Business as Usual?

We’ve got some dark times coming on. The economy is looking pretty bleak and there are many people, all over our country who are worried. I’m one of them. Having said that, I’ve not really seen much of an impact thus far on my business. I am thinking about it, and planning for it, but all-in-all I think Blue Flavor is pretty well set up for a slowing economy, and we’re pretty much running our business as usual. It might be tough, but hard work, a solid base, some diversification and elbow grease will see us through.

Built on solid fundamentals

If you watched the recent debate between Barak Obama and John McCain you heard a whole lot about fundamentals. Clearly, when talking money, the basics are important. In our case we’re in good shape because we don’t owe anyone any money. We bootstrapped our business and own everything ourselves. We do have a little credit, and more would help, but at this point we’re used to running sans-credit, so we know how to work in that way. As well, we are a business that relies on a steady cash flow and who is used to dealing with our clients sketchy payment schedules. Of course, this could get worse with the downturn, but we’ve already seen it pretty bad at times and know how to prepare.

So we’re already somewhat geared for the worst.

Running a tight ship

In the coming months we plan to cut back some of our spending, but at the same time not going overboard. We need to spend money to make money. Our largest expense, and rightly so, is in our people. We’re not changing a thing there. We will still offer benefits, 401k, etc. We’ll just be cutting back on the extras. Things like marketing and office supplies, until we can better gauge where we stand and where we’re going.

The Bottom Line

Running a business is always hard and while you do have to make some changes in a tough economy, it’s not all doom and gloom. Hard work, preparation and solid base can see you through the tough times and I’m confident that my little business will weather the storm.