How to Shield Your Business Against Recession

Adriana is an expert marketer and copywriter with 15+ years in the field, most of which were spent marketing tech companies. She is the Owner and Founder of Idunn. In October 2019, she also launched Copywritech, a digital marketing agency that provides copywriting, SEO content writing, and strategy services to companies in the tech industry. 7 minute read

As the word “recession” appears more often in every news cycle worldwide, a chill runs up every entrepreneur’s spine. Are we there yet?

It’s hard to tell.

Even the pundits and the experts can’t seem to agree. On the one hand, the media is flooded with unequivocal titles like “A recession is coming.” On the other hand, even within the same (extremely well-respected!) outlets, we have various takes on the matter. The Economist says that it’s too early to say the world is in recession but also declares that Europe is headed for a recession — no ifs here, just a matter of how bad it will be. 

Granted, Europe is not the entire world, but if the 2008 crisis taught us something, economic pains spread faster than strep throat in a kindergarten.

Of course, I may be mistaken here, and this bout of record-breaking inflation could be followed by a record-breaking bounce back all over the world. Possible? Sure! Probable? Not so much.

However, we can all hope for the best. In the meantime, I suggest we also prepare for the worst.

Whether the big crisis happens or not, shielding your business against recession is not wasted time. Quite the opposite.

When you set yourself up for success in a bad economic climate, your results will be 10 times better if the climate is “normal” or even booming. Ready? 

Let’s recession-proof!

4 Ways to Protect Your Business from Recession

The worst thing about an economic crisis is not the crisis itself. It’s the unpredictability.

Sure, we may look back and try to apply the hard lessons we were taught in 2008 (please be mindful of your credit cards, will you?), but we have no guarantee that things will happen the same way. 

For the sake of preparedness, assume they don’t. Assume this will be a completely new breed of monster, irritable and with completely erratic behavior.

So, how do you prepare for something you don’t know? How do you predict the unpredictable?

Well, you cover all your bases.

  1. Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

This is the first thing any investment specialist worth their salt would advise you. And it goes for your business, not just your stock portfolio. 

If you were planning to add a new revenue stream, now is the time to do it. I mean NOW.

Why am I so pushy?

Because you know what hasn’t fully hit the fan yet, you still have the time to consolidate a new line of business and attract new clients or cross-sell existing ones.

Consider adding new products in different price brackets to your offer. If you’re a SaaS, add new features or offer a lower, entry-level pricing tier to attract a new market segment.

Similarly, you can opt for entering new markets or selling your products on different platforms. Marketplaces are a good starting point. 

By the way, have you ever considered affiliate marketing? This will help you attract new buyers too.

  1. Invest in Marketing

I know, recession means money is tight. You have to cut expenses. And you can do that; just don’t start with marketing.

Hear me out: your buyers will cut expenses too. They will look for cheaper alternatives or cut products and services altogether. If you don’t want yours to fall in the latter category, keep investing in marketing.

When your (potential) buyers are looking for alternatives, you need to stay at the top of their minds. You need to be there, offering solutions, not retreating into a corner.

Remember: you are a leader. So lead! Lead not just your team but all your stakeholders as well. 

Again, NOW is the time to put your marketing house in order. Planning to invest in a new gimmick? Do it now. Consolidate your SEO? No time like the present!

  1. Streamline Your Processes

OK, this is a difficult one. You know — the part no one likes to even think about. But we must.

So here it goes: you may need to let go of some of your employees and partners. 

It’s an entrepreneur’s worst nightmare, but it’s been known to happen. Even if it doesn’t, The Great Resignation could push you to do more with less (employees). 

Thus, it’s high time you invested in solutions that help you streamline business processes and improve communication and productivity. This will look different from organization to organization, but I can give you some examples of solutions that I’ve been using to maximize productivity in my team and reduce overhead.

The first thing to do is to make sure you stay lean and agile. This means investing in solutions that can accomplish more than one function. You’ll also save money this way.

Speaking of productivity enhancement while staying lean, here’s my top suggestion:

  • SyncApps will help you integrate your mission-critical solutions (like Salesforce and NetSuite) into a single, unified dashboard that all your employees can access, even if they work remotely. SyncApps solves the crisis of disconnection by bringing you a much-needed bird’s-eye-view during a crisis, plus actionable insights — you know, everything you need to make decisions under pressure.
  • Sendible has been my go-to social media management solution for no less than seven years. It helps my team, and I manage our own accounts and clients’ accounts. I love how easy it is to generate reports and insights across platforms, so I won’t be switching to anything else soon. You can read my in-depth Sendible review here
  • Outranking is my solution for SEO content. Powered by AI, Outranking has cut the time we spend researching a topic in half. I run a content marketing agency, so this is BIG for me. If you need to streamline your content marketing efforts and do more with less, give it a try.
  1. Strengthen Your Customer Relationships

You’ve got a 60-70% probability of selling to an existing customer and a 5-20% probability of selling to a new customer. Deciding where to put your money is a no-brainer.

So before everyone declares this recession officially open, start investing in client retention and loyalty programs:

  • Start rewarding your loyal customers with exclusive discounts or shopping opportunities.
  • Offer incentives to customers who recommend your company to their friends.
  • Make personalized recommendations based on each customer’s history. By the way, the best personalization stems from insights gathered across platforms, like your email marketing platform and your CRM. SyncApps can generate personalized insights with zero effort. Give it a try; it’s completely free! 
  • Offer free samples, especially if you’re just launching your product. 

Final Thoughts

As promised, none of the solutions above will be wasted if the recession doesn’t end up happening. In fact, you’ll be better off with improved marketing, diversified cash streams, streamlined operations, and more loyal customers.

Still not convinced you should bother?

My final advice to you is a spin on Blaise Pascal’s wager: bet the crisis will come. If that doesn’t happen, you won’t have lost anything but won a streamlined, more efficient business. If it happens, you’ll be prepared for it.