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Welcome to the TicketSolve Blog, where people come to talk shop and take stock. Regardless of which system you use, if you need to talk tickets, this is the place to do it.

Recession Busting Tips 24Feb09

10 Tips To Recession Proof Your Organisation

Recession.  Everyone is talking about it and feeling the impacts of shaky global markets.  We won’t belabour what is going on globally – everyday the news seems to have another story about the fallout. 
Intuitively, we want to close our wallets and just wait for the storm to pass.  While that may be true, recessions can provide opportunities that can help our business grow stronger.  Some of the ideas below may be obvious, but we think it bears repeating.

1. Listen and value employees .  Employees – from the ticket taker to the box office manager – often have some of the best ideas for cost savings.  Cost savings that don’t impact the bottom line are always welcome – and during recessions even the smallest savings can make a big impact.  Just be sure that the measure won’t impact morale too greatly.  Remember everyone is feeling the pinch, so cutting out the coffee morning may end up doing more harm than good.  It is important to keep your employees happy it is this team that will be your productivity well during the recession. 

2. If you can, now is a great time to hire as well – talented people will be out in the marketplace – so if you can afford it, now is a great time to hire. 

3. Create a memorable, pleasurable customer experience.  Think about the customer experience – are there ways of making it better?  Are there innovations that we have missed?  Creating a customer experience that is different than the competitions’ will not only help you keep the customers that you have, but will bring new customers as well.  Again, we don’t want innovation for innovation’s sake – talk to your customers and see what they want. 

4. Price properly.  Price according to demand – don’t give profits away.  You may be tempted to slash prices, but be wary.  In addition, treat discounts with respect.  You don’t want to dilute your brand by discounting heavily. 

5. Understand your finances.  While this may seem like a no-brainer, it is important to understand EVERY aspect of your business finances and ensure your records are robust and up to date.  Cash is king in a recession – so have the best cash management strategies ready.
Cutting costs.  While this is glaringly obvious, we need to be careful here.  All costs are not equal and some cost cutting measures can be downright damaging in the long run.  It is important to critically evaluate cost cutting measures and see where there may be opportunities.  Now is the time to renegotiate contracts and free up any available cash flow. Remember - even if demand is slow, always be in control of costs: know which are variable, can be acted on and how.

6. Funding.  Now is the time to explore all funding options and act aggressively.  Competition will be fierce for what limited funding there is, but it is certainly worth going after provided it does that divert you from the core of the business.

7. Sales and marketing are key.  Are there ways to innovate and get more leads, higher value sales and repeat sales?  If there is one area that you cannot afford to slack on, it is sales and marketing.  Be aggressive and innovative. 

8. Look at web optimisation and a better improved website. The goal here is to drive as much traffic to the site as possible.  This is of course important for ticket sales, but it is important to review website and web optimisation plans in light of recessionary times.

9. Innovate and Diversify.  Get creative on areas you can diversify into – maybe expanding the target market or more various regions.  This cannot be at the cost of the core business, but it is worth looking at areas that you can expand into. 

10. Use technology.  Technology provides one the best cost saving opportunities for our market.  Clearly ticketing (shameless plug) is one area that technology can help reduce costs (see here for more about Ticketsolve’s web based ticketing solutions).  Even if your customers don’t traditionally use the web for purchasing, there may be a way to encourage them to do so – offers, discounts, etc.