ANTenna Blog -- Business & E-Business

Business as usual won't do in today's recessionary market. Business owners must make tough choices about where to cut, where to invest, and how to position their business to survive, but honing in on the right choices is daunting. Asking these 6 questions will help bring clarity and focus to your decisions.

Clarity and focus, clarity and focus, clarity and focus. These are the two things that will see your business through the recession -- those terms keep popping up in advice and strategy pieces from the collective mindshare of business experts. As a business owner you may be sick and tired of hearing about clarity and focus, but that doesn't mean it's not important. And like so many things, it's easy to say and harder to do. So how do you get there?

Stuart Burkow, co-author (with Jay Conrad Levinson) of "10 Powerful Strategies to Increase Cashflow, Boost Earnings & Get More Business" suggests asking 6 questions that will bring clarity to your business (and from this clarity, you'll know where to focus your attention). Here's Burkow's list:

1. What are my most profitable business activities right now -- that are likely to remain consistent and keep producing in the current environment? (Consider if, in the best case scenario... doing only the most profitable business... will that be enough to support you?)
2. Do these activities produce enough profit to warrant a business to support them? (This is important... just because you've been in a business or you want to be in a business... is not enough of a reason for the business to exist.)
3. What activities are least profitable -- that I can no longer afford to do? (Don't delude yourself. If an activity produces below average returns on your investment of time, money, energy, or resources -- dump it. Don't wait.)
4. What are my EXACT costs each month -- and what can I do without? (You must know to the penny... no kidding. How can you possibly know what you're aiming for unless you have your exact monthly target in mind. No guessing allowed.)
5. How can I sub-contract and hand off all work that doesn't directly produce a profit? (You must overcome the loss of your help by not consuming your time with administrative tasks such as doing paperwork, sales tax, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc. -- that can easily be done by other professionals and specialists "as needed.)
6. How can I leverage my tangible and intangible assets to profit in different ways? (Here's where you can start to get creative -- and harness your business in ways you might not have considered before).

More From bMighty: Financial Crisis Survival Kit