Managing in Difficult Economic Times
The past two years have been challenging for most people. When the market tumbled, many people lost half of their savings. Jobs were lost, production fell, and houses were foreclosed. A lot of people drastically reduced their spending on anything that wasn’t crucial to survival.
While the economic forecast has brightened, many massage therapists (as well as almost every other business) are still not earning what they did two years ago. So what can we do? The two major strategies are to increase revenues and decrease expenses. I know, it’s easier said than done, particularly when increasing revenues usually involves spending more money on marketing. I knew I had to rethink my marketing plan when I noticed that even though the number of schools requiring our books was steadily increasing, our total sales were dropping.
In terms of money, the first thing I did was triple (yes, you read that correctly) my marketing budget. The second thing I did was look to where I could cut other expenses.
Next, I looked at how I could alter my marketing. Over the years, I focused school book sales mainly to massage/bodywork, movement, yoga, and acupuncture schools. I had always planned to pursue other markets, but had only been doing it half-heartedly. I decided to target fitness programs. We already had a couple of fitness schools requiring Business Mastery so it wasn’t exactly a “cold” sale. We did a major campaign that entailed a postcard mailing to the schools. It actually didn’t cost a lot of money in direct expenses, although it took a bit of time (and in my case money, since my staff did this) to find those schools and contact each one. We also were able to get book reviews in several print and online publications geared to fitness professionals. Not only has this been a profitable move, it’s also been a lot of fun!
The next thing I did was look at ways to position myself with my current target markets to make my company even more valuable. I looked at all of those “some day I’m going to do this” goals and put many into action. For instance, I updated all of our online teaching materials and developed a monthly online teacher’s newsletter (whereas before, it was just in print and only sent three times per year).
Perhaps it’s time for you to add a new target market, find new ways to expand your current target markets, or develop strategies to enhance what you offer to current clients.
Hello, got to this page from Yahoo and just wanted to say thanks for the informational post you have written about.
These all seem like wise steps and undoubtedly increasing your marketing budget in tough times is a good thing to do that as well as measuring. MEASURE EVERYTHING. Before I became a business coach is worked as a business analyst for many years and one of the main things we worked to promote is resource optimization or value for money.For every penny you spend in the marketing are you getting it back? which of your activities bears the most results, should I put prices up in order to alter the perception of value? Should I put prices down to push more people through the door. Is there a more optimal blend between or marketing activities that will yield even higher resultsTesting and measuring what works is the key.
Marketing should be an on-going, consistent, regular part of doing business. I have marketing scheduled into my calendar, minimum 16 hours per week. I think of myself as a marketer who does massage therapy, rather than a massage therapist who does occasional marketing in down times. That’s like trying to fix the roof when it’s raining! Keep up with your regularly scheduled “roof maintenance” and it will be prepared for any storm! Effective marketing produces clients — period! If you don’t have enough clients, you are either not doing enough marketing or you’re not using the most effective methods. If you don’t have enough clients and you are not marketing — what are you doing with your time?
Very pragmatic advice. I believe it’s good to have a list of actions when business does dip. When I’m not providing care, I take those open appointment times to recapture old business, request more business, and touch base through digital or direct mail means to secure an ongoing, strong relationship with my existing patients. Have an action plan for when you need it, because it will “rain”!
Learn to live with less permanently, lower your expectations, prepare for the worst, never allow yurself to become spoiled by the good life, always be aware of the down side. Be respectful and considerate towards poor and less off people. Consider everyone as equal, yet understand that more effort pays and the hard workers and the intelligents usually are more wealthy people.