Preparing for a down economy....
Economist Alan Beaulieu (of the Institute for Trend Research) has shared his thoughts of a frightening Recession in 2009-2010 throughout distributor channels. During Fall 2007, I was privileged to hear him speak on three separate occasions. Based on my own observations (and I'm not an Economist), the smart money is on Alan. When I spoke to folks immediately following his talk, everyone was committed to putting together a plan to safely steer their business out of harm's way. Now - just 3 months hence, nobody has done anything substantial. Oh, they may say we are watching things closely. But ask a couple of questions and you see lots of hand waiving and excited double speak. What should we be doing? Here are a couple of thoughts: Do you have a plan to keep afloat even if business drops 10-15%? What could you cut without cutting into muscle and sinew? What is your sales team doing now that is more efficient than last year? What is your warehouse doing to monitor inventory as