hire me for the tough stuff. A workbook also allows me to get clients working with me on a lower investment allowing me to build a relationship based on value provided.” Scott Simmonds  The Insurance Assurance℠ Consultant 

Story 10 – Offer Shorter Book Runs For Authors – “We have worked with our printing partner to develop ways to produce books on a very short run, say 500 units, yet maintain unit cost at the 3,000 unit levels. It has helped us reduce our investment in inventory and free up funds for marketing. We are also exploring online Web 2.0 methods.”  Craig Urmston Publisher, Kaeden Books

Story 11 – Get A Foot In the Door – “Offering CPA deals i.e. putting our money where our mouth is. We are confident that we can put together campaigns that generate response, this seems to help us win new work, which leads to bigger projects once we have proved ourselves.” Anthony Monger Campaign Manager at Cowan Group

Story 12 – Take Care of Current Staff – “The company I worked for did nothing at all to overcome the recession, except cutting salaries. So, I left it to build my own business. Now I practice the policy which can be resumed in short slogan: BETTER QUALITY/SERVICE FOR SAME MONEY!  This model has many advantages in local and global economic level:
* keep the salaries at before-crisis-level in short term (=keep buying power of workers);
* keep clients (at least most of them).
This model works quite well in service sector. Globally it allows preserving the personnel and its ability to buy which is important to overcome the crisis because it allows industries to continue with their production (=keep the personnel and the salaries).” Kiryl Shafarenka Marketing, Public Relations and Communications Expert

Story 13 – Strengthen Resources For Growth - What we are doing to beat the recession:

1. Focusing on Core Strengths rather than spend time on too many things
2. Focusing more on Prototyping Products than developing new products. Great time to transform great ideas into reality.
3. Grabbing best People in the Industry as plenty of resources available in the market.

krishna koney Senior Software Consultant at Intel

Story 14 – Tighten The Belt And Look Forward - These are some things we are working with:
1. Getting ideas from the employees. They are the best source of information on how to keep the business rolling at low costs. Setup a team from the top management who can assess these ideas and help implement the ones that would make an impact, be it of any magnitude.
2. Keeping operational costs to the minimum helps as they become overhead to the company during the tough times.
3. You may want to keep the employees happy by keeping the salary cuts to a minimum. Happy employees are productive employees.
4. No business is a bad business now. If you see even a small margin of profit in the business, please go for it. Moreover, retention of clients is very crucial. You may not get more brands but the present clients have to be retained for more, but low profit business.

Suman Sukur Automation Test Engineer at Genpact

Story 15 – Build Sales And Market Share – “I’m consulting for two companies; both have unique strategic plans to succeed during this recession.

One is a startup taking advantage of lower overhead and offering a total solutions suite of business support services that is more economical and convenient for their customers. They’re focused on sales, which they generate by offering more for less.

The second is an establish leader in healthcare products. They’re focusing resources towards increasing the corporate brand value, creating budget-conscious products, and increasing efficiency while promoting innovation. They’re leveraging existing assets to grow intangible value, which will increase future profits, market share and discourage competition.”

Kellie Peterson Corporate Communicator

Story 16 – Putting The House In Order For Better Days - My company is currently is focusing on revamping strategies, learning a few process, putting up new process in place, correcting mistakes and yeah...to say a few of them, we are doing so in order to better more prospects when the market comes back, we are getting ready, So basically we are getting ourselves prepared and polishing now to hit the road when the sun shines! George Francis Advertising & Marketing Communications

Story 17 – Being There To Meet Changing Needs – “During a recession is when I am the busiest, because clients are even more careful on how their money is spent.” Todd Brewster Owner, Media Buying Decisions

Story 18 – Be More Visible And Accessible – “Having owned an IT company for 17 years that always found new clients from Word-Of-Mouth referrals, it was time to shake things up and grow bigger by marketing and advertising campaigns. We rebranded the company name to reflect our new focus on VOIP phone systems. We began a weekly radio talk show spot as part of a technology trio every Tuesday and after six months we are seeing positive results from the program. By being 'out there' in the public eye we hope to be visible so that as purse strings loosen up this summer and into the fall we will be known as 'that phone company that can help us'.

We are also publishing articles every week that go into a technology blog on LinkedIn plus we use Twitter to tell our followers when new entries are posted. And we never stop face-to-face networking through BNI and the Greater Houston Partnership, the upscale chamber of commerce in Houston. All of these efforts have started to increase our visibility and credibility within our community.” Louis Sokol Principal for Select Phone Solutions and BNI Assistant Director

Story 19 – Be New, Average Is Out – “Focus effort on those areas of the company that are the most productive.... people, products, customers in order to secure and protect your base of business. The balance of the time is spent on the "new" in order to evolve and develop new competitive advantages.... new initiatives, products, sources, ideas, etc... in an open and communicative environment. Despite the challenges, we must evolve in order to be a viable and valuable resource to our customers.

Being average will not allow you to grow and thrive. Too many changes in technology, markets, government involvement and growth, etc... to allow you be a spectator. We must constantly challenge our selves and not be reluctant to take some risk and lead change.” Michael Kolar Principal at Patriot Equities, LP

Story 20 – Push Forward – “Just go on like normal recession Yes, no stopping this and maybe it’s good for something. We just will go on making offers to our customers and create a good balance so we will be here after the recession.. And we don’t talk about the recession a lot with our people!! Just keep up the good vibe and make the best off it.” Cor Schot Marketing Manager at Fred Schot Zeilmakerij.

