How To Save Your Business In An Economic Downturn, Covid-19 stories

By Martin Eastwood, some tips on what to do in an economic downturn.

The recent disruption in the global economy due to Covid-19 has raised many concerns of our health, our finances and our future. Among the concerns are those of business owners, many of whom have been forced to cease trading temporarily, who are worried that their business may not survive. In an effort to find out how business owners can survive in challenging times, I spoke with someone who has managed to achieve exactly that.

Joe Doyle is a successful entrepreneur and property investor from Clondalkin in Dublin. In 2008 after the Celtic Tiger fell, he found himself almost €3 million in debt to the bank, with no visible way of paying it back. Despite the odds being stacked against him and with his back against the wall, Joe got back to work and through years of perseverance and hard work he cleared his bad debt and now has a company that is worth millions of euros.

I asked Joe what can business owners do right now to survive this economic downturn. He shared a few tips on this:

Make the difficult decisions, which includes staff layoffs. ‘’Everybody needs to be let go, except for your core group of people, because they are the brain power that will get you going again.’’ Further to this he advised ‘’You need to cut every [unnecessary] expense that is leaving your business except marketing and your own personal development and education’’.

Stop focusing purely on finding new clients. Focus on serving your existing ones – because that means they are less likely to leave.

‘’Do whatever you can to increase your cash reserves, because whoever has the most cash will be able to ride this out for longer.’’

‘’Operate on the basis that this will last a long time, even though it may not.’’

I asked Joe what role technology played in growing his business. He told me that initially he did not know much about it but he understood what it could do for him. Joe told me how one of his first experiences of using technology was making a simple Facebook live video to promote his business. Fast forward to today he runs an online training program (52 Steps to a Better Business)  for tradespeople and business owners which is housed on a private Facebook group page.

The program has well over 200 paying members. This provides quite the insight on just how successful Joe has been in adapting when necessary and using technology to help his business. And if he can do it, you can too.

I hope this piece provides some hope and direction for business owners as they make their way through these challenging times.

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