The Economy is Coming Back, Are You Ready?
Something is different, in the last few weeks the phones are ringing more. My clients and friends seem to be in better moods and its not just the weather! The small business community is starting to feel the economic uptick. It is not just spring fever, there are real indicators that things are picking up, such as the improvments in GDP, housing starts, and the Dow Jones
Just a few statistics comparing Q1 2009 to Q1 2010. While not overwhelmingly positive, there is a clear indication the economy is moving in the right direction.
| Q1 2009 | Q1 2010 | |
| Dow Jones | 7,200 | 11,232 |
| Annual Housing Starts | 358,000 | 515,000 |
| GDP | -6.7 | 2.4 |
If you have been holiding back, waiting for things to get better, the time is now! Start investing now in your business. If you wait, the economy will pass you by!
Economic Lessons from the Donkey
In October, I wrote a post about the economy. I told the story of an old donkey which fell into a well. I hoped the tale would be a wake up call for small business owners who seemed to have fallen into a well waiting for the economy to turn around.
I was surprised by the responses to the post. Even six months later, the post has several readers every day. The message was clearly more compelling then I expected, so I decided to record it.
Today’s video created by the talented team at Another Cool Design, tells that tale!. What do you think?
And just to be clear, no animals were injured in the production of this video.
Roundpeg Video Blog #2 from Another Cool Design on Vimeo.
Economic Road Kill Video
I am really excited about the launch of my new Video Blog. This first one in the series looks at my thoughts on how entrepreneurs need to approach the external economy.
Roundpeg-Economic Roadkill from Lorraine Ball on Vimeo.
The video was shot and edited by Another Cool Design. John, Nathan and Victoria were so much fun to work with, and I think they did a great job of capturing my style and attitude with the graphics and supplemental images.
What do you think?
Episode # 27 Strategies for a Recovering Economy
After one of the longest recessions in the last 50 years, many of us have forgotten how to operate our businesses in an expansionary economy. But the recession is over, and it is time for a change in strategy! In today’s podcast I talk about the single most important strategy for small business owners in the recovery … consumer spending!
If you enjoy today’s podcast, mark your calendar, and join me at the Rainmaker Main Event on Tuesday, March 30th, from 5:30 – 7:30, as I explore this topic, in more detail. Till then, I hope you enjoy today’s episode of More than a Few Words!
Episode # 10 – Marketing in a Down Economy
About a year ago, Ingrid Cummings invited me to be a guest on her radio program Rubicon Salon. In the course of the hour, we talked about marketing, social media and staying ahead of your competition in an economic downturn.
While the entire program is too long for More Than a Few Words, I thought it would be fun to share a few excerpts over the next few weeks.
In this first segment, we talk some of the strategies small business owners can employ when the economy slows down.
From the interview: “When everyone is pulling back it is a wonderful time to invest. It is easier to look bigger then you are”
And now, as the economy is starting to pick up, those same strategies will work. Don’t wait for a full blown recovery, it will be too late. Start investing now!
Click here to listen to the interview
Shop Local!
As the internet makes the world seem smaller and smaller, it is easy to forget that you are part of a local business ecosystem. As you make purchase decisions you choices impact the local economy. If, like me you are concentrating in a specific community, hoping to generate revenue from the community, then you need to put money into that community.
As consumers, we have power. Use it to actively support the businesses you care about and force change in the ones we don’t. Seth Godin summed it up well when he said:
If you don’t like what an organization stands for, work actively to spread the word and force them to change
AND
If you will miss a product, a service, a book, a site or a professional when they close up shop, stand up, speak up and bring them masses of new business.
This was the theme of my presentation at Rainmakers last month. ( I just got the video links) . The video is in two parts and it contains a serious call to support local businesses.
With this local focus in mind, I thought I would share just a few of my favorite local restaurants. These are places I would miss if they were gone. . I hope you will consider voting with your dollars this holiday season, paying them a visit, and helping to build a strong local economy.
No links to websites sorry, but more importantly I have listed address so you can check them out yourself.
Ocean World on 86th Street and Ditch. Some of the best and most reasonably priced sushi in town. The food is so good it is easy to overlook the mediocre service. It is usually busy, but not overcrowded at lunch time, 1/2 prices specials on Sunday, and always a long wait on Friday night.
LaPeidad 6524 Cornell Ave – Great, authentic TexMex. Fast friendly service, good food, reasonable price. Nice outdoor dining when the weather permits. When I need a TexMex Fix this is my favorite.
Kona Jack – Meridian and 96th Street – Not to be confused with the Kona Grill chain in Clay Terrace. This Indy tradition has a wonderful, diverse fish menu, and even sells fresh fish for you to take home and prepare yourself. Sharing a kitchen with Daddy Jacks, you can often convince your waitress to serve something off the menu from the other side.
