Trends Recession Database
When the pandemic hit and brought the economy to a grinding halt, we surveyed our vast audience of business owners for insights from companies that thrived during the recession.
Here, you’ll find the stories of dozens of excellent entrepreneurs, many of whom found a way not only to survive, but to thrive through difficult times.
Explore the database below for the helpful strategies, hard decisions, and lessons these founders learned along the way.
New Recession Database
| Company Name | Industry | Description | Year Founded | # of Employees | Backstory | Recession Strategy | Financial Result | Key Financial Strategy | What Helped | Financial Details | Hard Decisions | Lessons Learned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawrence party and Paper | Retail | party store | 2013 | 10 | Inserts in newspapers was primary advertising vehicle. Readership has plummeted. Social media has not replaced it. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Credit/loans | private loan | down 10 % | reduce inventory | sba loan or grant |
| The Encore Consignment Shoppe | Retail | upscale consignment shop,clothing,collectables,vintage,and local art | 1961 | 3 | My business is family owned and operated. My Aunt opened the business in 1961,when she retired in 2006 I bought the established business from her. I am second generation for the store. I changed the types of clothing we carried and switched to upscale labels only. This created another level of loyal customers. I started a customer appreciation system;for every $20 spent they got a punch on the punch card. When card was filled it was redeemable for 20% off their next purchase. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue stayed constant | Customer loyalty | loyal customers | letting my part time employees go | I am not sure,this is totally different then 2007-07. We have had to close our business'. Loyal customers are going to either support us once again or some of us may have to close business completely. | |
| Valley Martial Arts Supply | Retail | We sell martial arts equipment and supplies. | 1976 | 5 | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Customer loyalty | Customer loyalty | Stop buying inventory. | Take care of your customers as much as possible. | ||
| Field & Connolly, Ltd. | Insurance | Independent Property/Casualty insurance agency | 1980 | 3 | The timing of the 2007-2008 recession could not have been worse, for me (personally). I purchased the firm in 2007 after working for the previous owners for 15 years. The immediate downturn in the economy within the first 6 months of owning the company was a very daunting experience, to say the least! | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down slightly | Customer loyalty | We are a small, local firm with a long-time established relationship with our clients. Knowing most of our clients personally, and being a member of our local business community positioned us to be responsive to our clients' needs. We were proactive with our clients, working with them to make sure they had good information as they made decisions about their insurance coverages. We were able to assist our clients in finding ways to reduce their insurance costs, but also made sure they were continuing the insurance coverages necessary to their operations. | Commission revenues declined (slightly). Both Personal Lines and Commercial Lines clients made coverage adjustments to save money. Commercial Lines clients experienced lower payrolls and sales, which impacted the lines of coverage that are subject to premium audits. | Making sure that our cash flow was positive. Delaying any new equipment upgrades and purchases. Downsizing or eliminating supplemental compensation to owner--(ie: selling a company vehicle and replacing the vehicle with a less-costly vehicle). | Good and accurate information is paramount. Stay proactive and make sure your clients are as well-informed as possible. Be open to creative solutions and be prepared for continued changes. |
| Willow upholstery and drapery | Furniture | Upholstery ahop | 2006 | 9 | It was very stressful but everyone was united on a common goal. Survival. Frequent check ins with staff and business partners made us stay on track and focused | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up slightly | Customer loyalty | Concentrating on what we did best, we serviced every job to the max and asked for referrals at every step | 450k/600k | Letting employees go | Take care of your base customers, they want you to survive too |
| Bueno Creek ranches | Farming | Cow/calf operation | 1979 | 3 | Just like now not fun at all , and yes it’s normal worry on a daily basis but just keep pushing forward with good financial planning and you will soon be out of the bad times and once again growing your business | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue stayed constant | Cutting fat/operating lean | Stay with the fundamentals of business, and trim any (fat) from your operation such as not purchasing new equipment if you can get by with what you have, and if you have surplus cash pay down any outstanding debt that you can and purchase only what you need to get by for 30 days at a time as prices may go down and you don’t want to have paid more than you needed to for normal goods and services you use on a daily basis | Whether to hold over more salable livestock than and I normally wood just because I extra feed on hand . Sell the livestock and hold the money in reserve for use if it takes a little longer for the market to recover | Hold on to your base of operation and don’t worry about the rest you not a big enough company to be able to solve the worlds problems so take care of yours and wait for a better economy | |
| MI-BOX Moving & Mobile Storage | Logistics & Supply Chain | We are self-storage delivered. | 2004 | 6 | About 16 years ago (in 2004) I thought it was a good idea to start up a new company in a new industry...the portable storage industry. It's similar to self storage but instead of having to go to the self storage facility, the storage unit came to you. It’s kind of like the pizza business. Years ago, you would have to order a pizza and then go pick it up. Now-a-days, why would you go to the pizza place when you can have it delivered. And that’s why we started MI-BOX. Take the existing need for self storage and make it easier. MI-BOX “We make moving and storage easy! In 2004, I was 31 years old when I told my wife that my brother Mike had this great business idea and I was going to quit working (a good stable job) for her father and start this new business. All this while we have 3 kids and she was pregnant with twins. As I'm telling her how great this idea was, she back hands me in the chest and says, "Yeah you idiot, I told you that same idea 6 months ago.":) After two years in, someone said, hey, that’s a great idea, do you guys sell franchises? At that time the answer was no, but we were just young enough to say why not, how hard can it be? So, we figured it out and sold our 1st franchise 2006. When the stock market crashed back in 2008, our local business wasn’t affected much at all, but our franchising business was hit pretty hard. During that time we focused all our energy on the business and finding different ways to make it work, which we eventually did and just last month we opened our 50th location. My biggest mistake was spending too much time thinking about work and not enough time with my family. I have the most loving wife in the world who I met back in high school. Those tough times lasted a few years and I almost lost the one thing that is most important to me...my family. I am happy to say that I've learned a lot during that time and my business is doing great and my FAMILY is doing even better! | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue stayed constant | Cutting fat/operating lean | One of MI-BOX's main group of customers comes from people that are moving and are "in-between houses"...Ex: They sold one house and can't move directly into their next house. During the time of the recession, many people were forced into downsizing or even moving in with relatives as banks were not lending money. This kept our local portable storage business strong but we also sell MI-BOX dealerships. That business pretty much stopped for about 9 months as it costs quite a bit of money to get into this business and the banks stopped lending money. Our philosophy has always been to keep corporate overhead as low as possible so we can pass those savings along to our dealers, who in turn can offer our services to the end user at the best price possible. That philosophy saved us, and we were fortunate enough to have a stable local portable storage business to carry us through those tough times. | Occupancy rates were about 90%, pre/during/post-recession. | Reducing the salaries paid to the officers and not the employees. | Einstein once said “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.†Which, in my mind, means – When many people are feeling the same way about something…that something becomes a reality. Our choice of action may be limited but our choice of thought is not. Me and my two partners always knew that we would make it through the recession because we “burned the boats†and there was no other option. |
| Cowboy Star Restaurant & Butcher Shop | Restaurants | We are Neighborhood Fine dining, a steakhouse with an upscale butcher shop | 2008 | 25 | we endured some really difficult times, our partner and chef lost his home. My husband and I took out a loan against our home to keep the restaurant going. There were so many sleepless nights. The utilities company threatened to shut us down on a regular basis. The PTSD from that time has kept me in a 2nd job for the last 12 years. (which at the moment we are grateful to have the additional income). | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue stayed constant | Cutting fat/operating lean | Naivety. It was our 1st restaurant, our friends and family were our investors. We couldn't fail, we had 2nd jobs, we worked crazy hours, we applied for every credit card with low interest we could find. The fear of failing each other held us together. That restaurant has been open for 12 years and grosses $5M a year. We have a 2nd location that opened in April 2015. Unfortunately we had to temporarily close both locations on March 17th 2020 due to Coronavirus. Having lived through 2008 we know how to be scrappy and we'll find a way to thrive again. | We opened in May 2008 ($850k), fiscal year 2009 we did ($1.8M) | when the recession was at its peak, many of our competitors who were large chains, went to cheap products and offered inexpensive menu options. We struggled with this as it was against everything that our brand meant. We only sourced the best ingredients and we didn't compromise. We made a commitment that if we went down we were going to go down doing it our way. When the economy recovered, people remembered that we were a place that offered the highest quality product at a fair price, and we had a boom. | Don't do anything drastic, stay the course be conservative, obsess about finding a way to make it work. Keep the negative at arms length, many people will tell you that it's not worth it, or that you can't do it. That's their reality not yours. |
| Osborne Lumber Company, Inc. | Building Materials | We supply lumber and building materials to contractors in the SF Bay Area. | 1950 | 22 | It was brutal. Big retail banks made the decision to get out of anything construction related. Those business that made the mistake of working with them had their loans and property mortgages called in. Fortunately we had relationships with another business focused bank that understood what we were doing and stood by our side. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | We implemented significant cost cutting measures early. Every employee was expected to wear multiple hats and do multiple jobs. Owners of the company were not above pushing a broom. | 50% of our customer base disappeared. Construction dried up. We had something to sell but nobody to sell to. It was dog-eat-dog for market share of the leftover scraps. | We cut our workforce by 50%. Some of those impacted (laid off) were family members. | Control your spending. Implement furlough days in lieu of layoffs if you can. Good employees are hard to find and also hard to keep (financially) during down times. Set the tone that everyone is in this together (including ownership). |
| FixYourOwnBindery.com | Printing | We offer bindery equipment solutions (including custom automations), and with present bindery closure trends we have begun to specialize in plant consolidations. | 2005 | 2 | Feel free to contact me with any questions. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | I certainly wouldn't say we thrived, but we survived by cutting every nonvital cost - really, turning off the lights and eating bologna for months on end. Even when it hurt. It also helped us that we had invested in a semitruck back in 2005 (a $12,000 Ebay purchase), and that was something none of our competitors had. So I could drive it myself, and we could out-bid others on jobs by the tens of thousands, charging just for the cost of gas. | Roughly, I went from making six-digits to zero digits and from working 20 hours a week to 80 hours (including cutting grass on the weekends to avoid losing the house). | The question that never left my mind was - Was I making the right choice to even keep it? I was two weeks away from losing my house at one point and had three daughters to feed. The only way I could get unemployment was to close the company, which didn't make sense to me because nobody else was hiring. I chose to bet on what we had going, and we were able to push through, but that was one of the most difficult decisions of my life. | Make the painful list of every expense you have and get the red pen out. And for those who push through, don't fall out of that mindset. Keep yourself poised for an uncertain future. I put everything to that same acid test to this day - If the world went off a cliff, is this something I need? As I drive through my neighborhood now, I love to see the couple of places where the owners are running the food out to your car with the skeletal kitchen crew inside. They remind me of me, shaving the cost as low as possible and fighting to stay alive with your sleeves rolled up. |
| Tool Crib, Inc | Automotive | We sold industrial tools to parts manufacturers for the automotive industry | 1951 | 28 | It was really hard, but it made us a better company. I don't want to do it again, but education is expensive no matter how you get it, and we learned a lot. I don't think with COVID-19 it will be the same. The US economy was already hurting back then, today the US economy is still strong, it's just been shifted a quarter or two. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | We lost some people on there own, no layoffs, we all took a little cut in pay, cut out all unnecessary expenses, but the best thing was all of people had "ownership mentality" that put us all in the same boat. Everyone was rowing in the same direction. Still today! | we lost 40% of our revenues between Aug. 2008 to Nov 2008. It stayed the same until about June 2009, but not a full recovery until about Sep. 2010 | Let some of our customers slow down on paying their receivables. It was hard then, but it paid off huge when things got better, they remembered which suppliers cut them off, and which ones had some grace, the grace companies won in the long run. | Take a crisis and turn it into opportunity. Look to your employees as solution generators, ask them, they will have great ideas. Most of the best ideas will stick around way after COVID-19...which WILL end. |
| The Montgomery Group Represents, Inc | Marketing & Advertising | Basically we are a small creative company that produces editorial and advertising campaigns while managing creative artist like photographers, hair stylist, wardrobe stylist, and make up artist | 1996 | 15 | It was terrifying! Just that simple. Lots of prayers and tears. There were people who left because they felt they could do better with new companies or alone, but those who stayed, we truly became a family. We were literally paying each other's cell phone bills so we could all stay connected. And remember this was before everyone had an unlimited place for $50... | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | We cut all the fat, changed our $4000/month office to virtual offices. It was cheaper to let everyone take a computer home and work from home. Best advice from my account....sometimes it's not about have a great day, it's about just surviving for another day until the dust clears. | Would need to consult our accountant, who kept us alive...But as an example, wardrobe stylist who were normally making an average of $15K a week for maybe a music video, literally dropped to $0 and during the bounce back maybe got back to $3500 a week. We had to reshape everything. Make up artist at $2500/day were down to $500-$750/day maybe one job a week. | Letting go of some people, mainly because they refused to understand, the times had changed and we needed to survive as a group or let those not willing to work as a team go their own way. | Trim the fat, and become more personal with your vendors and clients. Because we were a small company we always tried to stay personal with our clients, BUT during those times where many of the people we worked with were freelance creatives, we just checked in on people just to see how they were doing. We weirdly became a good resource for connecting people looking for services from other people that actually had nothing to do with our company. We have always been great at being information gatherers. And I think being honest with our clients that, "this isn't something we can do, but I may know someone that can help you" really made them understand, our personal connection was more important than the dollar we want to make today. |
