If you just look at raw numbers - more than 100,000 people got the boot from their jobs - just this past week. That really sucks! If you're one of the lucky (or unlucky) folks that managed to avoid the boot - you can take one of two strategies: a) either "pull back" and just try to keep the lights on, or b) innovate and excel.
The typical knee-jerk reaction is to pull back and just try to "survive." Personally, I think that a bunch of crap and a cop-out to boot.
Sure, people are scared for their jobs regardless of their position, but managers and IT folks are are feeling particularly vulnerable (at least from the people I talk to). Here's the thing - people who don't add any value (or save any time or money) are always looked at as expendable. The key - don't be so afraid of your job that you just sit there in fear - take some ACTION that will help raise your value to the organization.
I can just hear you saying "Well, Mr. Know-It-All - got any suggestions?" As a matter of fact I do... for only $29.95 plus shipping and handling... (hey, it's my first day out on my own - I need revenue, people!)...
But I digress... of course I have some suggestions:
Do a process review
There is nothing better to quench the cries of "do more with less", and "time is money" than to look at the way you're doing things - and then figure out a way to do them better, faster and/or cheaper. This can be anything from a full, top-down business review (but it can take a while and is a ton of work) - but it doesn't have to be. No matter what your position is from receptionist to IT manager to coding jockey to CEO - there are processes that you do in your normal every day life that are broken.
Identify those areas and come up with ways to fix them. Then, write it down and quantify how much time/money it will save and how much time/money your fix will cost. Remember - DO show your work. There is nothing a manager or business owner would LOVE than for an employee to come up with ways form them to be more productive. Even if they don't implement your suggestion(s) - just the fact that you're making an effort to become more efficient instantly raises your value to the organization.
Look at virtualization
If you're an IT wonk - then it's a no-brainer. Look into virtualizing servers to consolidate hardware, save on cooling and electricity costs and reducing complexity. If you're a small business owner - see you can virtualize your phone system or customer support or receptionist or anything that is a sticking point in your daily process.
There are literally tons of SaaS software tools out there that can help you run large and small aspects of your business - and many of them either give you a free trial or cost under $50 per month. In other words - the barrier to entry - the cost to try something new to gain efficiency - is extremely low and well worth the efforts if it will endear you to your organization and/or improve your bottom line.
Do some professional development
Yeah, I know that travel & entertainment budgets were the first to do - and that budgets for conferences and seminars are also prime targets for cost-cutting. However, you don't have to spend a lot of money in order to develop your personal skill set. Focus on things that will help you to help the organization. If you're a manager - learn how to read (and write) financial statements, get better at your telephone skill, or your people skills or your management skills. Buy a book, download some free podcasts from iTunes from name-brand learning institutions, take an online course, watch some online videos, etc.
Keep in mind - who is harder to replace - someone who "just" answers the phone - or someone that figured out how to save the company $8,000 per year by changing the way a form is laid out? A person who "just" codes Java - or a person who increases end user productivity by suggesting features no one knew were possible?
You get the idea... now DO something to become someone that's difficult to replace.
Showing posts with label Recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recession. Show all posts
Monday, February 02, 2009
Friday, October 10, 2008
"Blue Stove" Pricing
Bob's Note: My wife posted a great piece on pricing today on her blog - and I thought it was so good that I've re-printed it here in it's entirety. For those of you who don't know her - Brenda has an MBA and has been doing marketing and consulting for years. This article was originally posted on Marketing FlyTraps just this morning:
How do you price things -- and keep your profit margins as plump as possible in a recession? I like to call my concept "Blue Stove" pricing.
Allow me to explain. Nordstorms - that upper crust store, aimed at selling shoes (and other stuff) to women, is smart enough to know that they need to feed us women while we shop. In the past, they have offered an excellent cafe or bistro within their stores - keeping us with in the store to eat, so we can shop again. It was convenient, had excellent food -- and while not as cheap as going outside the store -- it wasn't Soooo expensive that you were willing to drive somewhere else.
But now comes ... *dum - dum - dum* (cue the recession...) and women are watching their pennies (we want money to spend on shoes...not food).
So recently, Nordstroms introduced a "pairing" restaurant. Its called "Blue Stove". The restaurant literally has a blue stove. The "pairing" menu means they offer "little plates" of delicious food -- priced very reasonably (most are about $5* Actually, they are priced at the .95 cent mark -- this is called psychological price breaks...I'll write about that in my next blog...) and are meant to be shared. For example, a little plate of chopped veggie salad. A small platter of chicken wings - seasoned and cooked to perfection. They can be "paired" with a glass of wine - from very reasonable price ($6/glass) to more expensive($20/split of champagne).
So what, you are asking, does this have to do with pricing my software or my consulting services? Well -- in a recession, we ALL become nervous about our income. Our cash in the bank. We want a bargain, and we want to be conservative.
