You can prepare your firm for future downturns and changes in the marketplace with a little forethought so that you’re as prepared as possible for what will undoubtedly happen. Here are nine strategies for proactively recession-proofing your company.
Have a business plan
Starting with a decent baseline plan that anticipates your best guess for how things will go in the future is the foundation of any contingency planning. Don’t worry, this isn’t the time to speculate on future downturns. Instead, this strategy should aim to maintain the status quo. It should be able to forecast the growth you’re hoping for, barring any unexpected economic developments.
This phase of your preparations does not necessitate a comprehensive, formal company strategy. Simply concentrate on creating a financial forecast that comprises a profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet. Ideally, your projection should be totally integrated, with changes in sales in your P&L automatically affecting your other financial statements. At this point, having a forecasting tool to assist you can be beneficial.
You should also use a one-page business plan to establish your business approach in a simple way.
Experiment with different scenarios
With your financial prediction in place, you can play around with various financial scenarios to observe how your cash and profits react in various scenarios. Slowing down the entire business as well as slowing down individual revenue streams should be tried. Consider how you might respond to a decline in revenue in each situation by anticipating a reduction in spending.
What expenses can you simply reduce? How much money will it take to keep the doors open? Working through several situations will assist you in determining what changes you may need to make to your organization in order to keep it afloat.
Focus on cash flow
Keep a close eye on your cash flow as you experiment with various financial scenarios. Are you able to retain adequate money in the bank in a variety of circumstances? What adjustments do you need to make to your financial projections to maintain your cash flow stable? This is where having interconnected financial projections comes in handy, as changes to one section of your forecast are automatically mirrored throughout the rest of your forecast.
It’s also beneficial to focus on your current, real-world cash flow and develop solid habits while things are going well, in addition to experimenting with hypothetical cash flow scenarios. Spend time ensuring that your customers pay you on time and developing processes to manage your accounts receivable. Building a monetary cushion, if possible, might also be beneficial.
Investigate a line of credit
It’s not always straightforward for firms to build a cash reserve or “rainy day fund.” Most firms reinvest a large portion of their profits back into the company in order to fund future expansion. Consider taking out a business line of credit to serve as a cash reserve in this situation. Ideally, you won’t use this line of credit unless you absolutely need it, and it will cost your company very nothing to keep it up to date, with interest and fees only accruing when you borrow from it.
Tie marketing spending to revenue
Tying certain expenditures to revenue is a good budgeting method. This means that instead of setting aside a fixed budget for marketing, you predict marketing spending as a percentage of revenue. If sales start to drop, you can use this strategy to keep spending in control, or automatically increase the budget if sales are stronger than planned.
This strategy is applicable to more than just marketing. Many variable expenses (as opposed to “fixed expenses” like rent) can be related to revenue to make budgeting easier.
Which industry is immune to the downturn?
A recession-proof business can be extremely profitable for people in both good and bad times. Whatever the state of the economy or the stock market, certain company concepts, such as those listed below, have a good possibility of succeeding despite the rest of the financial doom and gloom.
Many well-known or historically successful enterprises were founded during economic downturns. The Walt Disney Company was created in the late 1920s, at the commencement of the Great Depression, and the Hewlett and Packard electronics company was founded in the late 1930s, during the second recession.
Rising interest rates and shifting GDP pose far less of a threat to the finest recession-proof enterprises mentioned below than they do to most other businesses, with many of them having the ability to do even more business than usual.
Food and Beverage Business
Because everyone still needs food and drinks to live, the food and beverage business is one of the most recession-proof industries. Because it is not a luxury that can be put aside in difficult times, enterprises in this area can thrive even in a downturn.
A recession favours whom?
Question from the audience: Identify and explain economic variables that may be positively affected by the economic slowdown.
A recession is a time in which the economy grows at a negative rate. It’s a time of rising unemployment, lower salaries, and increased government debt. It usually results in financial costs.
- Companies that provide low-cost entertainment. Bookmakers and publicans are thought to do well during a recession because individuals want to ‘drink their sorrows away’ with little bets and becoming intoxicated. (However, research suggest that life expectancy increases during recessions, contradicting this old wives tale.) Demand for online-streaming and online entertainment is projected to increase during the 2020 Coronavirus recession.