| Raymond's mobile welding/Cassandra a construction services | Construction | Welding, stucco, drywall,concrete | 1987 | 2 | I'm of a different breed. We grow up poor. I married young . Had to kids. My husband killed himself during the recession and me and the made sacrifices. Which made us strong warriors. We have several businesses. Are we rich only in love and compared to the poor er then us. But were happy and we have food water and shelter and we can do anything. That's the secret. I'm getting on a plane for Minnesota to go to work and learn another field of the Construction and I just started this new business decor doctor remodeling fx's ast food restaurants. I'm Cassandra lemieux. Native of fort Myers Fla. And love it here. Stafe safe, stay strong, stay flexible, save and make sacrifices, grow garden, and eat beans instead of ho hos , sodas . No welfare if you do make and plane meals quit buying crap. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | We made sacrifices bagged lunch, looked for materials on craigslist, willing to do other things, we might clean a house or do landscaping intill a job came through. Work long hours /like 24 hrs a day. Rest maybe on a Sunday. You learn you have no friends during this time. To many pity parties. American s are spoiled they dont know how to make sacrifices. We planted a garden , raised chickens , turkeys and hogs and survived . Today me and my son and daughter have survived and growing stronger. God shielded us and his angels. Were not rich but we have what we started with plus more. | To buy a new pair of boots because the ones your wearing are falling apart or hope and pray they make it through the next job. And they do then you buy some groceries and pay the electric and wear them again. Because you know God is going to provide and you eventually can buy a new pair | If you survive prepare for the next worse thing. Dont put your eggs all in one basket. Be willing dont do other things , dont think or act like your to good to get in the mud/clean a toilet / advertise there is free ways to advertise , then when your back up go for it with all you have. Save save and save there will be more bad times. And pray alot | |
| Kickass Karaoke Inc | Entertainment | Basically an entertainment services company. I was a karaoke host for 13 years but my day job was as a lighting technician in film and tv. | 1999 | 1 | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | Duck and cover till it picks up again | Eating at home. Playing video games in my underwear all day. | Being from toronto, we also got kicked in the teeth by SARS. The lesson is shitty stuff that’s not on a good foundation or is over extended will fail. HOLD FAST | ||
| Essence of Events LLC | Events Services | Wedding and event consulting and blog | 2002 | 1 | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | Camping up sales and marketing and offering suggestions or tips to help clients | Decision to move and simplify | Cut back on expenses and overhead as much as possible | ||
| Lages & Associates | Public Relations & Communications | We are a small PR and Communications agency focused on tech | 1988 | 6 | Gut wrenching. Every day waking up to dreadful news reports that the economy was not getting better. Deferring bills, trying to collect receivables is discouraging. Yet the support and commitment of our small team was lifting. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | Commitment of our small team to take cuts in pay and do everything possible to reduce expenses. We all had the same goal to come out of this deep recession together. | Laying off a n employee who had been with me from the early days. It was a joint decision - she was ready to focus on her family and leave the agency. Reducing salaries knowing that it was causing hardship for everyone. | Reduce expenses as much as possible. Cash is king - hold on to it as it is needed to survive. People- take care of your team expressing empathy and doing what ever you can to make the rough ride tolerable. Give the more flexibility. Be honest and transparent — they know you can not get water from a rock. During the recession we tried very hard and worked around the clock to land business of any kind and found the effort just wasn’t producing. So we changed course and learned how to hunker down and weather the storm. This covid-19 crisis is different and requires a different approach. You must over service your clients and give them as much as you can. We are all in this together. | |
| Last Bottle Wines | Wine & Spirits | One wine a day, wildly discounted, until it's gone. | 2006 | 10 | We've worked with you guys -- we love the Hustle! We like to work with companies like yours to help us grow and reach more people. You can NEVER rest, that's for sure. As I said earlier, we instantly cancelled plans to buy higher-end wines (which we love and why we got into the biz!) | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | People don't stop drinking. They just change price point. We adjusted our warehouse (online) stock accordingly and trimmed hours down of employees for a few months, but never had to let anyone go. Tightened belts in other places, professionally and personally. | Sales dropped by several million but rebounded quickly | Cutting employee hours, eliminating travel and fun "perks", aggressively negotiating for lower prices on wine | Get SMALL, quick. This crisis is affecting some sectors drastically dis-proportionally (restaurants, who also buy wine, of course, but hotels, travel, etc) and those companies should shrink as much as they can to stay afloat. |
| JimDHollowayDDS | Hospital & Health Care | General Dentistry | 1988 | 9 | See previous | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | Continue providing quality care, streamline office hours (fewer hours per week), which lowered utilities and payroll. Assured staff however, that if we could maintain same revenue by being more time efficient, then payroll would go back to original numbers. And it did....we became better at time management increasing our revenue and working fewer hours per week. Cost of supplies was scrutinized and ordering was consolidated to a single employee who also managed inventory on hand. This resulted in less money spent on supplies due to better management. Accounts receivables was given priority status and we reworked our upfront payments (copays and deductibles) and instituted same day billing rather than monthly. This decreased the amount of money put into receivables and shortened our aging of outstanding receivables. We also strengthened our marketing to bring in new patients and assure existing patients that we were going to be there for them. Financially we consolidated all short and long term debt into a fixed APR long term loan thereby increasing out monthly cash flow. Discretionary spending and new equipment purchasing was put on hold. We assured all employees that we would not downsize and we maintained morale consistently. We came out of the difficult time with better hours, more efficient systems, and a better understanding that even healthcare responds to business principles. | Cutting back on personal pay. | Use available resources for assistance and advice. | |
| Amazing Blades Landscaping | Facilities Services | We are a residential/commercial full service landscape maintenance company | 2001 | 30 | We found ways to save time and cut expenses down to most trivial task. Labor is our biggest expense and we implemented technology such as GPS tracking to route crews tighter and eliminate unnecessary stops. We managed crews to make sure they were under budgeted stop times. We purchased an online business software that kept up with all business activities. We could measure clients properties from the internet and quote on the phone. It managed time tracking and automated invoicing . Started accepting credit card and online payments. Created a new website and started an SEO program that generated more leads than we could keep up with. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | We cut waste and learned how to run more efficiently/lean | 460,763/647,013/2,812,295 | Firing employees that would not get on board with our plan | Run as lean as possible and cut waste everywhere |
| Theraganics | Consumer Goods | Soap, toiletries, bath & body | 2007 | 0 | We were actually founded right before the recession. I kept things simple and realized it was actually an opportunity to build customer relationships by offering my goods at an attractive price during a time when people were stretching their dollar. People remember that.. so as the economy and my prices recovered they still came back to purchase from me. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | Not spending a lot on advertising or unnecessary things. Direct sales - much more in person and targeted sales were beneficial. Not ordering excess raw materials. We went to more of a just in time type system. | Dont remember | Letting salespeople go and getting creative with the money I had. | Cut unnecessary expenses and luxuries. Have an emergency fund available for next time. |
| Target Solutions | Professional Training & Coaching | online training for firefighters, EMTs, & paramedics | 1999 | 24 | By accepting reality while being honest (not over enthusiastic) you can quickly reduce overhead so you can "live to fight another day" | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | making tough decisions to drastically cut overhead, be decisive, be aggressive | terminate and furlough key people | embrace the opportunity to revamp your business model and find creative ways to drive revenue, ask for help from key employees, BOD members, shareholders, vendors, & customers | |
| Wedding Collectibles | Retail | Gifts and wedding products | 1980 | 3 | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | Cut lots of fat | Whether or not to pay myself to keep employees | Reduce your expenses as much as possible | ||
| Carolina Signworks | Marketing & Advertising | Supply Business Branding for all platforms from Print to Vehicals | 1993 | 3 | We Were not watching financial community and got caught be surprise. If we had a plan for the worst in place and a "nestegg" we would have rode it out ,instead of downsizing and scrambling to cut costs. We now have diversified into other services & products as a backup. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down slightly | Diversification | Downsizes and diversified | Gross sale went down 50% | Lay Off employees | Be Prepared with contingency plan |
| Magnolia Hospitality Group | Hospitality | Restaurant + Bars | 2005 | 24 | Still unsure if it was worth the fight, damn near lost my family, lost all my fiends. It sucked | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Downsizing/layoffs | I’m extremely Irish i.e. stubborn | Revenue was down 43%, real estate dropped by 50% | I encouraged people to quit (then assumed their duties). It sucked | Take offensive measures NOW - do not wait |
| BLUE STREET CAPITAL, LLC | Financial Services | TECHNOLOGY/COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT FINANCING | 2004 | 8 | If I knew how bad it was in 07/08 I may have thrown in the towel ahead of time. In hindsight, I am glad we fought through it. We have the best team and greatest people now because of the great recession. Start everyday THINKING BIG - go 5 years, 10 years, lifetime out then zoom back into today. Pick ONE FOCUS today to get better because of the current state and do your best. AMOR FATI! | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Downsizing/layoffs | We have thrived since. The 'great' recession drove out a skittish partner enabling future growth through creating a team culture as opposed to a 'me' culture. | We have 5X our company size since. | Risk of losing it all to stay in business/raising capital and giving up equity. | (1) Stay in the game. (2) Obstacles DO make you stronger. (3) As Mr. Rogers mother said 'Look for helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' |
| Fowler Flemister Concrete | Construction | We manufacture ready mix concrete for the construction industry | 1963 | 99 | We were at the time a second generation family business in a rural part of Georgia. We spent the first year thinking it was short term like most down turns. Then we bite the bullet and started making huge changes to the way we did business. We laid off employees, sold excess trucks, refinanced what we had left to get cash and extend the terms. We had some suppliers that worked with us on purchasing and paying back. This with the blessing of God we made it. We are now a third generation family business. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Downsizing/layoffs | Refinancing loans , cutting work force and selling excess equipment | We went from producing 200,000 yards of concrete in 2006 with 99 employees to 38,000 yards with 39 employees by 2010. We are back up to 85 employees currently | Laying off people | Run lean and refinance what you can. Also go to your suppliers and work on getting better prices on goods and extended pay plans |
| The Kim Komando Show | Broadcast Media | Largest network radio show about digital life on 400+ stations, plus digital assets and email newsletters. We send 40 million email newsletters a month | 1995 | 30 | When you know that what you're doing is to keep not only your family fed but your employees, it gets very stressful. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up slightly | Downsizing/layoffs | Staying focused, giving advertisers latitude to change schedules, also required all advertisers to pay cash in advance | Laying off people who I really liked and worked hard for me | Know this will end and normalcy will return, just not the normal you're used to | |
| Rae Line Ltd | Maritime | Fibreglass boat builder | 1998 | 7 | It was one of the more difficult times of my life, and having been through the good years in the lead up, it made the whole scenario a very difficult shift. One of the harder things was coming out of it and trying to rebuild and then also being based in Christchurch, New Zealand, we ended up have a series of large earthquakes in our city in 2010 and 11 that really put a further spanner in the works. All of my trained staff ended up leaving and so had to rebuild with an entirely new workforce, that I was also competing to employ people against a booming construction sector that were driving up wage costs. It also resulted in some quality control issues further down the line. It wasn't until 2013 that we really started to see some progress in rebuilding the company back up. We have since kept our stock boats to as minimum as possible and focused heavily on repair work and customization to boats alongside the manufacturing. This has resulted in some issues with productivity and efficiency where by staff are sometimes relearning a build process of a boat simply because we don't do it regularly enough to keep on track. This has resulted in cost increases to the end product just to stay viable and we are lucky that the exchange rate has helped offset a lot of imported boats that we compete against. It is just a real character builder and was a time that you just need to dig deep, tell the wife not to expect to see you a hell of a lot and work for whatever you can get your hands on, even if it just ends up you being the only one left. It will all come right at some point! | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Emergency cash reserves | Cash reserves and the ability to maintain a low cost operation | 3 million pre recession annual revenue, dropped to 200k during and at its worst got to 150k per before recovering. | Letting staff go. We got back down to just 2 of us to get through. We needed to build a lot of stock and hold a lot of debt just to keep going. Had to do quite a hard pivot to completing boat repair work and close down manufacturing at the worst times. Personally operating on a very thin salary to keep the dream alive. | As with most basic business survival plans, you need to be liquid and have cash. For us we are in a bit of a unique situation, where we attribute or try to attribute all our overheads and labour cost into the production output, so we don't necessarily need to sell a lot to break even or try and make a small profit in the hard times, but we definitely need big cash reserves to keep buying stock to put into production while sales are low, with the intention that they will pick up again in 6 to 12 months time or so. |
