bwagy

So we had a bit of a bumpy road in 2009, here’s 25 recession busting tactics to help you break through in 2010.

1. Start a side business. In addition to your job look at supplementing your income by starting a hobby business that can add a few dollars here or there.
2. Create a job! Maybe hire the next door neighbour to do your lawns, or someone to do your cleaning. If you have some spare cash, why not improve your life a little and help out your community.
3. Invest locally! Sure leaving money in the bank is fine and dandy but it’s not helping out as much as it could be. Use a portion of it to invest in local business – maybe even form a micro loan club to help support local entrepreneurs.
4. Volunteer. Volunteers contribute hugely to the nation as a whole and have taken a heavy hit in the last 18 months. Get back on the bandwagon and support a local charity; lend a hand, have some fun, it’ll probably be the most rewarding experience you can have.
5. Educate! You know something – share it with the world or teach it to others.
6. Connect. Business is all driven by connections, actively take stock of your connections and see where you can make some introductions that could stimulate business or potential partnerships.
7. Seek for global business opportunities and pair them with local business.
8. Unleash the online world to your business. Whether it’s creating attention, developing business or engaging with customers digital engagement is here to stay.
9. Grow your business, chop it up, reinvent it make it much more streamlined. Look at squeezing efficiencies out of it to maximise profitability.
10. Get not one but several mentors. Leverage others experience to avoid pitfalls.
11. Mentor someone else. Lend a hand to people that can use your skills.
12. Actively outsource & automate the parts of your business that need it. We all know we need to develop the systems & processes that empower the growth of our business. What better time to do it (on the cusp of a recovery).
13. Write & share with the world your experiences. Start a blog (like #5 Educate) unlock your knowledge for others benefits. You never know what may happen or who will read it.
14. Invest in yourself, learn some new skills, take an extra course. Identify skill gaps you have and how to fill them.
15. Take time off! Time to rest/rejuvenate is just as important as the doing.
16. Increase productivity with online tools. Read David Allens Getting Things Done – implement this in your personal and business worlds. Better productivity helps everyone.
17. Set aside review & reflection time (blogging is a great way to do this).
18. Read books. Books are the best investment, they give you some downtime AND present you with new ideas that can dramatically change your business. All $20! #Best investment.
19. Explore franchising or partnerships. How can you strategically expand your companies reach with little capital outlay.
20. Test the waters. Now’s the time to try out those new products and services that have been sitting in the closet. Give them a try.
21. Invest in Adwords. Capture motivated leads in an automated fashion – hard to beat.
22. Networking - get yourself out there active in the market place. When things get busy you want to the guy (or gal) they call straight away.
23. Map out your reach into market, how do you market your company? What does that look like? And how can you improve it?
24. Buy an iPhone. Why? It will pretty much allow you to make your business mobile instantly. Whatever you want chances are it can do it OR someone can develop it for you.
25. Telecommute. Work from home one day a week and encourage your staff to do so as well. This lowers costs, can boost morale and productivity.

It’s the compounding effect of small changes that break the biggest barriers so pick one, knock it, pick another.  Go for it!

(Add your own in the comments below).

Admit it we’ve all been the clever guy.

You know the one that always comes up with remarkable out there ideas to a problem.

“We can do it better!”

When just as often there is no real need to reinvent the wheel, a simple solution is best.

But don’t ever quell that guy for it’s their nudges that breakthroughs come about.

(And that’s when the wheel really gets redefined!)

I had the opportunity to finally meet Chris Guillebeau in person last night.

(He wrote a testimonial for The Best Ideas are Free).

Nevertheless I thought it was long overdue a mention of his post on the $100 Business Case – definitely worth a read, bookmark and subscription to his blog.

As Chris points out (and the 12 Hour Startup does) it’s all about just taking that first step, giving it a shot, then following your feet.

Has your product become a commodity?

Such that anyone anywhere can offer an identical (or near enough) product such that your customers don’t know the difference.

You may not think so but think again.

You’d be surprised.

You could be closer to a commodity than you initially thought….

I’ve had a great start to the year, some time off in Auckland and back home in Queenstown.  It’s been (and still is a beautiful summer).  Here’s a shot from our picnic we had yesterday in St Heliers.

2009 was a year of turmoil (good & bad) but significant change.  2010 marks the year (and decade) to capitalise on these opportunities and I see many people already doing that.  I’ve had a bit of a discussion on the two main trends I see this year in Marketing - watch my first radio show of the year below:

Update: (working youtube link)

I wish you all the best, you can look forward to my second book later this year (taking time off next month to wrap it up), title still in progress.  Also some changes to the blog, international speaking (I might need your help there!) and a few other surprises.  To a remarkable year!

-Ben