The 5 Smartest Ways To Recession-Proof Your Business - Part 1 | Robin Sharma

Hi, it's Robin Sharma. Welcome to this video. It's really all about five ways you can recession proof and bulletproof your business so you weather the economic storm that's coming. I'm going to keep it very informal. I'm here at home and I was just reading a newspaper, one of my favorite newspapers, it's the Financial Times Weekend and I was reading about the market turmoil that we've all been hearing about. We all have heard about the Eurozone crisis. We all have heard about a number of European economies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. We've all heard about the Swiss economy and you know, what they tried to do to protect their economy. We've heard about the American debt, AAA downgrade, unemployment is soaring, people are scared, consumers are scared and a lot of entrepreneurs are in a lot of trouble right now.

I was also reading another newspaper. The article was America get ready for the double Dip. A lot of people are saying we're already in the double dip recession. A number of economists are saying we're going to go into a depression over the next three to four years. I was reading about one economist, his name is Ravi Batra. He predicted a number of previous crashes and two of the things that stood out. He says as the deficit is going to fall, another round of imbalance and hence layoffs is inevitable. 2012 will look really bad. And then here's what I've highlighted. Just as I try to wrap my brain cells about the future so I can advise my clients on exactly what they need to do, he writes, major deficit cuts are scheduled in 2013. If they really come to pass, then the recession could turn into a depression. And that sort of confirms or resonates with a book I read a little while ago by Harry Dent called the Great Depression Ahead. A lot of pundits are saying we could actually go into depression. So I really think right now this isn't the worst it's going to get. I think over the next 12 months to 24 months, things are going to get worse. I think in the future, obviously it's a cycle and we will head back into a time of prosperity. But I just invite you as an entrepreneur, as a remarkable entrepreneur, to be thinking about the future. So you literally protect the asset, your business that you've worked so hard to build. You protect your team who depend on you for their livelihood. You protect your profits and actually leverage, not only protect your business, but you actually leverage your business. So you grow because this is actually a time of great opportunity. If you develop the mindset to think like that. Well, I'm going to get into the five points and these really come from an event I did this past June. It was one of the most fun events I've ever done. It was called the remarkable Entrepreneur Supercondition Conference and it sold out. And people from 26 countries, entrepreneurs just like you, attended the event. And I took them through two and a half days where I basically shared my entire system for building a world class business, accelerating profits, building a great team, building a great brand, bulletproofing your business and also enjoying a fantastic lifestyle. And so here are the five ideas. Number one, to recession proof your business, you cannot win a race to the bottom. What does that mean? You can't win a race to the bottom. What a lot of entrepreneurs right now are doing. And these are the ordinary entrepreneurs, and these are the ordinary entrepreneurs that are about to experience some very painful times. They are undercutting their prices, they're reducing their prices so that they can try to keep their customers and win more market share. They're cutting back on how much they charge for their products and their services, which is the wrong move. Because what you're doing then is you are training your customers to see your products and your service as a lower value prop, as worth something lower than they are. And then what your competition is going to do is they're going to reduce their prices and then you cut your prices and essentially you get into a race to the bottom where ultimately your customers and the market sees the products and services that you have worked so hard to create. They see them as a commodity and you just can't win. And that's a great way to end up in bankruptcy. What are remarkable entrepreneurs doing right now? They're not competing on price. And this is where the discipline comes in. Many remarkable entrepreneurs are actually increasing their prices right now, but they don't compete on price. The remarkable entrepreneurs are competing on value. So they're actually increasing the value they deliver. They're actually making better products. They're actually offering more value. They're customer service is actually increasing. They're investing more time in training their team. They're actually spending more time in research and development and innovating. Very simple idea point number one, do not get engaged in a race to the bottom. Offer better products, offer better services, offer better customer service and actually increase the value perception of what you're offering and actually increase the prices. And here's a very simple tactic. I taught this at the super conference. Develop a 10x value