Your customers do too.
RIGHT NOW, you need to re-think your pricing. You need to do the following:
Nordstroms NEVER gives the impression that their new Blue Stove restaurant is "cheap" - but they DO reposition themselves (very elegantly, staying within their realm) as giving the customer quality, value, choice -- with the option to spend a "tiny" bit more (on the wine) or a dessert or one extra "small plate".
I bet every lady is spending (almost) the same amount on lunch -- but, boy. Do we feel smug -- having ordered lunch at only $4.95 (well... times 2, plus a small glass of wine, plus a dessert -- that we shared...). Actually, I bet we all spend exactly the same - but we don't feel as jittery about it.
How do you price things -- and keep your profit margins as plump as possible in a recession? I like to call my concept "Blue Stove" pricing.
Allow me to explain. Nordstorms - that upper crust store, aimed at selling shoes (and other stuff) to women, is smart enough to know that they need to feed us women while we shop. In the past, they have offered an excellent cafe or bistro within their stores - keeping us with in the store to eat, so we can shop again. It was convenient, had excellent food -- and while not as cheap as going outside the store -- it wasn't Soooo expensive that you were willing to drive somewhere else.
But now comes ... *dum - dum - dum* (cue the recession...) and women are watching their pennies (we want money to spend on shoes...not food).
So recently, Nordstroms introduced a "pairing" restaurant. Its called "Blue Stove". The restaurant literally has a blue stove. The "pairing" menu means they offer "little plates" of delicious food -- priced very reasonably (most are about $5* Actually, they are priced at the .95 cent mark -- this is called psychological price breaks...I'll write about that in my next blog...) and are meant to be shared. For example, a little plate of chopped veggie salad. A small platter of chicken wings - seasoned and cooked to perfection. They can be "paired" with a glass of wine - from very reasonable price ($6/glass) to more expensive($20/split of champagne).
So what, you are asking, does this have to do with pricing my software or my consulting services? Well -- in a recession, we ALL become nervous about our income. Our cash in the bank. We want a bargain, and we want to be conservative.
Your customers do too.
RIGHT NOW, you need to re-think your pricing. You need to do the following:
- Figure out what are the top 3 or 4 things your customers buy the most often.
- Assess how can you make the price as small as possible. (Chop out stuff, re-plate your offerings into "Tapas" or small plates!)
- Determine how you can you make it appear as "value" oriented as possible.
- Figure out what other things can you pair it with (e.g. - have the sales guys suggest the "chef" (the expert) says to get 2 or 3 plates and share, wine, dessert -- all these items also re-priced to recession "small bite" pricing...)
Nordstroms NEVER gives the impression that their new Blue Stove restaurant is "cheap" - but they DO reposition themselves (very elegantly, staying within their realm) as giving the customer quality, value, choice -- with the option to spend a "tiny" bit more (on the wine) or a dessert or one extra "small plate".
I bet every lady is spending (almost) the same amount on lunch -- but, boy. Do we feel smug -- having ordered lunch at only $4.95 (well... times 2, plus a small glass of wine, plus a dessert -- that we shared...). Actually, I bet we all spend exactly the same - but we don't feel as jittery about it.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Recession Pricing
Let's face it - times are getting tougher. If we're not in a full-blown recession now - we're on the brink of another nuclear winter - much like the dot com meltdown of 2000.
With credit being tight - and billions in market cap being wiped out by the minute - everyone immediately turns to the place where they perceive they can make the "easiest" cut - their prices. But this is a lazy, knee-jerk reaction at best - and at worst it could kill your business.
A couple of weeks ago Brenda Duncan wrote an interesting article about Pricing In A Recession. She makes my point exactly:
It's really not rocket science - but it IS a critical issue to every business owner (and consumer) out there. How you handle your pricing and the demonstration of the value that you provide are critical in times like these.
Now is not the time to be shy. If you have success stories (and you should), articles in the press (and you should), customer quotes (and you should) - now is the time to put them front and center in your marketing materials, email signatures and website.
You want to remind people of the value that you're providing - and the fact that your pricing justifies the value you provide. Then you have people who are also verifying that - and you have a much better case when it comes to the "...I love your product (or service) now if we could only do something about the price..." portion of the sales process.
Do yourself and your business a favor - and take a look at your pricing model(s) - and just verify that you're offering the best possible value for the money. If you are - you have a much better chance of survival. If you just keep going on a "business as usual" track - you may not be around to make adjustments later.
With credit being tight - and billions in market cap being wiped out by the minute - everyone immediately turns to the place where they perceive they can make the "easiest" cut - their prices. But this is a lazy, knee-jerk reaction at best - and at worst it could kill your business.
