The recession has hit everyone hard. Small businesses are having a tough go at meeting their overhead expenses. Independent contractors are seeing their revenue streams drying up. Long time employees are losing their jobs while college students are having a hard time finding entry level employment. The overall mood surrounding career opportunities is a bleak one. So, what is the proper way to approach this situation?
Ignore all the negative stuff.
No, that is not said in a flippant manner designed to "blow off" the seriousness of the situation. Rather, it is an effective serious approach that is needed in order to navigate the difficult financial challenges one may be facing in a recession. A recession is a financial situation that exists due to empirical economic facts. Emotions need to be curtailed to survive in a recession. A negative, self-defeated outlook will never set the stage for overcoming adversity. This is not to say being unrealistically optimistic is advised either. No, what is needed is a realistic, detached approach to dealing with the current economic situation you may be in.
Does this undermine the previously mentioned notion that you have to remain positive? No, you always need to maintain a positive outlook to navigate through a recession. When your attitude is negative or downbeat, however, success is never going to be likely. Positive attitudes help fuel the approach needed to be successful. Ultimately, such an outlook is one built in belief. If you believe in the process, you will find it much easier to navigate for success.
Belief, of course, needs to be rooted in feasibility. You cannot employ illogical strategies to reverse a negative trend. You could believe in such strategies and hope that they work, but if the process is not a viable one then it is never going to deliver the desired outcome.
Generally, the best way to "kick start" the reversal of negative trends would be to employ simple incremental steps towards achieving small - yet demonstrable - goals. For example, launching a business card marketing program over the course of a month could be the first step towards improving your fortune.
Business card marketing is just one example and it is used here for illustrative purposes.
Business card marketing is a nice way of saying you are going to give away business cards wherever you can whenever you can. Leaving stacks of them on counters of non-competing businesses, tacking up a business card on public bulletin boards, or any other circulation strategy you could deal with. Then, you need to sit back and see if your business experiences a decent uptick in business over the course of a 30 day period.
If the 30 day periods ends and you see a 4% increase in revenue, this would be hugely positive news! It means people are responding to your advertising plans. Clearly, boosting your (low cost) advertising strategy would be a smart move to help reverse a potentially negative scenario.
Granted, these tips certainly are not pie in the sky (delusional) strategies for reversing the impact of the recession. However, they illustrate the type of plan that is realistic and doable. Realistic and doable are not minor attributes. They are indicative of goals which can be achieved and built upon.
