Business coach Richard Gigg from Shirlaws came to speak to MBG members in October to explain a few strategies for keeping up the momentum of your business despite the changeable economic climate. Shirlaws provide business coaching across the world and have 47 coaches in the UK, all their coaches have direct experience of running a business and often of starting a business.

Richard explained that the confidence of customers affects how they buy and that this confidence is affected by media reports of the economic situation. There is a delay of about six months between the state of the UK stock markets and the way the rest of business is affected.

This is a period of cautious optimism that has resulted in customers returning to buying but doing so in a piecemeal fashion. Developing packages so that customers can buy in manageable chunks is a response to this trend.

Richard showed MBG members a diagram of the ‘W’ shaped recession predicted by economists and provided a 5-point list of steps to take to survive and how to thrive when the upturn finally comes.

Commit to Timing
In this time of stock market optimism, the first small increase after the economic crash, plan and implement ways to sell more and find more customers.

Understand Risk
Find out what your risk profile is and that of your business.

Build Capability
Give your staff the skills that they will need when the upturn comes and make sure they stay until it does.

Innovate Packaging
Take your product and package it in a different way, be as creative as possible. Do this now to get the best returns when the economy begins to improve.

Bring in New Channels
Your best customers now may not still be with you when the recession ends so start looking for new ways to find customers by referrals, advocates and any other method. Writing down your ideas and presenting them to others in your business can help to bring about change and measure how far it has come. The simple changes can make a big difference.

Richard also runs a ‘Babylon’Club to help new young entrepruneurs from 25-35 years of age to develop their business
skills and develop business relationships.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 2:07 pm and is filed under MBG Meetings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.