As an online business owner I’ve been hit by the recession, fortunately I’m in a niche business (search engine optimization services) where I’ve been turning potential clients away for years: I don’t run an online SEO business just to make money, I want to enjoy what I do so I’ve been very picky with which businesses I take on as clients and I’m very good at what I do, so there’s always been more potential SEO clients than I can cope with.

I lost important SEO clients because of the global credit crunch and recession, for example I had a very successful Italian hotel and vacation business that was ranked top 5 for many relevant SERPs as an SEO client and they had to stop paying for SEO services completely during the credit crunch, people stopped going on holiday! They were such good clients (been with me years) I continued to help them for free after they stopped paying: didn’t want their site to loose rankings during the summer months, they are still doing well in the SERPs for now thankfully.

Since I lost some good clients to maintain income I’ve replaced them with new SEO clients (in a couple of cases not as picky as I’d normally be). It’s been a hard time for many businesses and I personally don’t like the idea of relying on others for paying the mortgage and feeding my family, so I’ve been looking into diversifying my business in the future to protect my earnings long term: if there’s something I’ve learnt recently, governments and financial institutions are run by bloody idiots and we can not rely on them to do the right thing (we all need a plan B to fall back on).

Overall I’m now doing better money wise than before the credit crunch and recession, (over compensated a little) but many businesses will be on the verge of failure and bankruptcy and diversifying could be the answer.

Look at Woolworth’s in the UK, they were one of the first major businesses to fail and it wasn’t just because of the credit crunch. Woolworth’s had been struggling for years, their business model no longer worked, they were failing in the growth years! For Woolworth’s to have survived this financial crisis, they’d have had to realise their business model no longer worked and change their approach BEFORE the credit crunch hit.

From the ashes of Woolworth’s we have some new successful businesses, they have taken what was good about the old Woolworth’s and improved on what worked.

If you own a struggling business, take a step back and find parts of it that work or new related ventures that might work better than your current business model and move forward with those ideas. Don’t get stuck with an old idea just because it used to work, things change and businesses have to adapt or fail.

A bloke with a bucket and ladder is a window cleaner, but he could also clean cars with the bucket and clear out leaves from guttering on his ladder. A delivery driver who normally delivers furniture could also do small house removals. If your online website ecommerce store isn’t taking order currently, try selling advertising from your site until the economy picks up. Better to make a small amount of money from your online business than nothing at all.

Diversify your business and survive until things pick up and you never know you might find a better way to move your business forward in the future that is more idiot proof (the idiots being those in power and in control of our financial institutions).

David