A couple of weeks ago Brenda Duncan wrote an interesting article about Pricing In A Recession. She makes my point exactly:
Pricing theory (and in real life!) states that the price of a good or service sends a message to the consumer - about the quality or value or a product. Think about it - do you want to be a “cheap date” or a good date?Personally, I'd rather be a good date, than a cheap one - and I think my customers would, too (ok, so SOME of them may prefer a cheap date - but that's a subject for another posting). The key to pricing in a recession (or depression - depending on your bullsh*t meter) is the same as it is in good times - those that provide VALUE to the customer will get their business and their dollars. Those that don't, won't.
It's really not rocket science - but it IS a critical issue to every business owner (and consumer) out there. How you handle your pricing and the demonstration of the value that you provide are critical in times like these.
Now is not the time to be shy. If you have success stories (and you should), articles in the press (and you should), customer quotes (and you should) - now is the time to put them front and center in your marketing materials, email signatures and website.
You want to remind people of the value that you're providing - and the fact that your pricing justifies the value you provide. Then you have people who are also verifying that - and you have a much better case when it comes to the "...I love your product (or service) now if we could only do something about the price..." portion of the sales process.
Do yourself and your business a favor - and take a look at your pricing model(s) - and just verify that you're offering the best possible value for the money. If you are - you have a much better chance of survival. If you just keep going on a "business as usual" track - you may not be around to make adjustments later.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Hang Em' High!
The headlines in today's newspaper were really grim regarding the state of the economy. After Mr. Bush's speech last night - and using words like "...like the Great Depression..." were not, to say the least, comforting.
Everyone knows that the economy is in the toilet - and that the Fed by buying nearly three quarters of a TRILLION dollars worth of crap loans (and crap loan companies) is only a stop gap measure.
The thing that really pisses me off about all of this is the fact that almost a trillion dollars of bad loans were written (at least that we know of SO FAR) - and no one knew about it.
This really stinks to high heaven. This makes the Enron debacle almost seem like it was a high school prank. I mean, where in the hell do you "hide" that much red ink. Was NO ONE watching this?
Yeah, sure, when they were writing the loans they made loads of processing fees, commissions, and tons of money exchanged hands. Maybe it's a case of musical chairs and companies like Lehman and Merrill just got left holding the bag?
I don't think so.
I think there is a case for gross negligence and bad management on the case of all of these companies. You can't simply have a loss of that much money and use the excuse "we didn't realize it was that bad." That simply does not fly - and it's total and complete B.S.
So, while every single American gets to bail out private companies (to the tune of $8,000 for every man, woman and child) to prevent a run on the banks and the loss of homes and retirement accounts for millions of customers - the heads of these companies (and their boards) need to be held accountable for this mess.
Until (and if) that ever happens - this shameful state of affairs puts a tarnish on America and has a worldwide impact that has yet to be felt. Not to mention the fact that now, due to the weak dollar and abundance of questionable loans going up for sale - I predict that the level of foreign investment will skyrocket and whole chunks of the economy will be owned by non-American parties.
Being the capitalist I am - I say bravo for those foreign investors - and to hell with the idiots that ran 100+ year old institutions into the ground. What goes around - ALWAYS comes around.
Everyone knows that the economy is in the toilet - and that the Fed by buying nearly three quarters of a TRILLION dollars worth of crap loans (and crap loan companies) is only a stop gap measure.
The thing that really pisses me off about all of this is the fact that almost a trillion dollars of bad loans were written (at least that we know of SO FAR) - and no one knew about it.
This really stinks to high heaven. This makes the Enron debacle almost seem like it was a high school prank. I mean, where in the hell do you "hide" that much red ink. Was NO ONE watching this?
Yeah, sure, when they were writing the loans they made loads of processing fees, commissions, and tons of money exchanged hands. Maybe it's a case of musical chairs and companies like Lehman and Merrill just got left holding the bag?
I don't think so.
I think there is a case for gross negligence and bad management on the case of all of these companies. You can't simply have a loss of that much money and use the excuse "we didn't realize it was that bad." That simply does not fly - and it's total and complete B.S.
So, while every single American gets to bail out private companies (to the tune of $8,000 for every man, woman and child) to prevent a run on the banks and the loss of homes and retirement accounts for millions of customers - the heads of these companies (and their boards) need to be held accountable for this mess.
Until (and if) that ever happens - this shameful state of affairs puts a tarnish on America and has a worldwide impact that has yet to be felt. Not to mention the fact that now, due to the weak dollar and abundance of questionable loans going up for sale - I predict that the level of foreign investment will skyrocket and whole chunks of the economy will be owned by non-American parties.
Being the capitalist I am - I say bravo for those foreign investors - and to hell with the idiots that ran 100+ year old institutions into the ground. What goes around - ALWAYS comes around.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
