Save Your Small Business: 10 Crucial Strategies to Survive Hard Times or Close and Move On
If ever there was a timely business book, “Save Your Small Business: 10 Crucial Strategies for Surviving Hard Times or Closing and Moving On” by Ralph Warner and Bethany K. Laurence, this is it. Touted as a roadmap for small business survival, Warner and Laurence provide simple, thoughtful steps that can make a big difference in running, saving, or, if necessary, closing your small business. Running a small business has always been difficult, but these days it can be brutally agonizing, if not downright terrifying. This guide can provide you with the information to make today’s bad economy, or tomorrow’s bad economy, opportunities so that in good times your business is poised to thrive.
The book begins by saying that it will be your small business partner and recommends that you create a business survival plan, prepare a current profit and loss statement and cash flow analysis, and establish an advisory board. It delves into the chapters that will give you the tools to help you decide if it makes sense for him to continue, hibernate, close, or sell his business, and offers some strategies he can implement to get his business back on track.
Chapter One: Can You Save Your Business? This chapter covers topics such as short-term and long-term planning, selling your business, putting your business into hibernation, and saving your business. It also discusses some special considerations for retailers, services, construction, restaurants, wholesalers, and importers and franchises.
Chapter Two: Don’t ignore the bad news. Why you can’t wait, cutting costs, changing direction, quitting and selling are covered. There are also strategies for determining how much to cut spending and moving slowly to reverse the cuts.
Chapter Three: Control Your Cash Flow. This area can be one of the most important, especially for small businesses. Topics include: keeping paying your bills on time, how to create more cash, and what not to do, such as using merchant cash advances, maxing out credit cards, and borrowing against your home.
Chapter Four: Minimize Responsibility for Your Debts. Are you personally liable for business debts? Joint Property Debt Liability. What can creditors do if you don’t pay? Prioritize debt payments, including payroll, taxes, utilities, and more.
Chapter Five: Focus on what’s really profitable. Face it, the goal of a business is to make a profit. This chapter looks at how to get a quick earnings plan on paper, make money in a service business, and make money in retail or manufacturing. It’s a short chapter, but if it gets you thinking about making a profit, it’s done its job.
Chapter six: Innovate with little money. This chapter addresses invention, copying, serendipity, and making innovation a continuous process. This chapter can inspire you to think about the next wonderful device that every home must have. Depending on your business, this may be what you need.
Chapter Seven: Identify Your Customers. Before you can create an effective marketing plan, you need to know who your potential customers are. This chapter is about how to aim for the center of the bullseye and how to complete the target. Topics include current customers, need, price, access, and experience.
Chapter Eight: Don’t waste money on ineffective marketing. If only we knew which of our marketing efforts are producing the best results. This chapter helps you determine things about your marketing, such as: Marketing the right products or services to the right people, not spending a lot of money on advertising, asking for long-term customer support, encouraging customers to refer your business, using paid listings effectively, marketing on your own website, and making a “try to stay in business” sale.
Chapter Nine: Handle Layoffs Fairly and Keep Your Best Employees. Firing people is often one of the most dreaded tasks of business owners. This chapter provides guidance in this area by discussing: Making a smart layoff plan, the logistics of a layoff, and keeping the great people you hire. Some very good advice for this unfortunate part of the business.
Chapter ten: Don’t work too hard. Than? If your business is flooding, you need to work harder, right? This chapter addresses the importance of a sensible schedule and how to work less and earn more. Priorities and delegation are the keys that the authors talk about.
Chapter Eleven: Work with your best competitors. The four areas covered in this chapter include: Treating Competitors with Respect, Doing Business with Competitors, Working for Competitors, and Working with Competitors.
Chapter Twelve: Closing Your Business. Most people never want this to happen, but the reality is that it does. This chapter offers some good strategies if you decide it’s time to close the deal and do something else. Topics include things like creating a closing team, analyzing contractual obligations, dealing with owners, collecting invoices and selling inventory, notifying and paying employees, liquidating assets, notifying creditors and customers, paying your debts, pay taxes and dissolve your business entity. . This is not a pretty topic, but unfortunately it is important if you find yourself needing to go in this direction. The book provides guidance in the process.
Chapter Thirteen: Debt Management: Bankruptcy and its Alternatives. Introductory chapter on these topics with some good advice, but you’ll need more resources if you choose to go down the path of bankruptcy, or better yet seek the advice of a qualified professional.
Appendix A provides guidance on how to prepare a profit and loss forecast and cash flow analysis. There are sure to be more comprehensive references on these, but these brief basics on them will get you started and at least help you determine where you are.
“Save Your Small Business” is a good guide for the struggling small business owner and also provides information for the small business owner who doesn’t want to fall on hard times. Educating yourself about business is crucial to small business success. This is one more Nolo title that will help small business owners survive, but also liquidate and close with less pain if that is the way to go.