obsession. Actually, I want you to write that down. 10x value obsession. What is a 10x value obsession? Well, it's basically this. Ask yourself this fundamentally game changing question. How can I deliver in this turbulent economy right now when all my competition is cutting back, cutting their prices and and engaging in a race to the bottom. How can I offer 10 times the value that my customers are currently expecting? In other words, ask yourself how might I deliver more value to my customers versus get into that fear mode and cutting back on the value that I offer to them? This is the single best way to have your customers fall in love with you. It's the single best way to develop customers who are no longer customers but they become what I shared at the super Conference and and call your fanatical followers. If you are so good at what you do that your customers cannot take their eyes off you, you give them so much value that they're literally left breathless after doing business with you. They will actually buy more from you, that will actually accelerate your profits and they will actually be your unpaid marketing force around the world. Number two, the second second best way to recession proof and bulletproof your business. Shift from being busy to doing valuable work. You know, this is where the discipline comes in. Once again, here's what ordinary entrepreneurs are doing right now. They're overwhelmed and they're frightened. And here is how they cope with the overwhelm in the most valuable hours of their day when they could be doing real work versus fake work. They start checking their email, they surf the Internet, they get on the phone, they chit chat. They waste time. This is destroying ordinary entrepreneurs profits. It's a very simple idea. But make the leap today from doing fake work and plastic work and busy work to doing real valuable work that will grow your profits, inspire your team, wow your customers and scale scale your business to a place called world class. Here's the tactic. Don't only have a to do list every morning, but have a stop doing list every morning. Number one, a stop doing list. Literally ask yourself what are the few things that I'm doing that are most valuable? And then ask yourself what are the things that I'm doing that I'm doing just because I'm in overwhelm, just because I'm escaping, doing the real work just because I want to feel like I'm productive but I'm just being busy? Strip away all the noise and focus on doing the valuable work. Another tactic to start doing the valuable work is use your most valuable hours to do your most valuable work. In other words, science has shown we are Most creative, most productive, most energetic first thing in the morning and right through the morning until about noon. Don't check email first thing in the morning. Don't suffer from death by meeting first thing in the morning. Have the discipline, as a remarkable entrepreneur, to actually work in chunks of time, at least three hour blocks of time where you focus on doing the work that will bring in the profits, doing the work that will create 10x value to your customers, doing the work that will actually build your company versus wasting your time. At the Super Conference this past June, I shared the science, the research. Did you know on an average day, ordinary entrepreneurs are spending 2.1 hours a day in distraction? Did you know we're distracted by email, voicemail, our mobiles, our BlackBerry every 11 minutes. And it actually takes 25 minutes to refocus your mind back onto the project and the work that will actually grow your business, grow profits and, and make you a better company. So really, that second point that I've shared with you to bulletproof and recession proof your business, shift away from the busy work and the overwhelm work and strip away all the noise and focus on being acutely concentrated on doing the few things that will create 10x value for your customers. Idea number three, to bulletproof your business against the turbulent times that are coming disrupt versus being disrupted. Let's look at Blockbuster and let's look at Netflix. Blockbuster fell in love with the way they did things. They got knocked out of the game into bankruptcy by a company called Netflix. Because Blockbuster fell in love with their business model. Blockbuster was successful, so they became complacent. Blockbuster stopped innovating. Blockbuster fell in love with delivering video bricks and mortar locations. What I'm suggesting to you is right now, in the middle of this economic turmoil, and I suggest to you it's going to get a lot worse. This is not a time to rest on your laurels. This is not a time at the water cooler to say, you know what, change will go away and things will get easier. Let's just keep doing what we're doing. You have heard it a thousand times to the point where if you hear it again, I know it's going to make you nauseous. But remember what Einstein said, the definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results. If you do not disrupt the status quo, if you do not change the way you worked yesterday, if you do not bring new value to your marketplace, if you do not innovate, if you are not the lead disruptor in your market, I promise you this, you will be disrupted, and you might not like the consequences.