| Elan Multifamily Investments | Real Estate | Purchase, Asset Manage, Add Value to 100+ unit apartment buildings on West Coast, for investors | 1990 | 12 | Created core team, showed up and worked every day (also took adv of reduced cost activities to add variety - this time self development, education, and then travel will be on sale again). We went into the recession low on cash, reduced our over head staff and re-employed as many as possible in essential jobs supported by contractual fee revenue. Created scenario biz plans. Sold an asset at discount to cover 8 months of reduced overhead. Lived very lean. Just like now, no one knows where the bottom is or when recovery will start. This part of the curve has the most external uncertainty. Creat internal certainty. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Emergency cash reserves | Aimed for where we thought the market was going (lower), not where it was. Sold an asset early for cash reserves. Constant sift to put energy in what we could influence/control and not invest energy in fighting against the things we couldn’t. Created rules for future business from the experience. | Pre revenue $2m, during $200k 2009-half way thru 2010, then gradual climb back, 2019 $6m | Staffing decisions, selling a valuable asset at significant discount, which lenders to pay and which to negotiate with. | Preserve cash. Secure assets. Sell something and/or borrow if you need cash. Don’t trash your credit rating - this is a phase and you’ll need good credit to be able to transact in the early half of recovery. Throw away your 2020 business plan and redo it for 2 scenarios - 4 and 8 month biz interruption. Exercise and diligently protect mind from spiraling thoughts. Use the time to target the recovery - create the tools and plan to transact early in the recovery. Estimate how far away it is, double that and make a financial survival plan. |
| KGS Steel Inc. | Alternative Dispute Resolution | We service anyone who uses steel from homebuilders to shipbuilders. | 1989 | 45 | I never understood why my father insisted on us discounting our bills until the great recession. Everything became clear immediately after that. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Emergency cash reserves | Our business survived because we always took a discount to pay early on all of our vendors that offered one. Not owing anyone past 10-30 days made a huge difference in our ability to survive. | We decided to not layoff anyone. We worked less hours and we had a few older workers retire. | Keep your payables and receivables up to date. | |
| Travel Is Fun TOurs of St Pete Inc. | Leisure, Travel & Tourism | We create day trips & multi day trips based out of St Pete FL & Focused on the senior/retiree Market | 1983 | 2 | One of our tactics was to focus on less expensive trips. Daytrips and 2-3 day trips versus weeklong excursions, keeping the purchase price as low as possible. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down slightly | Emergency cash reserves | We are extremely conservative when paying ourselves maintaining a healthy amount of liquid capital for emergencies | delaying upgrading computers, delaying or skipping quarterly bonuses, shoppng carefully for healthcare/insurance | Keep a decent emergency bank account - Be careful paying out bonuses - Always invest in the business first! | |
| Centro | Marketing & Advertising | re | 2001 | 75 | Centro was able to survive and then thrive after the recession because our team remained motivated and aggressive. We did not have to refresh or rehire a new team. We did not experience a disruption in our business process. We kept the team together and gained experience through the challenges. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue stayed constant | Expansion/buying out competitors | We remained aggressive in our business and sales while finding numerous ways to cut costs while keeping our team intact. We did not have layoffs. We calculated what the revenue shortfall may be, and found that amount in expense savings. We focused on cutting as much non-personnel costs as possible while keeping the company operational. | Our CEO had to fire our board of directors because they did not agree with our plan to not have layoffs. | The general philosophy we take is to expect the best but prepare for the worst. We made the best guess on what the worst would look like and then created a plan around that scenario. | |
| TJM Promos, Inc. | Marketing & Advertising | Marketing company focused on marketing through promotional products. | 2004 | 28 | Transparency is the key to retaining a worried staff and building loyalty. During tough times, you genuinely realize what a difference a good team makes and you want to work to keep that team strong. Let them know what's going on, make sure no one is blindsided with tough decisions, be vulnerable. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up a lot | Expansion/buying out competitors | The focus was to reduce overhead, keep staff while reducing wages as little as possible, double down on advertising, purchase dying competition. | Pre- $3.5-$4m During- $3.5M Post- Now a $13m a year company | Up to 50% layoffs, reduced management salaries, and vendor renegotiation. | Focus on your staff, focus on quality advertising outlets, be customer service minded, don't be afraid to reach out to competitors that are struggling to try to purchase their market share. |
| Don's Dairy Supply, Inc. | Food & Beverages | We build small scale milk and food processing plants inside of shipping containers to be set on small farms to help save small farms. | 1982 | 15 | The only thing certain is change, learn to adapt to survive! | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | Personal sacrifices to keep employees, adapting our business to changing industries, finding new ways to meet our customers needs. | Less about $2 million in sales | Lay-offs | Keep working any way you can. Find new customer needs to be met and fill those gaps. |
| Aqua Par Lifestyles | Construction | Build ponds and water features | 2006 | 4 | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | Willing to change our primary focus from new business to maintaining old business | Getting rid of employees | Save your money s ok you can be one of the guys that makes it through when all the others fold | ||
| Debrha Carnahan law office | Law Practice | It is a family law business | 1992 | 4 | It was a strange time. You have to be flexible, generous, and work harder. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down slightly | Flexibility/pivoting | Shifting focus slightly from divorces which were not happening at all to more estate, criminal, personal injury. After several month, there was pent up demand for divorces. | I am stuck in Arizona. My office is IDAHO. But I have a graph showing a dip for several months then an increase. | It wasn’t difficult. | Take care of your staff. I did no lay offs |
| Sola Lucy inc | Retail | Woman’s resale consignment | 1994 | 1 | Typically resale/used/consignment performs better during a recession. Both on buying and selling. This time around the internet is an amazing tool to stay connected and open new avenues for everything! It’s a good reminder to us all to be conservative and understanding emergency situations like these are always looming. Plan plan plan and don’t overextend yourself or your biz. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | Staying flexible with inventory, provided excellent customer svc, listened to clients!, and kept lean on marketing. | I don’t have them infront of me | Letting employees go | Don’t panic! Reach out to accounts payable and get support if can’t pay; direct marketing with clients-be in touch!; be transparent-people are more likely to help if you’re honest; budget!!! |
| Black Kettle Soap Company | Cosmetics | Personal Care items like soap, lotion, and laundry soap. | 2007 | 4 | Finding the right demographics of Customers to support our price points to keep us afloat. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went up slightly | Flexibility/pivoting | We started doing a lot of private label orders. | 45000 to 80000 | Putting our brand to the side and doing private labels for other companies. | Know your product inside out and take that content to help your community, the next generation of entrepreneurs. |
| Clark Advisory Group | Insurance | Retirement Income planning | 2006 | 0 | You must be your own motivator in day in and day out you must have a good mindset try to be positive and not let the negatives tear you down push every day strengthen your client relationships provide great customer service | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue stayed constant | Strategic partnerships | Networking within warm market and strong professional Relationships to obtain joint venture work | Our percentages were up | Not do any hiring during Recessionary times | To always have and maintain a appropriate side account for business |
| TheOfficeSquad | Accounting | We are a virtual operations hub for small business owners. Our specialty is virtual full charge bookkeeping using a hosted environment but we also answer phones and do all the admin minutia in the middle. I'm forced to use the category of Accounting all the time since Operations for SBO is never an option. 🙂 | 2001 | 10 | I think I already covered most of that in previous questions but the sleepless nights, stress, and fear of the unknown about covers it. I'm a planner and not being able to know for sure when things were happening and how to handle them was tough. The COVID-19 issue will be much tougher. It's not just about losing revenue, homes, and businesses. It's about losing lives. We didn't close the entire Las Vegas Strip in 2007, 2008, and 2009. | Prevention-focus: Made primarily defensive moves to avoid losses and minimize downside risks. | Revenue went down a lot | Strategic partnerships | Strategic partnerships! I had to layoff 1/2 my staff, give up my rented space and all the systems and utilities that went with it. Working with an associate with a building that needed front desk and management help, I bartered space for services. We got lean and put our heads down to help other small businesses survive as well. | We had just reached $325,000 and lost 1/2 of our revenue. It took several years to get back there. | Letting staff go and not paying some of the bills. | A pivot is a change in strategy without a change in vision. Now is the time to pivot and adjust. Consider the worst that may happen in the next 3 to 4 months and plan a path through it. Who do you need to let go? For me is was tough because in 2008 I hadn't yet learned to distance myself emotionally from staff. Yes, it's hard to let people go. Especially knowing that they most likely won't be able to find another job; but you can't take care of all of them. This is why we pay unemployment tax. Let yourself be okay with that. Stop paying the things you don't absolutely need. Call your vendors and negotiate terms. If you can't get that then you're just going to have to start ignoring the payment reminders and realize that your credit rating is going to take a serious hit. Got over it. Look for strategic partnerships with other in need. Is there something you could trade with and for? |
| 1PL8 | Health, Wellness & Fitness | A cooking school reversing/preventing chronic illness through food | 2018 | 3 | We are revolutionary in the sense that we are chefs fighting back against chronic illness. We are experts in food and culinary techniques. Our method has been shown to help reduce and prevent chronic illness. We are helping families all over the country while respecting our cultural differences. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Customer loyalty | We focused on giving back to the community and helping others. We took a selfless risk to help others and it has been paying off for us. | The initial decision to change our focus and help the homeless was a huge risk that we didn’t know would help us or not. Our backs were up against the wall so we had to do something. | Scale back and focus on community support. | |
| Management One | Retail | Management One provides merchandise intelligence to retailers through inventory management, open-to-buy planning and financial analysis. | 1987 | 100 | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Customer loyalty | We were able to effectively demonstrate the value of our services to retail clients who were looking to survive during the recession. | Our main focus was providing support for our retail clients to make sure they had all of the tools they needed to weather the financial storm. During this time, Management One saw it's BEST retention rate ever! Our clients saw the true value of having a plan in place to manage their cash flow. | We had to re-examine our business model and change our service delivery model to adapt to post-recession retail thinking. | We are applying the same principles NOW... Weeks ago, when COVID-19 looked like it would be FAR more impactful than previously determined, we hit the ground running with our webinar series designed to educate retailers on the tools/resources at their disposal to help mitigate the effects. This webinar series continues today with topics covering marketing strategies, landlord negotiations, CARES Act unpacking and more! The response has been VERY positive and many of our retail clients have effectively pivoted their sales model to adapt to online sales amid the shut down. | |
| Spin350 Creative | Design | Spin350 Creative is the Boston-based branding, graphic & web design studio run by award-winning creative director, Joe Lyons. For almost 20 years, Joe has specialized in working with businesses (new & established, small & large) that want to develop and maintain a professional appearance that is brand consistent, impactful and memorable. | 2001 | 5 | I was very blessed to still have my first big client during the recession because they were the bread-and-butter that kept my business with work on our plates. When you are a professional designer, it’s sometimes difficult to convince small businesses that they need to spend money when money is tight, but to be able to show people the return on those investments was very rewarding. A lot of people don’t put value on investing in professional graphic design and branding because they don’t look at the big picture but the reality is that first impressions are going to make the biggest impact on your prospects. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Customer loyalty | One of the things that I focused on was client retention. During a recession one of the first things that company stop spending money on is design and marketing so I needed to incentivize the work that we did for them in this area. We helped clients look at their existing branding and brand image and made sure that it was as strong as possible in terms of professionalism, consistency and presentation so that when we all came out of the recession they had the tools to better market their businesses. | There were months where I didn’t take a paycheck so that I could make sure to keep my employees working. | Be prepared for when business is back to normal! Use this downtime as an opportunity to polish all the areas of your companies branding and marketing. Read your website start to finish and update outdated or in accurate content. Look at your marketing materials and work with a professional to update them to meet 2020 design trends. | |
| Temple Bar Concepts | Hospitality | We own and operate live music venues, bars, restaurants and coffee shops. | 1999 | 65 | I'd like to highlight one of my establishments in particular, The Townhouse & Del Monte Speakeasy in Venice. Why? Because this establishment has been open since 1915 and has remained in business throughout prohibition, the Great Depression and two world wars and the Great Recession of 2008! The Townhouse in Venice was originally known back then as Menotti's. An Italian immigrant named Cesar Menotti bought the property from Abbot Kinney. He set up a two story saloon/buffet with entertainment in the Del Monte Speakeasy below. In 1920 Prohibition was enacted and liquor was made illegal. Menotti quickly pivoted and put Menottis grocery store on the ground floor to hide the illegal speakeasy below in the basement, where it remains today. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Customer loyalty | Alcohol, Quality entertainment, friendly service and comfortable meeting places for the community. | I laid off 140 employees this time around but never laid off even one during the Great Recession! | Remain consistent and continue to offer your services and /or products to your loyal customer base by what ever means possible. | |
| Resource Development Group | Management Consulting | We help economic and community development organizations with structure, design and funding. Building organizations that help build communities | 1995 | 12 | Focusing on the positive, I think our experience made us a better company. We were forced to adapt our business model to the emerging economy, which required us to do more with less, meaning attain the same level of $$ volume with less capacity. By 2012 we began to hit our stride again, reaching close to 80% of our previous revenue with 1/2 of the employee count. It was painful and difficult but I can honestly say we came out stronger. We were also forced to move out of our traditional comfort zone by diversifying our product mix. The coming out takes longer than expected, however, and I think that's another one of the hard lessons. For us, it was a solid 6-8 years recovering from the debt load, etc. Ergo, waiting too long to lay people off, etc., which was the primary contributing factor to that debt. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Customer loyalty | Perseverance, pragmatic confidence, customer loyalty and creative banking | 2007 = $1.8 mil; 2008 = $1.2 mil; 2009 = $550k; 2010 = $900k; 2011 = $1.1 mil - employee count went from 12 to 3 to 6 over that same period of time | Laying off our entire team. We waited too long and provided too much in severance to retain good employees but had to eventually let everyone go. Hardest thing I've ever had to do. | First, having made it through 9/11 and the Global Recession, this is not like either so I believe experience and creativity will be more important than fundamentals and process. In other words, in this case history can teach us in some ways but probably won't be a good guide. Second, trust your instincts if they are good and if not, find people whose instincts you do trust and ask them for advice. |
