Make a Small Business Survival Plan

We've been in a recession for a long time, a report released yesterday showed. And we may not get out of it soon. Like everyone else, I am thinking about how to find sales and reduce expenses without crippling my business.

Every year I write a business plan that includes the following:

• Mission: What is my business trying to accomplish.
• Target market: The industries, revenue size of the companies and geography I will cover.
• Competition: I try to make an honest assessment of who I am truly competing against.
• Marketing strategy: I review what marketing tactics I have used and which ones have been successful. I match that up against what I have learned about my competitors.
• Sales process: I am not a professional sales person, although I have been selling concepts, products and services most of my life, so I map out the process I use to sell to see if there is a way to improve it.
• Retention: Whatever clients I have, I think about how I continue to make them feel the money they pay me is money well worth spending.

The last part of my plan is reviewing my financials and where I can cut expenses. What I do is literally list every expense by category in an Excel spread sheet. After reviewing the expenses, I highlight, in yellow, the expenses I am thinking of trimming. I break down my expenses into two groups:

Must have

• Auto insurance: If you are driving a car, you have to have insurance. The best way to reduce your auto costs is to use public transportation. I own an "Anywhere" Septa pass and I love it. I can travel on regional trains, subways, trolleys and buses.
• Internet access: No one can do business without Internet access. Here is a good site that provides comparisons between various services.
• Health insurance: There isn't much you can do here because health insurance is sold regionally.
• Memberships: The first thing many people do is eliminate their memberships to various organizations. This is a huge mistake because organizations provide networking opportunities that lead to new business.
• Mobile telephone: No one can do without a cell phone today. I would even stretch that to including BlackBerry service because it is critical to obtain e-mails in real time.
• Supplies: You can't do without office supplies, but you can reduce costs by picking up free pens at conferences and using your laptop as a note pad.