While downturns come and go, it can be hard to ignore a recession when the media puts in your face every day. So beyond living in complete denial, what’s a business owner to do? Why not recognize opportunities that recession can bring to your business?

Here are a few points to ponder:

• Despite everyone preaching to the contrary, demand for most products does not disappear or decline more than 10%. Demand simply morphs and transforms. Take a good look at what your customers are doing to cut back and recognize the choices they’re making and how you can exploit them.
  
  
• Identify what your customers want vs. what they need, as these change during a recession. Strangely, some wants actually grow during a recession as people compensate for sacrifice in the strangest ways.
  
  
• Fully understand the money vs. time paradigm. Your customers will always have more of one than the other, so figure out how you can exploit this.
  
  
• If business is slow, now’s the time to rebuild or extend your Best and Highest Use. It’s a great time to start initiatives and build for sunny days.
  
  
• Despite the credit crunch, money is much less expensive to borrow in a recession as the Federal Reserve Bank cuts interest rates. Hunt around, as money is there to borrow, and when you find it, it can be a bargain. Also negotiate aggressively with your service and resource providers. Many are much more flexible than you might expect.
  
  
• Find the underserved and neglected in your marketplace. There are many folks and businesses that are not being adequately provided because their suppliers have abandoned them for greener markets. How can you step in?
  
  
• Seek out and walk with winners. In any recession, there are many folks who actually do better. Find them, serve them and grow with them.
  
  

There is an old saying, “Things are never as good as you think they are or as bad as you think they are.” A recession is precisely so. Dont ignore it rather exploit it just as you would a growing economy. Doing so during a recession is a true test of your business mettle.

Rise up and seize it.

In the middle of winter, Valentines Day prompts us to reopen our hearts to those we love. While pledging our love can be easiest in a new relationship, rekindling the burning embers in an old relationship can be harder or even worse , ignored. It is no surprise that lack of passion and communication is the number one cause of divorce.

Beyond your spouse, children and parents, isn’t your business the next “love” in your life? You have built, managed and protected it, but are you as passionate about it as when you started? What should you do to express or restore your love?

Here are three great steps to show your business your “love”:

1. Interview your clients and customers and to confirm what you think they love about your business. This is your firm’s Best and Highest Use and you can read more of this here
2. Then invest in providing them with more of your BHU at higher margins
3. Refresh and refocus your message, positioning, sales and marketing to tell more customers and prospects why they should love your BHU

Here are three steps to fall back in love with your business

1. Ask yourself what is your Best and Highest Use and is it still aligned with that of your business’ and what your business needs, you can link here for some help
2. If your BHU is still aligned with your business’ BHU, then stay in your business and work on fixing it quickly. Here is some help to do this
3. If your BHU is not aligned with your business, it is time to reconsider your future in or without your business. Here is a process to help you “know when to hold them and know when to fold them”.

Love is said to be the more important emotion, connection and driver of behavior for the human race. To not be in love with your business is crippling to your well being as well as that of your customers, employees and vendors who take their cues from you. So, if you are in love with your business, use this Valentine’s Day to show it the same love you do for that special someone or make the commitment to fall back in love with your business or move on and find your passion building and running something else.

Recently, Kathryn Landers of Felber & Felber Marketing interviewed me on public relations and how knowledge businesses can best plan, use and profit from PR

Andy, how do you define public relations?

To me, PR is the promotion of one’s expertise and value through non-advertising traditional and electronic media and editorial outlets.  When your “smarts” are independently and objectively published by third parties, so your audiences can read and see your value endorsed by others; that is effective PR.  The best PR usually includes examples of how your clients have benefited from your value.

Andy, how do you look at PR?

I think of PR as falling into three categories: Reactive, Active and Proactive

• Reactive PR consists of responding to preexisting stories and inquiries from reporters who need experts.  Websites like www.prleads.com and responding to other’s blogs is a very low-commitment way to demonstrate your expertise
• Active PR is using the wire services like www.prnewswire.com or www.expertclick.com  to circulate press releases on your firm’s progress or value.  They work best when there is a direct “hook” between your news, a current trend/event and your unique spin on it.
• Proactive PR involves creating both the content and the venue to broadcast it.  Your own blog is a great way to start as I have on www.birolsblog.com. Traditional, Internet and satellite media tours, speaking at trade shows and press conferences and “dog and pony” all work if you have the right story to tell.

Andy, what advice would you give to a business owner just beginning to use PR??

• First determine your firm’s Best and Highest Use. 
• Second, define who is your target audience, and third what information they will value.
• Then determine which media and editorial resources they watch and read.

The final step is to continuously create valuable, unique information that provokes your target audience to contact you for more.  So you need to become disciplined and regularly:

• Develop content in the form of articles, write papers and ideas
• Create and use case studies, results statements, testimonials showing how others have benefited through content
• Any time you can involve your clients in the PR effort it is much better.  Reporters, and conferences just love it when a client stands beside you and talks about your value and how it helped them

What do you think of business owners hiring  PR firms?

