There’s much talk these days about a recession and what that could mean for our own businesses. Recessions can be tough for some and yet others thrive. What’s the secret? Is there one?

In my research I’ve identified strategies that can help businesses not only survive, but thrive during economic downturns.

What I found can be summed up in three main areas:

You’re working too hard to not have the profit you need.

You sell your products and services, but realize that after each month, you’re no further ahead.

Your bank account is dismal and there doesn’t seem to be much left to invest back into your company.

Does this sound familiar?

If so, you may be suffering from the profit conundrum.

This is suffered by those businesses who are selling, but not making any money.

This is no bueno.

If you’re not familiar with the 4 Levers of Profit, then you’re going to love today’s article.

Let’s dive in!

As some of you are considering and refining your goals for this year, I want to ask you…do you have a goal to grow your business?

As business owners, ‘growth’ can be a loaded word.

I hear some saying - yes, they’re all about the growth and that’s their focus.

I hear others saying - no, I like my business the way it is, I’m not looking to grow at all.

And also saying - growth means more work from me and I just don’t have more to give.

Maybe there’s even another camp here that isn’t reflected. In spite of what you may think about growth in your own business I think it’s worth deconstructing what growth means.

Being able to articulate your company’s vision simply is powerful.

It supports your decision-making, how you lead, and provides a guidepost for your company to work towards.

Sharing it with your team, your clients and suppliers can be equally as powerful so people know what you’re about. People are attracted to doing business with companies that have passion and purpose.

If you haven’t articulated or written your business’ vision in a while, I encourage you to use this simple framework which includes what success looks like.

Here’s a vision framework for you to work with:

Is your business satisfying your ‘WHY’?

In order to fulfill your WHY for being in business, the company you created has to be able to make the impact you had intended it to make.

Whether that’s impacting families through therapeutic approaches, providing housing for seniors, providing financial security for families, or helping others build healthy businesses, without your own healthy business, it becomes harder to fulfill that mission.

That’s why I love these markers of business value. It’s not only your own business you’re building, but having a healthy business means that you can change the lives of your clients and customers.

That’s the real and compelling legacy here and a huge reason why I do what I do. One of my big WHYs is to help you to be successful in growing a strong, healthy, and sustainable business that impacts others.

I’m deeply motivated to improve the lives of others through economic growth and supporting businesses that make a difference in our communities so we all thrive.

One of the markers of a healthy business is how cash flows through it. (This is the fifth driver of business value.)

One of the most common pains I hear from business owners is that there’s not enough cash. Or it shows up as their desire to ‘do more marketing’ or '‘increase sales’.

Is your business a cash suck?

Or does it generate cash quite handily?

If cash is rarely on hand in your business when you need it, you may want to consider exploring these areas:

The unconventional strategy: Create space to think.

This may seem odd to highlight, but stick with me here…

Often, we go and go and go in a business we’re trying to create and build. We feel like there’s never enough time, there are more clients or customers to attract, or new products or services to release in this quest of creating, building, and growing a business. There’s a lot of doing. And a lot of striving.

And that action-taking can be worthwhile.

However, there is another side of the equation to consider….and that side is the opposite of doing.

It’s about taking frequent pauses. Creating space for something else…..

How often are you creating space for thinking, reflecting, planning, and considering?

People start a business for all types of reasons. Some start looking for more freedom and flexibility or financial freedom. Some start because they have a great idea that they haven’t seen in the marketplace. Some want to create a legacy or make a positive change in their industry. Your reasons could be all, some, or other reasons for starting your business.

But whatever your reason is, this question is relevant to consider:

Do you want to create a valuable business?

What does valuable mean?

I’ve been paying a lot of attention to conversations that highlight the challenges and needs that are surfacing right now. These conversations take place in my client interactions but also with my network and beyond.

What I’ve been seeing is that you are evaluating how you’re moving forward over the next few months. Whether it’s deciding what services or products to offer now or how you will position or sell your services and products.

Businesses are looking at re-opening guidelines and looking to their provincial and state mandates to see what that means for them and how they can continue to operate or re-open (if they’ve been closed through this).

In addition to that, I see you wondering about what this means for your existing services and products and questioning how to get these in front of your clients over the next few months. What’s appropriate as a business? How can I continue to be viable? How can I continue to strive to hit certain business goals?