Rosalind Resnick over at The Wall Street Journal has these year-end survival strategies to get you through January 2011.
1. Retool your business plan. The economy has changed, and your company has to change with it. Take whatever isn’t working and scrap it. If you haven’t looked at your business plan since you first wrote it several years ago, now may be the perfect time to dust it off.
2. Hang onto your cash. Don’t pay bills today that you can pay in January. Sit down with your accountant or bookkeeper to prioritize your payables. While accountants typically advise small-business owners to pay their bills at the end of the year in order to maximize deductions, this year it may be wiser to conserve your cash in case sales don’t rebound next year.
3. Line up work for 2011. Just because your clients’ 2010 budgets may already be tapped out doesn’t mean that you have to wait until 2011 to start pitching new business. Especially for business-to-business companies that sell products and services to corporate customers, the time to start pitching is now.
4. Launch low-cost/high-impact marketing initiatives. Join a networking group, put up a Twitter page, update your website or raffle off a free lunch to anyone who puts his or her business card in your fishbowl. It’s all about putting yourself out there.
5. Leverage your frequent-flier miles and reward points. You’ve earned them. Now, it’s time to cash them in to cover year-end travel and entertainment expenses, holiday gifts and more.
Photo by rizeli53.