| Tribeca Medspa | Health, Wellness & Fitness | Medical Aesthetics, Botox, Lasers, Medical Facials | 2006 | 8 | We opened Tribeca Medspa in 2006, we had a hockey stick curve for the first year and half. We were at a cash flow positive place by month 13. Then the bottom fell out of the market. The immediate affect of month 1 of the great recession took our revenues to almost zero. We are located in a premium neighborhood in lower Manhattan. Our community is largely made up of people who work in the financial sector of New York City. Bankers were no longer getting bonus money and they and their wives were scared of spending their personal capital on something unessential, like botox. We believed things would one day be better and invested back in the business to keep it afloat. We were at the end of our rope by the time things started to come back. I am glad we stayed the course because we had regular 20% year of year increases in revenue for the next decade. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Customer loyalty | We endeared ourselves to our local community. At one point we offered free facials. Many of these customers we have today. We were in a growth business sector and many competitors went out of business. We funded the company at a loss for a while believing that times would be good again. Being in downtown Manhattan we were greatly affected by the downturn on Wall Street, but we were also in a great location that would return to prosperity. | Pre sales were 600,000. During 350,000, post 4 million. I will need to verify in old books but this should be close. | Going into debt and spending personal capital at the same time. | The economy will eventually come back. If you have the means to stay afloat, you could come out the victor. Market smartly. |
| Quiet Mind Yoga | Health, Wellness & Fitness | A yoga studio in Washington, DC | 2008 | 15 | I was a first-time small business owner. One thing you have to know going into this is that you can never prepare for every scenario. You have to be nimble and creative. You have to be healthy. You have to keep your sanity. The only constant is change and you'll never know the challenges that await you. You need to join forces with your customers. You don't have a business without them. What do they need? How can you meet those needs and keep them with all the variables and unknowns happening in real time? Be allies with the people working with you. What do they need? I can't speak to scenarios where that trust and connection with employees doesn't already exist. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down slightly | Customer loyalty | Making yoga accessible to people made those who could afford it more interested in supporting the studio. And as people got back on their feet, they became paying members. | I think you're looking for much bigger businesses than mine. Monthly revenue went from ~$5k to ~$3k. I was very proud that we weathered the storm, though. We tried to make yoga as accessible as possible to everyone and added more free community classes. | I couldn't pay myself, but I wasn't planning to pay myself for the first several months. I had to continue paying rent and I always paid my teachers. I taught more classes than I wanted to, but still relied on the teachers for the rest. The economy died 6 months into the business. I had to come up with a ton of work/study roles for everyone who requested them (free classes in exchange for them doing something for the studio). This meant inventing chores that weren't entirely necessary. I wanted to create community, and decided that I was giving away a ton of yoga, but hopefully creating community in the process, and letting folks know I cared about their situation. | We didn't have the option to offer classes online the way the current yoga studio in that space is doing. (Though, I supposed skype could have worked). You have to get creative and you have to take good care of your health. That probably sounds obvious, but if you're not well and calm, you cannot access creativity in your brain. Part of that creativity is reaching out to other businesses that complement your offering for cross-marketing. And possibly partner with other businesses in your space to see if there are ways to meet the needs of your community. They won't forget that when everything goes back to "normal." |
| thredUP | Retail | thredUP is the world’s largest fashion resale platform, inspiring a new generation to think secondhand first. The company has spent the past 10 years reinventing resale, building a marketplace and infrastructure now poised to power the $50B resale economy and usher in a more sustainable fashion future. Millions of consumers use thredUP as the easiest way to sell their clothes and shop over 35,000 brands at up to 90% off — online, in stores or via “try-before-you-buy†Goody Boxes. Backed by world-class investors, thredUP designed a resale engine that has redistributed nearly 100 million unique garments from closets across America and is now powering resale for the broader fashion industry via its Resale-As-A-Service (RAAS) platform. | 2008 | 3 | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Cutting fat/operating lean | As an early stage start-up, thredUP was able to be nimble in ways that larger companies could not, taking more risks and breaking through the noise. Additionally, consumers always want value and in times of recession this is even more true. thredUP provides an easy clean out service and tremendous value on high-quality, secondhand items for women and their children. | thredUP was in a fundraising stage at the end of 2008/beginning of 2009. We ran the company on only 70K in 2009 and found it to be an excellent time to challenge incumbents who were trying to keep their businesses afloat. | accept lower term sheets | Make the hard cuts quickly to keep the business running -- don't wait, and make sure they're deep enough that you only have to do it once. Don't be afraid to launch a business during this time, and see it as an opportunity to go against incumbents. If you are raising money, don't be afraid to take less than your original valuation - you need whatever is offered to keep your business afloat. | |
| Harbor Group | Insurance | Consultant to Banks and Capital Market lenders | 1995 | 50 | When I look back at it, it was like wartime, head down and run, keep thinking, keep strategizing and don’t be afraid to invest. In my personal portfolio I was investing all the time. Upgraded systems in the business to be ready for the inevitable turn | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | We never laid anyone off, never cut salaries and figured out ways to create new opportunities | Went from 5MM to 30MM | I took no money paid the employees first | Don’t give up, stay in the game and be nimble. Find ways to adapt the business |
| Moyer-Drabick & Associates, LTD | Financial Services | Accounting Software Consulting | 2002 | 4 | finding new was to support clients without being onsite. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | loyal and happy customers so they would come back | insurance expense | stay lean | |
| Altaloma Asset Management | Financial Services | Hedge Fund | 2004 | 2 | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | Risk management. Knowing when to get out of positions and let other positions run. In short the higher volatility allowed positions to run further. If one was able to cap risk there were many opportunities for asymmetric returns. | Pre-recession volatility was muted and overall returns were capped. During - market volatility exploded providing more frequent investment opportunities which allowed for significantly larger returns Post-Recession - as market volatility calmed down investment opportunities died down and returns fell back to pre-recession levels | Do I allow customer redemption? Yes, absolutely. If customers feel that you are on their side they will be far more likely to do business with you in the future. | Do everything you can to stay alive. Cut staff, go into survival mode, allow customers to renegotiate contracts as needed, be their advocate not their adversary. As the economy turns back around you will be well positioned to benefit while being far ahead of your competition. | |
| Colorado Institute of Musical Instrument Technology (CIOMIT) | Music | Sales and service of musical instruments. My school taught individuals and groups how to repair. | 2007 | 6 | No fight, I chose to open a business that was service oriented. Music never stops, and musicians need an instrument that works. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | The service and education (tuition) sustained us. Retail sales were down, but through accusations of used instruments and reselling on eBay, it brought us to prominence in the industry. | Pre, just opened, $300K year. Post (2011) 1M year. | I had no hard decisions as we grew through those years. | Overhead. Make it small. Which, apparently, businesses are doing by furloughing and laying off personnel. |
| Inertia Tours Inc | Leisure, Travel & Tourism | Travel / Tour operator specializing in student travel | 2002 | 6 | The hardest thing is staying positive. Make an insane schedule and stick to it with massive to do lists. Make sure you are DOING SOMETHING to create revenue and keep clients | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Cutting fat/operating lean | As we fall into a primary destination here in Texas that doesnt require airfare, when the economy does poorly we do better as price of vacation packages is less | We increased business just over 15% | Making some full time employees seasonal only. Losing some good people over it | 1) Keep it skinny. It is much easier to make hard decisions earlier vs. later. If you can let the Personal Assistant go...do it immediately. 2.) Put the Company and yourself first. You cant help a single employee if you're bankrupt. I see too much of "we wanted to take care of the employees first"....then later then end up with the same layoffs anyway. 3.) Whiteboard what makes you money. Delete the rest of the business that doesnt. It isnt time to dream. 4.) Really identify via a honest SWOT analysis what to focus on. 5.) Work as if you're busy! It's very easy to watch the news, attend mindless meetings, walk the dog, help the kids with school etc...but if it wasn't a recession you wouldn't be doing those things...so why are you now? |
| ARRAN Sense of Scotland | Consumer Goods | Scented products inspired by and made on the Isle of Arran, Scotland | 1989 | 90 | much is covered in the earlier questions, but i can only describe what turned out to be over a year of stomach churning stress (like a washing machine). i lost 42 pounds and aged quickly, but looking back that experience has made me and for better or worse its invaluable at this time. i try to share my story and wider learning's as i dont want people to experience the pain of what we went through, but now its everywhere. - I view the future with optimism, its the only way. I also know that out of adversity comes progress and like a phoenix something will come from the ashes. some will fail and some will do really well. I am 100% committed to being the latter. I will not entertain any other outcome. .......As a family we get to spend time together that we would not ordinarily have, plus dedicate time to learning and growing (or losing weight and getting fit) - keeping positive and believing that there is a way forward, faith has also been really important to me too. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | We looked at all the overheads quickly, made some changes, but realised that we needed to sell our way out of it as no amount of cost cutting was going to do that. I used to walk the dog in the pouring rain at night and look up to the heavens and ask god to give me the chance to sell our way to a more positive future. During this time we uncovered negligence and fraud in the business when the banks pulled the plug. On sales of £4m we paid back the Inland revenue in the UK over £600K of back taxes. - We had way more stock than we have now, much as a result of the banks being far more generous with working capital. In the end it was this stock that enabled us to get through and even grow. Through pig headed determination if it wasn't nailed down we sold it. Paid the back taxes in full and actually grew the business on much more solid foundations. There is a 5 hour version to this story, but in essence one was determined (and with a great team of people helping) that we would survive and grow again. As Tony Robbins says "there is always a way o turn it around if you are committed" that quote is on my desk every day even now. - all of this selling was not with the best brand management in mind and to an extent we were mortgaging our future, but we needed to generate cash, pay our people and our suppliers and live to fight another day. We raised money a few years later to re-brand the business and update the product portfolio. another story here too as our first investor dumped us after brexit weeks before product launch of the new brand. - We now have another investment partner who went back to the core strengths of the business and we have focussed very hard on keeping costs under control and adding as much value as possible to our clients and consumers. Our sales are down 80% already since lockdown in the UK but we remain determined to look after our people, and find new ways to add value both during and coming out of the lock down. - I could expand on everything for several hours, but hope this helps! | £3.8m/£4m/£4.3m | making people redundant that had worked with us for years. - writing off personal loans of hundreds of thousands - losing the money from my mothers house sale. I have probably blanked some of them out to be honest, but my biggest regret is that my kids grew up before my eyes and whilst my body was home my head wasn't. life is too short. i rationalise it with the fact that i kept a roof over our heads, school, and some normality, whatever that is. | 1) Do you know your numbers, all financials - you cannot make decisions without them. 2) you have more assets than you think, and i dont mean personal cash, i mean customers, clients, competitors, suppliers, routes to market, warehouse space, sales team etc etc - Can those be leveraged to help or exchange with others _ Jay Abraham is the master here of getting everything you can out of all you got! 3) speak to all your customers and suppliers. be honest, no one goes through business unscathed and people often share ideas and incites that are hard learned. 4) ask for help from everywhere, bank, government, trade bodies, suppliers, customers, - what do they need, what skills dont you have, or what skills do you have that you could trade with others. 5) people buy from people, so make sure you build and continue to build strong relationships with your clients. this is the single biggest thing that got me through. when i was ready to give up my customers kept me going. 6) give back in whatever way you can. pay if forward and acknowledge those who have helped you. 7) most of all, dont give up. i have had the walls closing in, creditors breathing down my neck, my wife going through cancer treatment and our house broken in to, all at the same time. Where there is a will there is a way, list anything that could be an asset or a way to ad value, talk to people, and put all your energy to finding that way through. |
| Mallette Real Estate Inc. | Real Estate | We are full service real estate brokerage. | 2007 | 12 | We purchased our firm January 1, 2007, which means we paid top dollar for the company coming off the 3 years prior which was a real estate boom. We were new owners never running a business before with the exception of our own agent run business. We reached out to friends, clients, etc that we knew could provide guidance and we listened. We cut staff, cut all the extras (why would anyone pay $75 per month for water for the water cooler??), we got educated in short sales and REO (Real Estate Owned or Bank Owned) properties, and we worked every day (a lot!). A few years into the Great Recession we were thriving while others around us were still drowning. In this current climate, we are calm, making sound decisions, because we are battle-tested! | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Cutting fat/operating lean | Being nimble. We changed our business model from traditional brokerage to short sales and bank-owned properties. | Letting go of employees was by far the toughest. | Be nibble! Do not let emotion guide your decision making. | |
| BODY BLISS Factory Direct | Retail | Retail store in tourism center of Sedona, AZ providing massage services, high-end Aromatherapy products, handcrafted jewelry, crystals, gems, gift items. | 2004 | 5 | Its hard because common survival fears will take over from time to time. Take it one moment and one day at a time. Reach out for help and share your thoughts - know you are not alone. Ask others what they do to stay with their head above the water. Know that everything will pass but do everything that is needed. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Diversification | continue to provide excellent customer service, special discount offers, staying positive, expand international tourism by reaching out to professionals like local chamber of commerce, started social media availability | let-go of one employee | stay connected by utilizing social media platforms, share personal encouraging stories, make people "feel you", signalize that you are there! | |
