WOODWEB: How is the recession affecting you?????
by Brooklyn Modern | October 10th, 2008
The prior question was raised in the WOODWEB forums back in March. Looks like it’s still very relevant. Following are some responses:
We’re in the Northeast and the commercial work has slowed recently and the residential work is slow but steady. There are a number of shops closing their doors recently in my area and salesman are not telling us any good news. Our sales efforts have been ramped up. We’re down appx 20% in volume, how are the rest of you guys dealing with it ?
This is a good time to do a little evaluation of your business. Here are a few tips for consideration:
Double your sales efforts.
Fine tune your business plan.
Consider dumping any products that aren’t profit makers.
Review your expenses and make contingency plans for cutting costs 10%, 20% across the board.
Don’t overbuy what you don’t need.
In preparation for the NEXT slowdown, work on keeping your overhead low, low, low.
Our sales efforts have definitely doubled. Actually we are beginning to work for 2 large institutions who I managed to get ” thru the front door” via an aggressive networking effort. This is my 3rd slowdown and having been thru this we are much better prepared. Just trying to get a pulse of what is happening in our industry.
For the full conversation, visit http://www.woodweb.com/forum_fdse_files/business/557337.html