Story 21 – Use Online Media And Work Harder – “Social Media, Social Media and wait for it....Social Media!!! I also am just working harder, longer and smarter by connecting to new industries that we typically don't find work in. It has been a tough couple of months but the phone is starting to ring and my inbox is much fuller than it was four months ago!” Nicole Hudson Social Media Specialist

Story 22 – Offer What Customers Want – “Finding out what people need and then creating new income streams to meet those needs -- specifically developing profiles and pages for clients who are new to social media and social networking.” Rickey Gold Message Masseuse

Story 23 – It’s About Your Community – “Build relationships through community engagement.” Tami Belt Owner, Blue Cube Marketing Solutions

Story 24 – Create Offers From The Customer’s Perspective – “We are thinking like consumers, they are either feeling the pinch or with paradox of thrift, preparing for it. Our site displays approved cars for sale, a big purchase which some may put off. Those who decide to buy, want to have as much information as possible, with this in mind we offer details on running costs. How much it will cost to tax the car, to fill it with fuel for 'x' miles and the estimated costs on servicing, repair and maintenance. This helps consumers to make an informed choice, and in many cases saves them money.” Paul Coleman Marketing Director

Story 25 – Turnkey Solutions and Timing – “Social Media has definitely become important from a sales perspective. Also, it's been important to adjust our service offerings for more turn-key solutions. There's still money out there. It's just making sure you're in the right place at the right time.” SuzAnn Brown Chief Strategist, Launchpad Interactive

Story 26 – Dovetail Changes To Match Industry Changes – “Sooner or later the economy will recover and we are focusing on business to market alignment, the "new economy" will be much different especially in our area, the industrial sector. Need to have the right solutions and products to dove tail with market demands.” Jim Cendoma President at Sterling innovations Group and Owner, sterling innovations group

Story 27 – Stay In Touch And Expand Networking Efforts – “During the recession I've made more special offers to my opt-in lists. I've also followed up many potential book coaching clients with short emails asking a question or two about their book project to keep it soft and let them know I'm still here. Lately, I'm more active in Linkedin and I love this business community! I've joined more related groups to my own and been active daily is requests for joining my network.” Judy Cullins Helps Pros Brand Their Businesses with a Book

Story 28 – Be Adaptable And Create Your Own Opportunity – “Market! Market! Market and never, never, never give up! I relocated just prior to the “recession” because, I’d done the research and it was the best solution for me to be successful for finding employment in my field. We’ll I moved just prior to the bottom falling out of the economy and wasn’t able to find work as a web designer. I launched my own web development company and created a strategy to deal with the obstacles facing me. As a Startup web development company I was experiencing a multiplicity of growing pains which included: relocating, the economy and being a Startup.

I realized I had to turn these obstacles into stepping stones immediately. By talking about my business and services to others everywhere I went I identified with other professionals in areas of sales, marketing and web development and made a proposal on a commission base to get them on board.

To deal with the relocation obstacle we immediately zoned in on our target audience, identified their needs through online research, local events and B2B contacts. Once we identified the audience and their needs, we offered packages that would resolve their problems and were within their budget.

The final step was getting our name out there as a professional and reliable web development company, so we began to market, market, market, went above and beyond in the customer service efforts and products and have been rewarded with word of mouth referrals and a slow but steady stream of customers. We’ve got a long ways to go, but at least we’re in the running." Lukeither Willingham Web Developer/ Web Designer.


Ready to get started with social media? We are actively reviewing how hundreds of companies are working with social media and continuously applying what we learn. Presently we are able to reach over a million professionals without spending one dollar in cash through our social media networks. To obtain the support of this author for articles, speaking or launching a social media program contact Andrew Ballenthin, President of Sol Solutions – 416.317.7313 andrew@solsolutions.ca.

All rights reserved. © Sol Solutions 2009.

Comments

[cheryl]

I like all of these ideas. Very helpful.

[Vince Stevenson]

This is a really well written and considered article and certain areas are of particular interest to me. Very useful indeed. Rgds Vince

[Darshan]

I am Impressed with Efforts. Let me know if I can be of any help.

DARSHAN PATEL
dkcan.blogspot.com
AYS: AT YOUR SERVICE.

[Benny Hagag]

MAKO Surgical - Beating the recession
MAKO Surgical is a fast growing medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of orthopedic robotic technology and joint resurfacing implants that are designed for robotic implantation durign orthopedic joint replacement procedures.
MAKO is unique in its ability to deliver consistent reproducible precision through small incisions that allow the surgeon to perform the surgery in a precise and repeatable manner through minimal incisions benefiting the patient with quick recovery after surgery and return to normal function in days instead of months. In the current economics and market condition, patients are holding off on elective surgeries due to the risk of loosing their job due to absence. MAKO is allowing these patients to still go through with the surgery, and get back to work within days without compromising their employment.
The best support to this value was reported this week by a senior analyst at Piperjaffray investment brokers following a major orthopedic industry conference:
"MAKO continues to gain traction: Fueled by sessions on partial knee
replacement and minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and the company's unique
robotic arm technology, MAKO continues to generate interest and traction among
surgeons. We also see the company as a beneficiary of the recent upsurge in MIS
procedures among patients, whose preference for a faster return-to-work has
increased due to fear of unemployment."

[Edwards Tunde]

A very apt and timely article. We are just looking for exactly a resource like this. We are building a kind of community to combat recession and poverty in a way.

http://www.myownbiznow.wordpress.com