| Horizons [Companies] | Media Production | We produce TV shows, advertising, commercials, video content | 1983 | 40 | The banks came after our studios. They wanted us gone. We had to scramble for a new bank that would refinance a lack luster business | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down slightly | Diversification | Diversity and key customers | Personal financial sacrafice | Recovery is slow | |
| The Reef Group | Real Estate | commercial real estate brokerage industrial, investments and office | 2006 | 4 | I’d be happy to share my whole story but not sure what or how much you’d like. I was lucky I had no debt and didn’t buy the big house and car when others did over extended themselves. I had side hustles painting addresses on people’s curbs and valet parked at night at the beginning ginig. I was a voice in my community both socially and in business and helped others and served lots of community service hours. Basically all the stuff you should do in good and bad times. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Diversification | Communication, data and technology driven, collaboration with data and more importantly fees to get deals done. | Pre I was 3 years in the business and was nimble and didn’t need or have a large burn, during worked hard and solved liquidity and expansion problems for key clients, post the snow ball kept rolling and we were even more profitable | I took on an assignment to do broker appraisals on a portfolio of distressed assets a bank purchased. We had to photograph and profile/appraise around 250 properties. It was a big task but kept us afloat while a lot of brokers didn’t make it. | Don’t Netflix and chill. Find a way to get into your “zone†and stay active. Structure and keep/set the same goals as you would in good times. Measure your success and failure often and pivot to get better. |
| Studio2 Design + Digital | Graphic Design | We create award-winning packaging, branding, graphic design and websites for corporate clients, business owners and entrepreneurs. | 2000 | 2 | We are truly a "mom and pop" business, that has grown to now have a total of 5 employees. Here's more history on us: Like many great ideas and inventions, Studio2 was born of an unmet need. After 10 years as a marketing manager in the financial services industry, Chris Opsahl was ready for a change. Around that same time, his wife Laura found herself frustrated with the high prices and big egos of the design firms she hired in her own work as a marketing and communications consultant. In 2000 they solved both problems with the launch of O & O Marketing, which later became Studio2. Please see previous entries for our story of overcoming challenges including 9/11 and the last recession. One additional note is that we not only lost our biggest client after 9/11, but we had to get out of a construction loan on a new house we were planning to build as a result. We had signed just days before our client let us know he was selling the business to a large firm with inhouse staff which would replace our services. He sold his business because interest rates went so low after 9/11 that the purchasing firm could afford to make him a very attractive offer. At this time Laura went on to have a career in corporate marketing and communications, while Chris built the business. Laura rejoined Chris in June of 2019. You can read about our company on our website at www.studio2info.com. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Diversification | Diversification and flexibility. Learned from 9/11 (another tough time for business owners) to make sure we have a number of clients and that they're in a variety of industries. We also have a number of different services we provide so as the economy changes or different industries do better or worse, we can ramp up or ramp down. That said, we know that trying to "do everything for everyone" isn't profitable either and it's hard to do great work, so it's a balancing act. | Would discuss if featured | As owners, we take out the minimum from our business that we need to live on and for retirement savings. We keep the biggest cushion possible and keep our debt low in case of a crisis like this one so we can keep our people employed and our business running. We even DIY part of our office space build-outs in order to keep debt low. | Turn this into an opportunity to refine your business model, just like we did after 9/11. The changes we made at that time helped us weather the recession, and hopefully COVID19 as well. For us, it's having the flexibility of multiple "levers" -- ability to ramp up or ramp down in various types of design and digital work, as well as diversifying by having multiple clients (even if they're smaller) who are also in different industries. |
| Connecticut Trailers, Inc | Automotive | Light to medium duty cargo and utility Trailer Sales and Service Service | 2006 | 16 | I had no choice. All my livelihood and investments were on the line. Too loose that would have been financial devastation. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Downsizing/layoffs | We secured a Federal GSA Contract, Streamlined our staff, Management took on multiple functions and spent more time in a production capacity | 2007 Income $4.1M, 2009 Income $2.6M | Use credit cards and short term expensive money. | Maintain your staff. It's too difficult to hire and train new people. |
| Goodie Two Sleeves (Now I’m doing SaucerBoss.com) | Apparel & Fashion | We made light-hearted, funny t-shirts. | 2001 | 16 | My story gets better about 10 years later as something far less obvious got me fired from my own company. But during that time it was really all about making the best choices with the limited information we had, and doing things for the right reasons. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Downsizing/layoffs | We tightened our belts. My partner and I skipped paychecks so we could pay our employees. We also injected a lot of our own money when things got really tight. I think 10% of our revenue that year came from our pockets. It was honestly a really difficult time, but we focused on our what made us work when money wasn’t as tight. For us that meant leaning into creating new IP instead of relying on old SKUs. I’m proud to say we didn’t lay off anyone during that time; they never knew how close we came to the edge. We did our best to provide them with a sense of security. We survived by the skin of our teeth (so... I guess our gums?) when a wholesale customer filed for chapter 11 with almost a quarter of a million dollars of our product stocking their shelves. But we made it to the other side. | Our business dropped probably 40% during that time. (It turned out to be really difficult to sell Finn t-shirts to depressed people) | Choosing to put employees before my family was challenging, but the right thing to do. We were all in it together and there was no way I could weather the storm without them. | Stick to your guns and trust what brought you success. Don’t take huge risks like you might otherwise. And believe in your team. |
| Fusicology | Marketing & Advertising | Event, Tour and Concert Listings and Online Music Marketing | 2003 | 4 | Carving out a B2C that targets a niche but loyal audience and staying true to our brand, having great customer service and staying strong as a pillar in our community | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Downsizing/layoffs | Being niche, targeted and direct to consumer | Letting go of my assistant, chief coder and social media manager - learning to do tasks on my own as owner | Downsize, stay smart with funds but don’t cave in. Change / morph with the times | |
| Anthem Chevrolet Buick | Automotive | It is a Chevrolet and Buick sales and service dealership | 2008 | 18 | I learned the value of focusing solely on what existed in my circle of control and my circle of influence, while completely disregarding anything beyond them. There was so much happening in the world that was beyond my control. I knew that if my young business was going to survive this, I had to master everything within my control, which thankfully, is a very long list. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Downsizing/layoffs | Not allowing outside factors to negativity influence my decision making and my commitment to the principles of good leadership. In times of crisis, the need for honest, open communication with team members is magnified. | I bought my business only months before the recession hit our country. I invested all of the money I had and borrowed even more to purchase it. Failure was not an option for me as it would have destroyed me financially and caused similar harm to others in my circle. The lessons I learned from this period have served me well since. I kept my inventories high, communicated daily with my dealership team, and remained visibly positive and optimistic. We ended that first year profitable. I still rely on many things I learned during that time. I find myself now in a familiar place. | Laying off members of my team. This was difficult. | Be well informed about the problems as well as the solutions. There are many decisions that need to be made. Put yourself in a position to make informed decisions. Trust your instincts, it’s your business and no one knows it better. Show your people and tell them how much you care about them. Communicate well with them. These are actions necessary during good and difficult times. It is necessary now, more than ever. |
| Starbright Floral Design | Retail | We are a corporate florist specializing in the B2B markets. We primarily serve NYC | 1994 | 35 | Flowers are inherently a luxury item that is one of the first to be cut on any corporate budget. We remained in our client's sphere by offering complementary services at a time when nobody else would. We used all our free time prospecting for new clients and using all available sources and methods (including cold calling to HR departments). In the end we came out winners as our client base grew during a time when everyone else in our industry was shrinking. Banks were cutting our credit lines and we had to do more with less resources. We became very creative to not only survive but to grow. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Downsizing/layoffs | We marketed heavily during the recession. We used all available channels and focused on low-cost / high impact exposure. Our goal was to double our client base during a time of less spending. When things opened up again, we would have a greater number of clients with a higher frequency of ordering and a higher per-transaction ticket size. | Pre recession we had a growth rate of about 10% YOY, from 2007 to 2009 we were up about 5% two years in a row. Since then growth has skyrocketed. Our annual gross revenue is over $6M. | Furloughs and layoffs. We have people that have been with us for almost 25 years. Since the beginning. | Don't hide! This is a time to showcase your brand and maintain relevancy. This will not last forever. The key is to take advantage of the downtime to build systems and name recognition. |
| The Grommet | Online Media | We launch innovative products from small businesses. Examples: S'well, SodaStream, Fitbit, Otterbox, Bananagrams, Simplisafe | 2008 | 15 | https://jules.thegrommet.com/2012/09/27/true-tales-from-our-2012-tour-of-duty/ | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Downsizing/layoffs | My co-founder and I were both 48 at time of founding. We had real speed, networks, grit, and tenacity. We really just muscled through it. Our superpower was communicating with the team very transparently. We learned to quell their fears by keeping everything in the open. | We were tiny/just starting. Pre-recession = 0 Post Recession = $2M | Fired two top execs who were not performing. Pay people only with equity. | See prior answer. |
| Hallmark Homes Inc | Construction | Custom home builder and remodeler | 1972 | 25 | The only thing that get you through recessions and down terms are great leadership and big balls if you're in business for the Long Haul it'll take care of itself in the future you just got to learn to ride it out and be patient if you stay focused to your mission and take care of your customers eventually it'll turn around and don't have a lot of debt is the biggest secret if we had houses in Florida if I had houses down the shore or fancy cars shame on us if you invest in your business it'll be fine | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down slightly | Emergency cash reserves | We were not undercapitalized we didn't owe anybody money we were in it for the Long Haul and we have great customer service | Trying to stay loyal to your suppliers that you had over the years where in business almost 50 years | This is temporary if you're in business for the Long Haul you're going to have your up and downs just stay focused on customer service and it'll all work out and just watch your money very closely your purchases | |
| Lodging Kit Company | Hospitality | Supplier of in room operating supplies to hotels and resorts. | 1989 | 35 | We are business to business so take that into consideration here. Some businesses are more recession proof than others. You should look towards industries/markets who seem to weather the storms better than others even if you have zero knowledge of a perspective new segment. Take the time to learn and research then pick up the phone and get busy. If you are using a rifle approach to sales and marketing put it down and pick up a shotgun. It covers more of a target. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Expansion/buying out competitors | We opened a 3rd distribution facility in Las Vegas. | 14M/14M/15+M | Scaling back on hiring plans as we had to shelve hiring for some key positions. | Wrangle a way to survive and make the moves and plans to give your business the best opportunity to come out stronger than before. |
| W.E, REST. INC. | Restaurants | SEASONAL RESTAURANT/BAR ESTABLISHED 1925 LOCATED ON AN ISLAND IN NEW YORK APPROXAMENTLY 100 MI FROM N.Y.C. | 1971 | 25 | SINCE WE ARE SEASONAL WE ARE IN A VERY PRECARIOUS SITUATION. WE CAN NOT OBTAIN THE NECESSARY HELP WHICH IS NECESSARY TO MAKE THE RESTAURANT READY TO RE-OPEN. ALSO, SINCE WE RELY HEAVILY ON SEASONAL J-1 STUDENTS FROM OVERSEAS, WE WILL SUFFER A LABOR PROBLEM THIS SEASON. IN ADDITION, BECAUSE OF THE LOSE OF PRESEASON INCOME, THE BUSINESS HAS ACQUIRED AN ADDITIONAL DEBT LOAD IT DOES NOT USUALLY HAVE, ALONG WITH WHAT APPEARS WILL BE A SHORTENED SEASON, THIS WILL BE A VERY CHALLENGING YEAR TO SAY THE LEAST. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Expansion/buying out competitors | SINCE MONEY WAS TIGHT PEOPLE DID NOT TRAVEL FAR FROM HOME, THEREFORE, BEING CLOSE TO N.Y.C. AND A BEAUTIFUL VACATION ISLAND. BUSINESS WAS AS GOOD OR MAYBE EVEN SLIGHTLY BETTER. | BORROWING | THIS IS NOT, AS I SEE IT, THE SAME SITUATION. DURING THE RECESSION WE WERE NOT MANDATED TO CLOSE. BECAUSE OF THE FORCED CLOSURE ALL INCOME HAS CEASED PUTTING AN UNBELIEVABLE, UNFORESEEN BURDEN ON THE BUSINESSES WHICH SOME WILL NOT SURVIVE. | |
| The Moya Group | Government Relations | Consulting with businesses and advocating for policies that protected or increased revenues or reduced regulation. | 2001 | 5 | If you keep pushing forward and help your team realize that when others contract we expand, when others get scared, we get more confident. Don’t follow the crowd. Study history n see how others succeeded. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Expansion/buying out competitors | Vision focus. Meaning, having a vision and driving towards it. Increasing investment and putting more chips on the table. | We lost some clients totaling over six figures in lost revenue, because the clients went bankrupt. However, we added clients who realized government was still spending. | Reducing my salary as CEO to pay employees. | Do the opposite of what conventional wisdom is. When others withdraw from the market, double down on investing more. |