- Companies that are suffering with bankruptcies and income loss. Pawnbrokers and companies that sell pay day loans, for example people in need of money turn to loan sharks.
- Companies that sell substandard goods. (items whose demand increases as income decreases) e.g. value goods, second-hand retailers, etc. Some businesses, such as supermarkets, will be unaffected by the recession. People will reduce their spending on luxuries, but not on food.
- Longer-term efficiency gains Some economists suggest that a recession can help the economy become more productive in the long run. A recession is a shock, and inefficient businesses may go out of business, but it also allows for the emergence of new businesses. It’s what Joseph Schumpeter dubbed “creative destruction” the idea that when some enterprises fail, new inventive businesses can emerge and develop.
- It’s worth noting that in a downturn, solid, efficient businesses can be put out of business due to cash difficulties and a temporary decline in revenue. It is not true that all businesses that close down are inefficient. Furthermore, the loss of enterprises entails the loss of experience and knowledge.
- Falling asset values can make purchasing a home more affordable. For first-time purchasers, this is a good option. It has the potential to aid in the reduction of wealth disparities.
- It is possible that one’s life expectancy will increase. According to studies from the Great Depression, life expectancy increased in areas where unemployment increased. This may seem counterintuitive, but the idea is that unemployed people will spend less money on alcohol and drugs, resulting in improved health. They may do fewer car trips and hence have a lower risk of being involved in fatal car accidents. NPR
The rate of inflation tends to reduce during a recession. Because unemployment rises, wage inflation is moderated. Firms also respond to decreased demand by lowering prices.
Those on fixed incomes or who have cash savings may profit from the decrease in inflation. It may also aid in the reduction of long-term inflationary pressures. For example, the 1980/81 recession helped to bring inflation down from 1970s highs.
After the Lawson boom and double-digit inflation, the 1991 Recession struck.
Efficiency increase?
It has been suggested that a recession encourages businesses to become more efficient or go out of business. A recession might hasten the ‘creative destruction’ process. Where inefficient businesses fail, efficient businesses thrive.
Covid Recession 2020
The Covid-19 epidemic was to blame for the terrible recession of 2020. Some industries were particularly heavily damaged by the recession (leisure, travel, tourism, bingo halls). However, several businesses benefited greatly from the Covid-recession. We shifted to online delivery when consumers stopped going to the high street and shopping malls. Online behemoths like Amazon saw a big boost in sales. For example, Amazon’s market capitalisation increased by $570 billion in the first seven months of 2020, owing to strong sales growth (Forbes).
Profitability hasn’t kept pace with Amazon’s surge in sales. Because necessities like toilet paper have a low profit margin, profit growth has been restrained. Amazon has taken the uncommon step of reducing demand at times. They also experienced additional costs as a result of Covid, such as paying for overtime and dealing with Covid outbreaks in their warehouses. However, due to increased demand for online streaming, Amazon saw fast development in its cloud computing networks. These are the more profitable areas of the business.
Apple, Google, and Facebook all had significant revenue and profit growth during an era when companies with a strong online presence benefited.
The current recession is unique in that there are more huge winners and losers than ever before. It all depends on how the virus’s dynamics effect the firm as well as aggregate demand.
What are some recession-proof investments?
- Assets, companies, industries, and other organizations that are recession-proof do not lose value during a downturn.
- Gold, US Treasury bonds, and cash are examples of recession-proof assets, whereas alcohol and utilities are examples of recession-proof industries.
- The phrase is relative since even the most recession-proof assets or enterprises might suffer losses in the event of a prolonged downturn.
Who profited from the financial crisis of 2008?
Warren Buffett declared in an op-ed piece in the New York Times in October 2008 that he was buying American stocks during the equity downturn brought on by the credit crisis. “Be scared when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful,” he says, explaining why he buys when there is blood on the streets.
During the credit crisis, Mr. Buffett was particularly adept. His purchases included $5 billion in perpetual preferred shares in Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), which earned him a 10% interest rate and contained warrants to buy more Goldman shares. Goldman also had the option of repurchasing the securities at a 10% premium, which it recently revealed. He did the same with General Electric (NYSE:GE), purchasing $3 billion in perpetual preferred stock with a 10% interest rate and a three-year redemption option at a 10% premium. He also bought billions of dollars in convertible preferred stock in Swiss Re and Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW), which all needed financing to get through the credit crisis. As a result, he has amassed billions of dollars while guiding these and other American businesses through a challenging moment. (Learn how he moved from selling soft drinks to acquiring businesses and amassing billions of dollars.) Warren Buffett: The Road to Riches is a good place to start.)
