Recession Proof Your Home Office in Five Easy Steps
I had a friend who once said - during the heady hey-days of the late 1990s - that home officing was recession proof, that we home office lackies ran so small an organization that we flew beneath any macro-economic development's radar screen.
Hardly.
We learned during the bursting of the Dotcom Bubble that no one was immune - especially those who made their living feeding off the venture capital-fueled largesse of poorly-planned IT and Web firms.
So here we are again. Another bubble (a series of them, actually) bursting all around, leaving micropreneurs as susceptible to failure as GM and AIG.
What's a soloist to do?
Plan. Well. And execute on that plan. And be visible. And network. And save.
First, plan for tomorrow. In business school, the Business Plan is the tool du rigeur. In small business, it's more like, "Que?" Plan for the path you want your business to go, the projects you want to take on, the brand you want to build- whether for yourself, or for your business itself. You may not see "tomorrow" unfold as you'd hoped, but without a plan, you'll be floating on the seas of the market's whimsy (not that your plans will be more than the best-laid flotsam once economic turmoil strikes with whimsy and disregard for your plans - what's the saying, "Man plans, God laughs"?).
Execute. Regardless of the reality of a plan being able to sustain itself during the Recession, hope must spring eternal, and you must carry forth as if that plan itself is fool proof.
Be visible. Get out there. Meet people. Speak on your topic at different events. Join groups. Set aside a morning or a meal each week to spend with someone new, someone influential, someone who can help you succeed in your business. Maybe it's an existing client, or a new prospect or a mentor or someone whose success you've long admired. But as the book says, at least once a week, "Never eat alone."
Network. Meet new people. Get out of your comfort zone and meet people who can make a different in your life and business. You never know where your next meal-ticket will come from.
Finally, Save. Think of this recession in its current state like the images of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The ocean receded, leaving fish and coral and beautiful starfish and other collectables in its wake (so to speak). My brother saw the video and said, "That would have been my sign to head for high ground." But others ventures hundreds of yards onto dry ground in search of cute little marine life to take home from vacation or back to their village. Ba dmove. Today's recession is being called just a sign of what's to come.
OK, so that headline is a bit misleading (but catchy to eyeballs - human and robot alike). But you get the point. Which is...
Are you prepared?
(All this is NOT some doom-and-gloom prediction that many hyper-enthusiasts rail against - one of those toxic missives that they believe poison the entrepreneurial spirit. We're way beyond the point of some opinion wreaking havoc on our psyche. Wall Street and misdirected Fortune 500s have already seen to that...)
Jeff Zbar, The Chief Home Officer
www.chiefhomeofficer.com
Copyright 2009. All Rights Reserved.