Santorini Greek Kitchen – 1417 Prospect Street, in Fountain Square – Well worth the trip to Fountain Square for the huge portions, home-style Greek food, and great service. It is also the only place in the city that makes Eggplant parmesan the way I like it – I think you will too.
These are just a few of my favorites. What are yours? List them here, and more importantly, pay them a visit this month!
Local Economic Ecosystem
At the October Rainmakers meeting, I had a chance to talk about my passion for LOCAL business and the impact we make every day with our purchase decisions.
This is just a short excerpt from the program, the rest of the presentation will be available on the Raincast soon.
The Local Economy – by Lorraine Ball from Dave Anderson on Vimeo.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Buy Starbucks
The other night, I think I surprised a number of people with my presentation at the Rainmakers Main Event. Folks in the audience who are familiar with my typically motivational, marketing and personal development messages, were introduced to my other passion : local business!
In a brief 15 minutes I advanced the argument that as business owners, we need to go out of my way to support other local business owners. If we don’t support and promote these companies, they may not be there when we need them.
Asking the audience to think about the companies they would miss if the businesses closed their doors tomorrow, I was surprised by the range of responses. From local coffee shops and resutants, to a neighborhood dry cleaner and a web hosting company it was clear we as a group depend on these local companies and need to do more to insure their success.
And it just isn’t enough to talk about it. We need to put our money where our mouth is, and shop local. If we are annoyed when the ICVA hires an Ohio based marketing firm, then we have to stop drinking at Starbucks and support our local coffee shops. Erik Deckers explains the cost of this choice in a follow up post he wrote Wednesday morning:
In fact, out of every dollar you spend at a local business, 40 cents of it stays in the community. When you spend a dollar at the big chain stores, 13 cents stays in the local economy.
Every time I have Starbucks, a the majority of my expenditure leaves the Indy economy and heads to Seattle. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the people of Seattle, but they aren’t sending me any money! So until I get a client from Seattle or those people simply start sending me money, I won’t be sending them any more! Look for me at LuLu’s and Hubbard and Craven instead.
Remember, Friends Don’t Let Friends Buy Starbucks!
Local Business is Key!
As an advocate of the Indianapolis Small Business Community, I am often frustrated when I see our city and state government spending money to support the large business community and ignoring this vital segment.
Most recently I read about Indianapolis investing in training companies how to do business with firms in Taiwan and increasing economic development activity focused on bringing more, bigger companies to Indy.
While important, I am frustrated by the mathematics. There are 65,000 small businesses in the Indianapolis metro area, with sales under $1 million. That is 65,000 chances for success!
This article by Jeff Stibel, from the Harvard Business Review suggests I might be right after all, and gives some very specific suggestions for outsourced execs considering a switch to small business ownership. He says:
- Action. This is an entrepreneur’s best weapon
- Planning is important. Plans aren’t.
- Innovative financing
- Give the people what they want
Rest, measure, refine, repeat
Pull Your Head Out of The Sand … Unless You Want to Be Buried There!
The ostrich is a strange creature. When frightened it will bury it’s head in the sand, convinced if it can’t see the danger, whatever is creating the threat can’t see it either. Over the last few months I have noticed a number of small business owners behaving like an ostrich. Instead of facing the challenging economy head on, the are hanging around with their heads buried in the sand, hoping they can ride it out!
But it doesn’t work. Hiding with your head in the sand is a good way to get run over, or simply miss an opportunity that comes along. Now more then ever, small businesses need to be making and executing growth plans, investing in their business and reaching out to existing customers and prospects.
Seth Godin touched 0n this topic in a post entitled Death Spiral as he cautioned small business owners against trying to shrink their way to greatness. He provides several examples of how companies sabotage their own survival by trying to cut back when things slow down:
The fish monger sees a decline in business, so they have less money to spend on upkeep and inventory, so they keep the fish a bit longer and don’t clean up as often, so of course, business declines and then they have even less money… Eventually, you have an empty, smelly fish store that’s out of business.
The doctor has fewer patients so he doesn’t invest as much in training or staff and so some other patients choose to leave which means that there are even fewer patients…
The newspaper has fewer advertisers, so they can’t invest as much in running stories, so people stop reading it, which means advertisers have less reason to advertise which leaves less money for stories…
What should you be doing? Invest now! Invest wisely, but spend some of your available cash on marketing, new product development, system development which will allow you to provide better or expanded services to your clients. As Seth says:
Right this minute, you still have some cash, some customers, some momentum… Instead of squandering it in a long, slow, death spiral, do something else.
