Business survival in a weak economy

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

If one had to sum up more than an hour’s worth of information heard during Wednesday’s Small Business Survival Workshop, the recap might go like this: Small businesses do not have to navigate the treacherous economic turbulence alone because resources, from confidential advice and mentoring to investment capital, are readily available to help them get through. Now is not the time to skimp on marketing and advertising. Attitude is everything. And adapting business plans and customer service strategies is crucial.
Those were key points from presenters including Steve Willinger of SCORE, Ernie Maddie of People Inc.’s Business Start, Ken Heath, executive director of the Marion Downtown Revitalization Association, Danny Rose of Bank of Marion, and James Tilley, director of the Virginia Small Business Development Center at Virginia Highlands Community College, who said, “America is not going out of business. Small businesses are the ones that are going to lead the resurgence in the economy.”
About a dozen people gathered at the General Francis Marion Hotel at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday over coffee, tea, orange juice, and doughnuts to hear how small businesses can make it through these days of tightened credit and clamped-down consumer spending. The workshop was sponsored by radio stations WOLD and WZVA and the MDRA.
Willinger is chairman of the Bristol chapter of SCORE, begun as the Service Corps of Retired Executives. The acronym is the same but the program is now Counselors to America’s Small Businesses, an apt description of what it strives to do.
SCORE exists to make former executives voluntarily available as counselors and long-term mentors to small-business owners, bringing advice based on years of experience and hard-earned knowledge, Willinger said.
“I love this statistic. SCORE has 300,000 years of experience,” Willinger said.
SCORE can provide workshops and seminars plus cyber-counseling online. Among all those executives participating, at least one is likely to have experience directly related to any question entrepreneurs may pose, Willinger said.
The executives can help with creation of business plans, the road maps business development experts say is crucial to starting, maintaining and growing businesses. They can serve as soundboards for ideas. And it is all offered on a confidential basis, Willinger said.
SCORE’s Web site, http://www.scoe.org, is a plethora of articles and videos with how-to advice on every aspect of running a small business.
And if workshop attendees wanted some sign to watch that would indicate things will get better, Willinger gave it to them. “As soon as the markets stabilize, the rest of the economy will follow in 18 months.”
In the meantime, “Marketing is very important,” he said. “Do not hide.”
Heath echoed that point, saying that at the start of the Great Depression, a laundry powder called Snowy White had the bulk of market share, and elected to not advertise. “Who buys Snowy White?” Heath asked the audience and, of course, no hands went up.
By contrast, Heath said, makers of a product called Tide saw the value of advertising and it remains on store shelves today.
Tilley said the Small Business Development Centers’ “specialty is one-on-one confidential counseling. Confidentiality is particularly important for anyone sharing marketing information, financial information and proprietary information.”
Tilley said to weather current economic conditions, small business owners need to protect their cash flow by maintaining their customer base, budgeting money for advertising, understanding and responding to how customers are making buy/don’t buy decisions, and making sure customer service is top-notch.
“Politeness is important” for business owners and employees,” Tilley said.
Tilley said business owners can find ways to tap into customer spending that will happen even in the hardest times – buying to meet basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. Other opportunities exist in rural areas like Southwest Virginia where public transportation is limited, by catering to commuters’ needs, and getting the most mileage from vehicles. Additionally, services aimed at an aging population will continue to present market niches.
Willinger suggested a market exists to support the public’s greater interest in energy savings.
Tilley said the industrial diversity in the area and soundness of local and regional banks that did not suffer the same fate as the national and investment banks in the mortgage and housing collapse offer an opportunity for marketing the area as a good place to live, shop, and do business.
Business owners who cannot fulfill a customer’s need should recommend others in town that can. “That’s just good business for you, because you’ve satisfied the customer,” Tilley said. “It’s also good for the economy” by keeping dollars in the community.
Maddie said People Inc. has money available for small business expansions and other needs, with special interest rates available for tourism-related businesses. It also offers Business Basics, a three-hour course for would-be entrepreneurs covering topics like insurance and licensing.
Heath said he is available to help business owners with business plans and referrals to other agencies for any additional help needed.
Heath said that while turbulence remains in the economic forecast, the take-away message for participants at the session was that “the economy will get better.”