What are two recession-proof items?
At least one of two main concepts governs recession-resistant enterprises. Both are used by some of the most stable and profitable industries.
- The given product or service is a less expensive alternative to another product or service.
- The product or service given is a necessity that cannot be avoided.
Let’s take a closer look at the two elements that make certain sectors recession-resistant.
Low-Cost Alternatives
In a circumstance when consumers must spend less moneyeither because it is difficult to obtain work, their income is stagnant, or other prices are risingconsumers will seek out low-cost alternatives to save money. This is why organizations and sectors that have a low-cost competitive edge fare better during a downturn.
Discount Stores
Only 25 equities in the S&P 500 achieved positive returns during the Great Recession of 2008, with Dollar General at the top. While there are other factors at play, Dollar General did well during this period in large part because these stores offer low-cost alternatives to core commodities like food, detergent, and basic apparel.
Low-Cost Products
Few products are as well-known as Campbell’s Soup when it comes to the ability to weather a recession on an individual level. Campbell’s Soup did well during the 2008 recession, as it has done in the previous 28 recessions in its 139-year history. Campbell’s Soup, like Dollar General, benefits from both recession-proof principles: food is a staple, and a can of soup is about as cheap as it gets.
Repair Shops and Consignment Stores
Buying new is generally not an option during a recession. Repairing an existing item or replacing it with a used one is a low-cost option to this. As a result, thrift stores, pawn shops, and repair shops are recession-resistant enterprises that typically do better during downturns. When money is tight, auto repair firms thrive because mending a big-ticket item like a car is far more realistic than buying a new one. Large resale marketplaces like Ebay offer a diverse range of things at low rates, which might satisfy a specific need or provide some relief and pleasure when circumstances are rough.
Needs
It’s simple to see why necessities create recession-proof industries. There are some things and services that are hard, or nearly impossible, to live without, even when times are tough. Businesses that meet a demand remain steady or perform better during recessions.
Food, water, and shelter are typically the first things that come to mind. Medical treatment and pharmaceuticals, hygiene goods such as soap and toothpaste, and basic services such as power and garbage pickup are all examples of necessities. Some businesses, as previously indicated, combine needs with low-cost alternatives, resulting in low-cost items that meet needs.
Medical Services
Medical services were three of the top ten best-performing equities during the 2008 crisis. This includes, for example, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and medical equipment makers. The necessity for medical services during a recession is obvious, as recessions increase stress and make maintaining a healthy lifestyle more difficult.
Logistics
Trucking is certainly not the first thing that springs to mind when you think of a need, but it is an important service that takes place behind the scenes. Whether it’s trucks, railcars, ships, or planes, every product that makes its way into stores or between production facilities passes via logistics. Despite the fact that demand for commodities is declining as the economy slows, logistics services remain stable.
Packaged Food and Bottled Water
Food and water are important even in the most desperate of circumstances. Consumers stock up on nonperishable food and clean water during recessions because they are worried about the future. Affordable commodities having a lengthy shelf life, such as Campbell’s Soup, and bottled water, encounter spikes in demand, especially during unpredictably occurring events. In reaction to COVID-19, bottled water sales jumped 52 percent during the initial lockdown period, while ice and water vending sales increased 10 and 30 percent, respectively, over the same period last year.
There are a few other issues to consider during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession. Soap and sanitizer sales have surged more than would be expected in prior recessions due to the demand for cleaning and sanitation. In reaction to health difficulties, medical services are anticipated to increase much more than usual. As a result of the closure of many public places such as restaurants and bars, sales in grocery shops and liquor stores have skyrocketed. Despite this, all of these enterprises are based on the concepts that make a sector recession-proof.
What kind of occupations withstand a downturn?
8 industries with the best job security during a downturn
- Health-care services. People get sick and require medical care regardless of the state of the economy, thus the demand for health-care occupations is fairly stable, even during a downturn.
Do things get less expensive during a recession?
Lower aggregate demand during a recession means that businesses reduce production and sell fewer units. Wages account for the majority of most businesses’ costs, accounting for over 70% of total expenses.