I would like to thank all of my clients and co-workers for the opportunity to work with them this past year. It has been an interesting year and we all know that next year will prove to be just as interesting. This will be my last post in 2008, as I will be taking some time off to enjoy the holidays with my family. I will be back on January 5th.

Like you, as I am enjoying time away from the business, I will mentally reflect on where everything stands and what I need to do more of, less of and differently next year. As you look at your business, I would like to encourage you to take the following 5 suggestions to heart:

1. Don't Try To Be All Things To All People: When business slows, there is sometimes the tendency to try to add more offerings and come up with different revenue streams to attract more customers. Really think about how much you want to expand your offerings. It is often better to focus on what you are doing and do that at the strongest possible level with a level of customer service that exceeds your clients expectations. The shotgun approach doesn't really work that well with anything.
2. Treat Your Key Players Like Gold: In my opinion, the strongest element in successful businesses is having the right people doing the right jobs. Right now, when you have employees that are committed to the cause, capable of strongly contributing to the effort and have a positive but realistic attitude - you need to let them know how much they mean to the organization. Don't just tell them once, but often and then show them with your actions. Give these key players bonuses, extra time off or set them up so that they can personally weather this slow down in business. If they can't make it, you can't make it.
3. Trim The Fluff: Look for every way to trim the fat on all non-essential expenses.
4. Resist The Urge To Trim Advertising: Recessions clearly reward the aggressive advertiser and penalize the timid one. Yes, it is true that I represent two amazing radio stations, but I strongly encourage you to take the following actions:

• Google "Advertising In A Recession"
• Demand creativity in your advertising
• Only work with advertising consultants who understand business. It doesn't matter how cheap each commercial costs, if they can't help you in your business and come up with creative messages to move your potential customers to actions - then they are worthless to you.
• Understand and measure your advertising ROI. You may have to look at your ROI in different ways. You may see an increase in profits, you may be in a mobile text marketing program where you can track the number of participants or you may need to look at how well your particular industry is doing and measure yourself against that.

5. Take a little time away from your business to work on your business.

Happy Holidays!

Jeff