| Design 446 | Marketing & Advertising | Our story is one of innovation and expertise—always changing, improving and expanding. We build powerful brand experiences that resonate with consumers and propel growth. Powered by a team that’s not afraid to change the rules, our award-winning agency focuses on engaging brands and driving results with honesty, integrity and purpose. We are thinkers and doers. Fueled by desire—we cut through the noise, move quickly, and are constantly available to provide individualized attention whenever necessary. With over 30 designers, writers, programmers, marketing professionals, account managers and installers working as one in a 22,000 sq. ft. creative environment, you know you’ve found the strategy for success. And we promise to hit your goals on budget with lightning fast turn-around times and unwavering dedication. Our culture is simple—to be creative in every possible way so our clients can connect to the world around them. That’s what inspires growth… and that’s what inspires us. | 1974 | 50 | We were a growing agency in 2007 and 2008. We started in 1974 and when I acquired the business in 1995 we were only 4 people. We became a 50 person multi faceted regional marketing power house for the home building industry. We struggled through the recession because it was a double hit to our clients. We took one problem on at a time. We worked our way through costly digital press leases and restructured them with newer less expensive machines. We worked diligently to help our clients get through the recession. We offered less expensive options. We developed short run brochures that clients could order and pay for on demand, as needed so they wouldn't need to pay higher prices. We swiftly moved to email form snail mail to offer a less expensive option. We continued to support our trade associations. We slowly reinvented ourselves to be less reliant on one industry. While we still specialize in marketing home builders, we now are much more diversified in both our capabilities and client type. We also have become more community involved. We are actively working with 15 to 20 non-profit organizations in our area. While the work isn't as profitable, it is so much more fulfilling for our team. The one piece of advice I would give is be flexible. Change is good. Nothing our company did in 1974, 1995 and in some cases 2007 is the same today. A business most evolve or it won't survive. Embrace that and you will succeed. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Expansion/buying out competitors | We acquired a small advertising agency to make us more of a full service firm. We were much more careful about who we worked for. We raised of prices. Most importantly, we helped or clients and colleagues who were displaced during the recession and more importantly the housing crash. Helping those people with pro-bono, branding, websites and collateral, came back to us in dozens of new business referrals. You can never be too kind to people in crisis. We market home builders large and small. The recession and housing crash changed the lives of friends in the industry forever. In many cases it was the thing that forced positive changes. New, better careers. New business start ups. Karma is real. | 15 million before, 4 million during, 7 million after | I learned from the recession that you can't wait to reduce overhead where necessary. Look at every employee and think what is best for them and for the company. Sometimes a lay off is better for an employee then reduced hours or a furlough. I also look for employees who can multi task. You have to make some difficult decisions when you drastically lose business. You will need to let people go who you consider to be friends. Those are hard days. Also look at your vendors and payables. You have to keep paying essential vendors that will keep your billing moving. Don't run and hide. Communicate with them and keep paying them even if it's a smaller scheduled amount. Cut your pay first. There was a time when I didn't take salary for over a year. | Debt is never a good thing. Had we carried a lot of debt into the recession, we would have never survived. We were a small growing agency in 2007. We weren't business people. We were creatives who worked fast and loose. I lived and in some cases still live by the motto that if you take care of your clients, business will take care of itself. In a recession and now, you must take care of the business. Projections, receivables, contracts, deposits, payables should take priority. I am fortunate to have a great and loyal team. Communicate with your team and your clients. My degree is in history, so I am using the "Fireside Chat" to speak to my team regularly to assure them that they aren't alone and that we will get through this too. |
| C&S | Commercial Real Estate | Developer of office /industrial -full service | 1990 | 24 | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down slightly | Expansion/buying out competitors | Focused on moving forward not the problems. Spent time on new opps not lost deals | Negotiated with my lenders, and cut staff | Focus on moving forward and where the market opportunities are going to be when this is over | ||
| The Nolan Group, A Private Wealth Advisory Practice of Ameriprise Financial | Financial Services | financial planning services - basically a personal trainer / therapist with everything and anything money & life goals related (!) | 2004 | 2 | can we discuss this live? im more of a talker - writing almost pains me (ha!) | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Expansion/buying out competitors | staying the course of our regular plan, moving to more recurring revenue options instead of up-front commission, annuitizing our business and scaling our services | $120k/170k | very very long hours to talk to everyone who needed me | this too shall pass. don't make your long-term plans based on short-term happenings. your personal choices - your behavior - is the ONLY thing you can control. consider doing things both personally and professional that your "future self" will thank you for! |
| Fretshirt.com | Apparel & Fashion | We manufacture and sell printed apparel | 2006 | 18 | To me, business is like a gambling game, to some extent. The main difference is that in business, you have historical data to work with that will almost guarantee the outcome of the next bet. I use historical data from the past recession to understand what people value at times of uncertainty. This helps me adapt to the situation and cater for those willing to spend on essentials. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Expansion/buying out competitors | Investing in marketing, equipment, and negotiating big discounts, then passing on the savings to customers. This was 'against the market grain' and it resulted in crushing our competition who only sought to cut production and their own short term costs. Eventually many of them closed shop while we took much of their customers. | $800,000 to $4 Million Post | Take out loans for equipment and other business related items, when there was much uncertainty. It was a big risk and not an easy decision. | No crisis is really long term. Think of how you can add value in times when everyone else is scared to make any moves. Spend your capital wisely and reassure your potential market that you are still in a position to serve them. Cut any excess fat, but not essential meat, like for example valued employees. It's a lot better to offer reduced hours that non at all. Again, its always a short term crisis and you will need to retain your best tools and assets to survive it. |
| Kapital Real Estate | Real Estate | Offered real estate brokerage and listing services. Market crashed and in 2008 I flipped our model. Instead of targeting homeowners, I became one of the largest listing brokers in WI for bank owned foreclosures | 2008 | 1 | I became the top selling broker in WI through the crash. As foreclosures went away I lost a lot of my clients and got out of real estate brokerage. But I found the next exciting wave to ride and am now heavily invested in legal cannabis cultivation and dispensaries in CO and OR - so I have new challenges to overcome....! | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Expansion/buying out competitors | sought out and found where the opportunity was. everyone was getting out of real estate so doors were open | Had 1 employee in 2008. By 2012 had 6 employees and 20 sales agents. 2008 Rev was $100k, 2009 Rev was $300k, 2012 Rev was $2 m | One could argue I was not only part of the foreclosure solution, but was also a cog in the problem wheel, working for the lenders taking away peoples homes | Don't give up, be dynamic, go where the opportunity is, be willing to work harder than the competition |
| Widespread Electrical Sales | Electrical / Electronic Manufacturing | We are a “Need it Now†supplier of Circuit Breakers for homes and businesses across America. | 2008 | 5 | Trying to keep up with all the opportunity was the challenge. Getting to every job site quickly and arranging teams to remove all the gear and arrange logistics. It wasn’t a matter of staying afloat, it was a matter of keeping things organized during a boom. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Expansion/buying out competitors | We took a very niched product/market online and became the #1 e-commerce platform In our space, very quickly. I made data and marketing our primary focus. Creating nearly 1 million product listings all one key-stoke at a time. We specialize in replacement circuit breakers that power every home and business in America. This includes all industries such as data center, utility, oil/ gas, health care facilities, marine, government and military. We would go into all the many businesses that had collapsed and purchase all their used and surplus circuit breakers, we created testing labs and procedures to properly test these circuit breakers and resell them to other who needed replacements. We were willing to stock the good, bad and the ugly. I knew that every building on the planet requires power to survive or to do business. And where traditional electrical distributors aren’t willing to specialize in every make and model or circuit breaker, I was willing to do that. Widespread.com is now the #1 online supplier of replacement circuit breakers. This is one of those extremely niche businesses that you would never realize exists and is so critically important to the critical power infrastructure of every home and business. It’s just something people are using everyday and take for granted, because it’s out of sight, out of mind. | We started in October 2008 and absolutely sky-rocketed. We did $700,000 in our first months of business and proceeded to do another 1.5M in 2009, all out of my house. I grew that business over the past twelve years to 40 employees and I just sold it two weeks ago for more than 10M. | I started in the middle of the chaos. So for me I was thinking about keeping overhead low so that I could re-invest every dollar back into inventory and infrastructure. | While many businesses are failing and being forced to close their doors, new opportunities are being created as a result. There is so much opportunity out there right now. Focus your thinking on “change“. You don’t necessarily need to think of some brilliant new product idea. Circuit Breakers already existed for years. But because I realized that the impact 08’/09’ would ultimately force thousands of large industrial manufacturing businesses and data centers to close, I was able to go buy all their used switchgear and circuit breakers for literally pennies on the dollar. |
| Outward Hound | Consumer Goods | We make and sell branded products for dogs and cats. | 1997 | 15 | We just had to motivate the team to keep fighting and keep executing every day, to chip in and help people or teams in other departments if necessary to state afloat and maintain their employment. We never stop communicating to the team on how things will look once the crisis is over, and how we can come out ahead versus our competitors as a result. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Expansion/buying out competitors | We continued to invest in the business and did not stop our focus on innovation. | Cutting expenses that seemed essential before the crisis. Having to ake people changes/layoffs are always the hardest decisions. | Keep innovating, focus on the future, don't let the short-term crisis paralyze you and your team, don't stop doing what you'd normally do that will enable you to achieve your long-term growth goals. | |
| Master Tool Repair, Inc. | Business Supplies & Equipment | We provide repair parts and pumps for air compressors. | 2000 | 12 | Our home builders were going belly up. We sold them construction equipment and performed repairs on their equipment. We had an online presence before, but we started to ramp up this portion of our business. The price of power tools fell due to importing. People still repaired their equipment, yet wanted to buy their own parts and perform the repair themselves to save on labor. Business had bellied up for my tool sales and I had to do something. A neighbor who had a similar business suggested that I try to sell parts online. I offered one part and shortly received an order for it. After a couple of years adding product, I had over 300,000 repair parts available online. I would like to say that this was my own bright idea, but I can't take the credit. Between my neighbor and God's perfect timing, I found myself entering a recession proof business. during this pandemic, we are seeing stable sales, and even a small increase. We feel so fortunate compared to the millions of people that are suffering in the retail industry as well as hospitality and travel. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Expansion/buying out competitors | We increased product offerings and took on new vendors. | 1,500,000 2,500,000 | Create software to take the place of administrative personnel. | Determine which sector does well during a recession. Diversify to spread out your chances of success. |
| Friendly Connections IT | Information Technology & Services | Until 2010 we were a residential computer support company and after we combined residential and business support. | 2005 | 3 | We were fortunate being in the area of Texas we were located and being a company that worked in a much needed field. There were days the phone did not ring and my thought at the time was that 'there is nothing in a small business louder than a phone that does not ring'. We (and I mean all of us) spent the days talking about marketing, how we could add a few customers, writing thank you notes, doing all of the small things that would result in customers who stayed with us for life. And, of course, since we had time we gave a bit more for the customer money, went the extra mile. Some of this fall by the way side when things got really busy but the habits of caring for customers never really changed. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Expansion/buying out competitors | We were in a nearly recession proof industry. Phones were not ubiquitous as they are today so email was far more important to our clients and pictures were taken with a camera and transferred to a PC. Viruses were extremely active and backups were more expensive, more difficult to set up and less likely to work right. | We had been open only two years and were in our initial growth so our pre revenue was 100000 and our post revenue was 175000. | I put my own money into the company on several occasions to make payroll and rent. | In our case it was to market as if the world was just fine. We did a lot of shoe leather and gorilla marketing. |
| Advanced Test Equipment Corporation | Business Supplies & Equipment | We rent, sell, and calibrate test equipment | 1981 | 25 | It was a good time for the company. Companies did not want to spend money because they did not know when everything was going to come back, so they were more willing to rent. This helped us greatly. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Expansion/buying out competitors | More people were renting since they were hesitant to purchase | No hard time. | too early to tell. this is different because companies cannot access or do tests because they are forced to be separated. | |
| Marable Personal Healthcare | Medical Practice | A primary care medical practice designed to provide a better experience for you at the doctor’s office and to protect the patient-physician relationship. | 2000 | 0 | I am a solo family practice physician. Practicing in the managed healthcare system is extremely difficult at best but for a solo physician, this model is almost impossible. Pedaling as fast as I could, I realized this business model was unsustainable. So I risked everything and overnight, changed my practice from an insurance form of payment to a cash based, direct payment, concierge medical practice. It was the first of its kind in Tennessee. It was a great risk. I had 3,000 patients at the time and lost almost all of them when I converted my practice model. All but a few families were willing to stay with me. I had to find moonlighting jobs for a few years to make ends meet. But eventually more patients came and in time I was able to stop moonlighting. Since then the practice has been sustainable. And it has been the most satisfying work I’ve done. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Flexibility/pivoting | Thinking creatively outside the norm. Willingness to take great risk. Intrepid endurance. | Don’t have available at the moment but could provide later. | Pivoting to a business model poorly understood in the industry and that bucked the standards. Risking criticism among my peers. Taking moonlighting jobs until the plane took off. | Focus on your main thing. Tighten your belt and go lean. Be creative. If you’re on the verge of losing it all, take the chance. Because you have nothing else to lose and everything to gain. |
| TK Marketing based in Germany | Gambling & Casinos | Online Gaming - Digital Content- Affiliate Marketing | 2001 | 4 | Being in control of my own destiny. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Flexibility/pivoting | Being adaptable & embracing change & new challenges! | Currently not to travel and push for new business. Video Conferencing is fine, but to usually close deals you need to meet the client in person. | We will take the same attitude as in 2007. We are fortunate to work in the digital gaming space which will be even more relevant in post C-19. | |