Writing and self promotion doesn’t come naturally to many owners so there is a trade off of doing it yourself or hiring specialists like my firm of Felber & Felber Marketing.

• In my case, I develop the content myself. 
• Together we decide how much reactive, active, proactive PR I need to get my messages seen and heard. 
• Finally, I turn over the execution of proactive, active, reactive PR to Felber & Felber Marketing to efficiently deliver my message to the media. 
How each business owner should implement their PR is a function of their Best and Highest Use, time, budget and personal preferences

Conclusion
PR is the most efficient marketing any business can do.  When established third parties are publishing your expertise you earn a great payback on your investment of time and money. Start with your inherent value and figure out who needs learn about it and where they are.  Then go tell the world.  You will be glad you did!

After surviving and succeeding in relative anonymity for years in business, isn’t it remarkable how much attention you get from people who now confront you with black and white decisions you are told you just have to make?

In charity and volunteerism:

If you are told, “To be respected in your community you better give both your money and your time to visible causes,”  I suggest you remember to that you must continue to do well before devoting yourself to doing good. 

In politics:

When you’re baited with, “You must be a Republican, because Democrats will just tax and spend” or “You have to vote Democrat because Republicans are for NAFTA and against immigration!” Consider that since elections, issues and platforms come and go, and aren’t you really independent?

In loyalty to town, association, or team:

As you are admonished with, “Can you believe that LeBron James would root for the Yankees?” or “Our industry practices require that…” and “If you don’t say nice things about your town, don’t say anything,” remember that although groupthink mostly creates fond memories of great moments, it rarely to leads your success.

As an independent, committed owner, you grew your business by staying true to your best and highest use and making grey decisions to serve your clients, employees, and vendors in a very uncertain world.  Your flexibility and tenacity will always be keys to your success.  And your commitment and independence are your most valuable strengths.   When you are told you must make a choice from their options, reject their dogma, go with your gut and create your own choice. If confronted with black and white, remember what they tell you on the plane, “When the mask appears, place yours on first and then help the person next to you!”  Until Willie Nelson stages a benefit concert to save the small business, your best assets are your own strength of commitment and power of independence.  Invest these wisely!

 What do you think?

If your company’s Best and Highest Use is what you and your people like doing, are good at doing and have been valued by your market for doing, how does this relate to sales and marketing?  Let me explain as follows: 

Sales is agreeing with qualified buyers exactly how you will exchange your BHU for their money.

Marketing is the creation of demand among buyers within your target market for your Best and Highest Use by determining the Five P’s:

     “P” 1. Your target market niche and their buying and your selling process    
     “P” 2. Your product or service line
     “P” 3. Your pricing plan
     “P” 4. Your sales, distribution, and fulfillment plan
     “P” 5. Your promotional plan to build “AIDA”
         Attention
         Interest
         Desire and
         Action

Do you agree?  Isn’t it that simple?  Do you have questions about Best and Highest Use?  If I don’t answer them here Please ask me now and I will answer you right back

Years ago, I wrote an article encouraging business owners to confront their options to do or not do business with China and every other low cost producer.  Now, I encourage every owner to rethink the following.  If you are a small business who cannot be the low cost provider, what can you do to leverage the quality, safety, and reliability of your products to win back accounts, higher margins and customer loyalty?  For every purchasing agent who loves buying products at the lowest cost, there is an insecure employee hiding inside worried that they will get exposed and fired for buying low cost goods that don’t work or worse are unsafe.

There is no time like the present to beef up your product’s safety, reliability, and performance.  How can you sell FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) to overcome the very pricing concerns you have fallen victim to in the past?   What better time than now to promote the upside of doing business with your company and the downside of taking chances with vendors’ products whose necks your customers cannot choke across an acean.  Try it out.  Even if you don’t move mountains, you can feel really good about standing tall for your value.  And if you need to look at all all the places you can add value, please take at my concept of Best and Highest Use and think about all the ways you and your business really are superior!  There really is no time like the present!

Last month when I spoke to the Carolinas Association of Advertising and Marketing Professionals, a young woman asked a great question. 

She wanted to know:

“Does best and highest use refer to my own or to my staff’s best and highest use?”  Is this about me personally or about my company?

Unfortunately we were out of time.  I promised I would go deeper into that question here on the blog. 

Best and highest use is what both you and your firm like doing, are good at doing and your market has valued you both for doing.

As a business owner it’s crucial to your success that you focus on where you can make the biggest impact. Do not scatter yourself in a million directions, because then you go nowhere.   For example, [explain and elaborate ….].

“Best and Highest Use” also can refer to using your staff resources wisely. That may mean outsourcing your Web design instead of trying to handle it internally. [explain and elaborate ….].

How about you?  What have you stopped doing or outsourced, so that you could concentrate on “the best and highest use” in your business?  Continue the discussion by leaving a comment below and sharing your ideas.