| Jays Crabshack LLC | Food & Beverages | We are a dine-in, take-out, delivery and mobile food truck seafood restaurant. | 2006 | 9 | I started this business because I wanted some weird recognition that I was truly some version of an entrepreneur.. it was a small heat and server restaurant in a seasonal town. What could be easier. It was exciting and amazing for months thinking I could pull this off. At a time I thought, wow I'll only have to work 4 months out of the year.. I thought a 50 hour work week was "all in".... Two to four years later, life had knocked me down. But that was the best thing that could have ever happened, you become some weird amalgamation of steel and clarity. The business world may keep pounding on you.... really hard... but you keep going! Find out what you have left when there is nothing left. Take pride in the small wins. Watch the numbers like a hawk but never lean over a dollar to pick up a dime. And please please please read and learn from others who have been there... the boomers are full of amazing advice that will blow your mind. It's way cheaper to learn from others mistakes then to go through it your self. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Flexibility/pivoting | Not sure if it's what your looking for, but it would have been too expensive to give up. The only thing That could pay off the massive debt we were in because of the business, was the business. That was the fuel to keep making what ever we had work.. It had to work. We found ways to extend the season. We would set up concession tents to sell our food where ever they would let us. The funniest thing was it was in those weird places that we had our greatest successes (4h craft show, duck blind show, dickens Christmas parade......). These small things allowed cash flow to increase. It allowed us to look at what worked on the street and how we could bring that back to the shop for the summer season. Most importantly it allowed us to test items on a small scale and the ones that worked came to the restaurant and have become our biggest sellers. With every success or failure we saw we tried our best to use it to our advantage. Little by little you found ways to reinvest your money back into the business that yielded the best return which in turn allowed you to buy better product which in turn allowed you to hire more people. | We were a summertime seasonal business at the time. Prior to to the recession we could do about 105k to 110k we little to know effort or knowledge. That would drop to 95k during the recession and that was working as hard as possible. Muscling through we would see growth again by 2009 and by 2010 doing 125k in the summer season. We would also be open all year round for weekend business and that provide much needed winter funds. Lol and we took that strategy of survival and did it all over again when super storm sandy came and kicked us in the teeth.... So here we go again.... | Borrowing money. And my credit was terrible so I had to get creative. Asking friends (the absolute worst). Maxing out cards on those things you hope to bring a good return. Defaulting on anything that was not essential. Lol to this day I am on a first name bases with the utility workers who shut of said utility.. Eventually they would text me before turning me off, and yeah they could always find a way to get you through to the next weekend when your check would actually clear. Worst of all, none of the debt went anywhere... it just found me again when I was more successful. The worst... | Streamline everthing, take a look at what's important to you and what you really would like to accomplish with the business not just only on the p&l sheet. Think about everything you do for the business and ask yourself is this in line with what I truly want for the business. And take honor in the routine you do everyday That No One Ever Knows about or will ever know about. |
| Simpler Trading | E-Learning | Online education around trading stocks and options, as well as technical buy and sell signals. | 2003 | 15 | Since we follow the financial markets, we could see concerns mounting in the financial system. We talked to people about either hedging their portfolios or going to cash. Once it hit, in addition to focusing on specific buy and sell signals, we pivoted to addressing people's concerns. Namely, how big would the recession be? What about my house? How long would it last? Would it collapse? We utilized surveys to see what people were scared of, and then did our best to address those concerns. We did this by reaching out to other experts and providing snapshots of case studies from prior big recessions. We did all of the research so they wouldn't have to, and provided it in easily digestible chunks. This allowed our clients to navigate the rough waters and make decisions without panicking. From this experience we also deliberately avoided debt. Although we have 50 employees today, we have turned down all PE Firm offers of "debt financing" and have kept our office space costs to a minimum, and encouraged people to work from home at least one day a week. Because of this, the pivot to everyone working virtually from home in today's environment has been relatively seamless. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Flexibility/pivoting | A shift in focus to help people navigate the chaotic market conditions. | Dropping business lines or services that people used to be interested in but were no longer interested in. | Quick pivots - what questions are your clients asking? How can you help them? Their concerns change rapidly and you have to change with them. | |
| AthLife | Professional Training & Coaching | Education and career development advising for professional and post professional athletes | 2004 | 4 | AthLife operates in very unique places in the world of sports. Our core competency is serving the professional development needs of professional and post-professional athletes through agreements with professional sports leagues and unions. We also established a non-profit 10 years ago to help high school athletes in a similar manner and did so on the heels of the recession. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Flexibility/pivoting | We stayed the course. There was an increase in the need in our service. | Taking on work in a completely unrelated field, which ended up being a great help actually as I learned a great deal. | The problem our company solved did not go away with the recession. We also looked at other industries we could exercise our talents. We still had to fight and scrap but when things eventually settled, we were positioned well for growth in our core competency and had expanded our footprint into other areas. | |
| Biond Consulting | Information Technology & Services | We planned, implemented, and managed data and analytics solutions for private and public sector clients in Canada and the US. | 2002 | 45 | I had a young family, mortgage, elderly parents and it was a very stressful time. I had no experience managing through something like this and felt alone in trying to figure this out. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | Our ability to quickly shift our service focus on what would help our clients. The entire team worked together as one. We committed to each other to work through it. As the owner I committed to do everything possible to save everyone’s job. | We lost 30% of our top line revenue from project work. We quickly shifted towards emergency-like support services to clients that had unfortunately reduced their staff. While this was a premium fee, it’s was fractional for our clients and actually contributed to a higher bottom line. We actually ended up saving all of our staff that year. | I knew it was sink or swim. Either leverage our talent and find a way through or know we would burn through all our cash and be left facing a harsher reality. | While there’s no guarantee, the mental switch to go on offence and reinvent the way we offered our service, figure out how to deliver new value quickly was key to our survival. Also the commitment to work together. There was enough stress from the uncertainty in the economy we removed the added stress that we were going to cut everyone and committed to ban together. That made a big difference. |
| Wide Angle Marketing | Recreational Facilities & Services | Manufacture of retail stores & kiosks | 2002 | 20 | The changes we made in the company ended up being the new normal for us. The Coronavirus will have the same results for us. We will need to look at the way we are / have been doing business, who we approach for new customers and understand that our clients needs have changed and it is NOT going to be business as usual going forward. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down slightly | Flexibility/pivoting | Being innovative with "re-inventing" our company and expanding services. | trim staff to accommodate | Exactly the same logic...think harder! Be innovating and expand your product line / services. | |
| LeVeck Lighting Products Inc. | Facilities Services | Wholesale lighting supplies and maintenance. We sold light bulb ballasts and light fixtures. In 2010 we started our maintenance and lighting retrofit division. This move helped us triple our business from 2010 to 2018. | 1977 | 10 | I was in the lighting business for 41 years before selling in 2018. I went through three recessions. I hope this doesn’t sound too harsh but I learned to look forward to the next recession. I prepared by depleting debt as we approach a recession. Then when the recession hit ramping up hiring new and better people at a discount to grow the business. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | Investing in our maintenance division. Trucks and better people. Sold the business in 2018 with 48 employees | 1,500,000.00 4,000,000.00 | Let go of the old school employees | Keep receivable and debt under control. |
| Baker Hesseldenz Studio | Furniture | We are a luxury furniture design and manufacturing firm | 2006 | 3 | Our story was probably atypical. All the large cabinet makers in Tucson were quickly going out of business because they could not afford to support the large amounts of overhead they had built up during the good times. As the number of cabinet makers in town decreased, the number of commissions we received increased. We have, since then, pivoted back to being primarily a luxury furniture designer and manufactuter. However, we still do a good number of extremely high end millwork jobs every year, and are considered one of the best in the region. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | We were, at the time, an interior design company that made custom luxury furniture. During the recession most of our wealthy clients started renovating their existing homes instead of building new ones. We pivoted almost overnight and started making millwork and cabinets for our client's home remodels. Many of the large cabinet makers in Tucson went under because they had too much overhead. We were small and had always prided ourselves on running a very lean operation...no very expensive machines that we were making payments on, no 20,000 sq. ft. shop, etc... At the time my wife and business partner was working out of a home office, and I was working at the shop with our three employees. We kept overhead really low and learned how to make luxury millwork really fast. All we needed was two or three six figure millwork and cabinet jobs during that time to keep us going until the smoke cleared. | For me in particular, I had a really rough time with the transition to being a kitchen cabinet maker. As a furniture designer and builder, I considered myself to be an artist. I had always been treated like an artist by our clients. As a cabinet maker you become one of the trades people. One of the things I've always disliked about the residential construction business is that the clients often treat trades people like plumbers and electricians like they are, for some reason, below them. Being treated that way was consistantly bruising to my ego, but I knew that if we did not change the focus of our manufacturing we would not make it through the recession. | The biggest thing we learned is how important it is to run a very lean operation. Do not over hire or get yourself locked into expensive equipment leases. Instead of buying a $150,000 CNC machine, that we would be stuck making payments on, we farm out that kind of work to other local businesses. Resist the urge to overspend during the good times. | |
| Glencrest Realty | Real Estate | We are a boutique residential and commercial real estate consulting and sales company. | 2006 | 7 | I almost left the real estate industry all together. I had good corporate offers. I made a choice to stay and change. I also dedicated more time to my passion for music. I toured, and that allowed me detach. I’ve since touched the lives of many people positively and that’s a rewarding feeling. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | We shifted with the market and became distressed property specialists. 80% of our closings were short sales. | We closed an average of $8M per year the 2 years prior to 2008. In 2008 and 2009, we averaged $12M. | I became more selective if my vendors/service providers. I aligned with more resourceful and progressive vendors. Where we cut marketing spending, we made up with hard work. We hit the streets and door knocked, and had community events to educate people. | Adapt! People will close or leave industries. Provide value to customers. Call All past clients, family, friends. Check genuinely to make sure they are OK, and offer assistance. You can offer your time, business resources, or information. Be ready because All industries will change as a result of this experience. ReTool! |
| Atlanta Housing Source,llc | Real Estate | Our customer base was real estate investors. We bought houses, fixed them up sold to investors and then put in a tenant and did ongoing management. | 2006 | 5 | My wife Anne and I do this together. Worked 24 x 7 for 22 years in multiple business. The key is same focus and drive, but using each of our talent to the best of our ability. I had been in b to b sales wjere investors bought based on numbers and a photo of a house, and then had to totally retool to b to c and as I had never done and drove buyers around and presented to seller and sell to their emotions, ' isn't this a pretty houseand can't you see your family here with the kids out back playing ball'. It was a tough and quick education I had to go through but a year I mastered new skills we were flying. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | Ability to see opportunity, pivot and retool as the prior questions answer tells. See where the puck is going, acceptthe cards you are given and play that hand to the maximum advantage. I told all our agents to not talk or listen to any naysayer as everyone was negative and would get into their heads and create doubt. | Went from selling a house a month to selling 50 to 80 a year by retooling client type from investor to owner occupied and we didn't work for any banks, just sold one house at a time. Total customer focus change caused us to be selected 2011 Small Business of the year by our local chamber of commerce over 30,000 county businesses. Imagine business of the a real estate company when nobody was selling houses, just us. | We decide to not participate in the recession and to work our way out of it. It meant working 10 to 12 hour days, 7 days a week but in the end we quadrupled our net worth using profits to buy more rentals for ourselves, at discounted prices as nobody wanted the bank ownwd propertied in 2010 and 2011. We borrowed from frinds and paid 10% interest to buy houses at 20 and 30 percent of their becore2 crash prices. | Forget What is behind you, look for ways to take advantage of this time. Be innovative. We already worked with our yoga studio that shut down and got him set up online and now he's growing customer base. |
| allshawn general construction llc | Construction | residential and commercial construction | 1985 | 2 | just have to keep at it, I'm a small company, my costs are low | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Flexibility/pivoting | moved into areas of construction that we were only familiar with, but did not offer these services, because of my concern that we were not proficient in them. I decided we would take our time, and become proficient in them | walking away from jobs that were not worth our while. while I did take on some of these jobs for the benefit of keeping my employees busy, and keeping cash flow, I stayed away from jobs that were going to be aggravating | always put enough money away for a rainy day. take care of employees that you've invested in. Speak to past clients, re-iterate what service you are offering. Don't be scared of your own shadow. | |
| Food Ingredients Inc | Food Production | Wholesale Food Ingredients sales | 1988 | 20 | Our employees are family. We hate to see any struggle. An employee is not effective if he or she is living with constant financial problems. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Flexibility/pivoting | People don’t eat out as much during recession. Most of what we sell ends up in the grocery store. | 10% growth, last time we had significant growth | Cutting payroll hours | Reinvest and maintain a large reserve (3-6 months) |
| J Allan Studios | Marketing & Advertising | Marketing consulting and web development | 2005 | 2 | My husband at the time and I owned and operated a business we started to avoid having to put our soon-to-be-born baby into daycare. We established a strong and deep network locally and regionally to generate business and become part of the larger business ecosystem, and relying on this network helped us whether the recession storm. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue stayed constant | Strategic partnerships | Networking and relationships | $75,000/$70,000/$80,000 | Not taking on a partner for expansion | Reach out to and work your network! FInd out how you can help others and do those things. |
| Insignia Group, LC | Computer Software | Web-based SaaS for automotive accessories visualization and cataloging | 1999 | 40 | Owners don't make great small companies that survive - the people that dedicate themselves to the vision of their leader and follow that direction - despite fear, uncertainty, and the constant fight. We (my business partner and I) would not be here today without amazing people that have worked for us over these many years. Too often we celebrate the leader - yes, I have worked my fucking ass off and my life is poured into this company and it would be completely meaningless and no one would care if I didn't have partners and employees willing to be in the trenches with me daily. The story of Insignia surviving the Recession is really a David and Goliath store on several fronts. The Recession was one thing - being in the Auto sector was another - being so dependant on GM stores was another and then to cap it all off, the ire of GM when we "would not go gentle into that good night." We were threaten, our customers were threaten, and our business was attacked by the very people we supported and bleed for for 6 years prior. Still today, we are the black sheep of a company that tried as much as possible to put us out of business. We continued fighting over the years and finding ways to work with other companies like Ford, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, JLR, and VW. We have built a loyal dealership base that knows we provide them "ridiculous" customer service. We are a team of good people that treat each other as family, trying to do good things in the car business and ultimately, it was those core values that kept us going. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went down a lot | Strategic partnerships | We had several things going for us, despite being in the car business. We had a small amount of debt as a company; a software as a service with 12 month agreements; and we were very nimble. Our business in 2007 was heavily dependant on General Motors dealers and distributors. Not only did GM file bankruptcy and close several hundred stores, they hired a company to replace the services we provided to their stores and distributors since 2002. It was terrifying to go from signing on 30 new dealerships per month in mid-2008 to getting 100 cancellations in one day...we lost 1/3 of our GM business total by mid-2010. We held on to many stores because we signed long-term agreements for our services. We also quickly starting working with other brands like Ford, Kia and Hyundai (2009-2012). We expanded our system onto tablet before anyone else and in 2013, our patent was awarded that allowed us to protect our visualization platform. It was gut wrenching; it was a struggle; we didn't know at times if we could make payroll and we did. Fast forward to today...here we are again. This time a bit more prepared and still the same, it's going to be a grind to survive. | 2007 - $2.7M / 2008 - $2.9M / 2009 - $2.09M / $2010 - $1.7M / 2011 - $1.9M / 2012 - $2.1M ~ 2019 $4M | Letting people go is the worst. We had to do some layoffs in 2009. It sucks so bad. Reducing people's pay is the next toughest thing - we did this in 2011/2012. Lastly, when the business pivots and it must take a new direction to survive, there are folks who can't make the pivot with you. We had that happen post-recession as we continued to morph our business. It is tough letting those folks go - many are battle-tested friends and colleagues that you care about deeply and they aren't the right people for the bus anymore...it is really hard for everyone involved. | Prepare for impact. 1. accept that things are about to change; 2. accept that you are going to make sacrifices. Find you survival expense number. Then get aggressive, and creative to find new ways to bring on customers and revenue. You business must adapt to the "new normal" and you have to navigate it on a moment by moment basis. No time to check out. Your livelihood and the livelihood of those around you, depend on your decision making. Then take a deep breath and GET THE FUCK TO WORK... |
| Creative Noggin | Marketing & Advertising | Full service marketing and advertising firm that operates 100% virtually to save on overhead and leverages the savings in overhead to hire higher caliber talent as well as passing the savings on to our clients. | 2008 | 3 | I was a new business owner when I joined this company in 2008. It was honestly instinct and an "I think this might work attitude" that made me urge my business partner to try operating our business 100% virtually and to actually promote it as a differentiator (I've noticed that other companies tend to hide the fact that some or all of their staff work virtually). I had a feeling that companies would be looking critically at their marketing spend and high monthly retainers and thinking, "What am I actually getting for this spend?" Especially when they went to meetings at uber creative office spaces with fancy conference rooms. We could have gone the more traditional route but I'm so glad we didn't and that we went with our gut. It's become so much a part of who we are...being virtual. When we first started there truly weren't any 100% virtual businesses that I could find. So we were pioneers in that realm. We recognized that putting that out front in our sales pitch to clients might be risky. Especially traditional companies who were used to working with traditional agencies. We worried that we would feel less "real" to them. As if we weren't a real business. But we believed in our concept and we knew that at the end of the day when you're hiring an agency you are looking for brains. You want smart people. You want creative talent. We believed that the right clients would truly understand that hiring a marketing agency based upon their talent and not their building was the smart way to go during a recession. It was a gamble that paid off tremendously. It turned out that there were plenty of companies who were willing to make the shift from a traditional agency to a company where your primary investment was in the people, not the space. We are consistently ranked as one of the top agencies in San Antonio and have had gross revenue upwards of over six million dollars. All without an office. We don't expect this recession to be any different. We'll emerge stronger than we went in because we are unique and we help our clients develop smart marketing strategies. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Strategic partnerships | I've noticed that when business is booming people assume all marketing agencies are basically parity products and start looking for who can get them the most results for the least amount of money. This is a huge generalization but I have seen a trend that price feels like more of an issue when the economy is strong. People assume "marketing is marketing" and they want it....but they want it for as little as possible. Whereas I've noticed that when challenging times arise business leaders and owners start looking for partners who are running their own businesses in a smart way. Who is unique? Who is creating true value for their clients? It becomes way more about the value that is being provided as well as the brains behind the organization (they want a marketing partner who is smart as they assume that will give them an edge above their competition during challenging economic times). | 2008 (first year) $104,634 gross, 2009 $302,627, 2010 $1,013,575.... | We started advising a large share of our clients to cut or reallocate their marketing spend as we moved into the economic shutdown. Hence, we made a temporary cut in salaries across the board mid-March against the advice of our CPA (she was advising us to lay off people). But we believe in our team and when we come out of this we want to be stronger than ever. We would prefer to go through this together and have it be a little painful for all of us rather than extremely painful for a handful of people. | It's your core differentiators that will help you stand above your competition in a recession. What makes your company unique? What do you stand for? And how can you help your clients and customers in ways that your competition cannot? It's crucial to be different and not an "us too" organization. Don't focus on trying to do the same things that your competition is doing. This can be the death of an organization. Focus instead on how you can do it differently and better. |
| Valor Health | Health, Wellness & Fitness | In-home medical care. | 2005 | 110 | Beyond focusing on your plan, be close and overcommunicate during rough times with your team, vendors and the community. Be positive, transparent and real. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Strategic partnerships | 1. In our unique medical care delivery modele, as Founder, I hired the best industry expert that I could find to execute our plans (I moved to a strategist role, and ensured strong payer revenue sources). 2. Our CEO industry expert surrounded herself with the best clinical/business leaders, to ensure business plan execution. 3. Internal morale was high due to hiring better people and to our cultural beliefs. 4. Established a strong corporate support team, for strong processes. 5. Our intense focus, and most importantly, always on high quality patient outcomes through compassion, customer service, happiness and trancendence. 6. And rare in healthcare, a great sales outreach team who drove our marketing message and loved our clinical teams. | From 2007 to 2009, doubled revenue. | Replacing people who are not engaged or don't deeply care. As you grow, always keep an eye on your cost of sales and G&A expenses, and for us, make sure the patient experience is the best possible out there. | Covid-19 is different for us, versus 9/11 and 2007/8. While we expect to grow through this, and our mission and plans continue, there is the threat of losing healthcare delivery associates - which can be a major problem. I always say plan your work, and work your plan, and, tune out the noise, but to most industries, this is going to be tough. In all, however, hire smart and innovate - and change before you have to change. |
| 2 Hounds Design | Apparel & Fashion | We make the Freedom No-Pull Harness and really cool dog collars and leashes | 2003 | 6 | I started the company in my spare bedroom in 2003. Today we have a 20,000 sq ft manufacturing facility that we custom built. We are currently at about 40 employees. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up a lot | Strategic partnerships | The pet space was a great place to be, people were still spending money on their pets. We worked closely with dog trainers, veterinarians, behaviorists, to influence and promote our products. | Pre-recession our revenue was around $300,000 per year. In 2010, we were around $1 Million, 2012 was around $2 Million in sales. | We've been really lucky that we haven't had to do any layoffs or furloughs. I've taken pay cuts (as the owner/founder) to make sure there was money for payroll. We've been careful about our advertising spend, controlling inventory, labor, and cash flow carefully. | We are focused again on content marketing, partnering with others who can recommend our products, and social proof. |
| Solstice Group Coaching, now loracrestan.com leadership strategy + coaching | Management Consulting | Coaching for medium-sized business owners and leaders focused on reaching their vision of the future by optimizing their people and operations strategy | 2008 | 1 | The toughest part right now is to now sound like you are knocking-off someone else's work or that you are opportunistic, looking to make a quick buck because of the environment we are in today. Staying aligned to values, being present in every situation and simply providing space for thinking out loud and sounding out solutions, mapping through anxiety to what is needed once we get to the other side keeps my coaching focused and intentional (and based in relationship not revenue). | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Strategic partnerships | Building relationships & offering expertise in simple things to help create an understanding of the work my company could do with each client firm. Example: I was really proficient at LinkedIn, and worked with a tech company to show their clients how to use LinkedIn specifically and other social media more broadly to create profiles and posts to market their work aligned to their business strategy and values. These connections eventually became clients for 1:1 coaching, group coaching and mastermind teams. | I actually started the coaching company in the Great Recession. My focus was to building relationships not generating revenue. As relationships grew, revenue followed. Went from $10k in 2008 to $52k in 2009 to $89k in 2010 | The decision to launch the business was family-oriented. The other option was 'find a job' - not likely in my area at that time. Currently I have full time employment in a related company, and run my coaching practice as a side-hustle. | Keep it simple. Be the relationship-builder & connector of others without needing reciprocation. Stay curious and ask lots of questions about your client's needs. If they are ready and/or able, they will make the move to the next step in the process with you. |
| My Marketing Department, Inc. | Marketing & Advertising | Flat fee, all inclusive marketing agency for businesses need an outside marketing professional. | 2007 | 1 | As I was stating before I accidently hit Enter instead of Shift+Enter, we got our first client very fast. But the weeks leading up to that, I went to SCORE and had a mentor help me in starting a business. Mats Bingston took me to some networking groups and showed me how to network and asked me the questions I did not know how to answer about starting a business. This is where I got my first client! Mats was mentoring a tile company that needed marketing help. He put us together and it worked. June of 2007 I joined a BNI networking group where I honed my networking skills, which became my base. Through networking I started positioning My Marketing Department as the experts. July 2007, I hired a business coach to help learn what I did not know. This is where I learned about business pactices and setting my company up to be successful. Dave Proffitt is still my mentor and friend to this day. Prior to 2007, I working in Minor League baseball for the Mobile BayBears. Worked my way up from the gift shop to Assistand GM of Sales and Marketing. Moved to Tampa Bay in 2001 and became the Director of Promotions and Special Events for the Devil Rays. The marketing budget was cut, so I landed with one of our sponsors SunTrust Bank in 2003, where I was the Regional Marketing Director for the Tampa Bay Area. Again, the marketing budget was cut and they combined the sales and marketing departments. Then in 2005 became the Sales and Marketing Director for a statewide, 2% commission real estate company called HomeDiscovery. We were growing and about to go nationwide then the bubble burst! I learned a lot from every job I ever had. I brought all my knowledge and contacts I had made over the years with me to start My Marketing Department. Lastly, if it was not for my wife's support, financially and mentally, this would have never happened! | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Strategic partnerships | The fact that businesses were firing marketing departments and cutting their budgets, but they still needed to market. We came in with an option so they did not have to pay employee taxes, benefits, vacation and sick days. The CFO's and EVP's loved they saved money plus gained an outside perspective of their company. I started this company after being laid off due to the recession. I saw it ahead of time and my wife in I put the business plan together in a car ride out of town to my uncle's 80th birthday party. April 26th, 2006, our owners said: "You can still come to work, but we cannot pay you." May 6th I received our corporation papers and on May 10th we got our first client. | Started with $500, got our 1st client in the 10 days at $1000 per month and have been profitable for 13 years. | Family time has been cut down. Not only am I working for my clients, I am also working extra ON my business. We are having to reevaluate some products and services, which may never come back. Then looking at new ones we may need to launch. When you build something for 13 years and it is working like a well-oiled machine, life is good. Then when life as we have known changes, it takes us out of our comfort zone. This is a good thing! So, the decsions to put some of our bread and butter on the back burner in order to put in newer marketing methods is very, very hard, but it needs to be done. | Look for areas where your prospects are struggling and create something that is an alternative. Look for areas where they are cutting, but they still need those or similar products or services to survive. Now is the time to be the consultant to your currect clients and help them any way you can. For example, I just sent the link to the SBA COVID-19 Disaster Relief Loan/ Grant out to all my clients who I thought would be approved. This has nothing to do with marketing, but I want to help anyway I can. |
| FairCoProcess | Legal Services | Process Service, skip trace, background investigations | 2003 | 1 | Honesty and reputation won the day. We became more versatile and knowledgeable during the leaner times, and afterwards the volume of work returned. The not-so-honest and those defending a poor reputation did not. | Promotion-focus: Invested more in offensive moves that provided upside benefits. | Revenue went up slightly | Strategic partnerships | Formed a professional network with other service providers; business referrals and shared work/methods/experience with each other. | It became necessary to trust some of my direct competitors for the larger community of professionals to remain intact; it fostered higher all-around quality and performance expectations. Ultimately, our rates and our business increased slightly. | Invest more in yourself and in your industry; become indispensible by adding value to your menu of services. Custom tailor client solutions. | |
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