A depressed economy or personal business downturn requires that you relinquish any restrictions about your “ideal” or preferred customer. Most of the people with whom I work have a set of mental or written guidelines that determine which customers they desire and which they do not.
While you may not even be conscious of these parameters, they can have a negative impact when things tighten. This isn’t the time to be selective with your criteria; you may have to break some of your previous rules for those with whom you choose do business.
Whether it will be worth it or not is to be determined, but when things tighten, I immediately loosen up any and all earlier restrictions. I need to get in front of more clients, and I know I have to go the extra mile to offset the reduction. You need to adjust for any loss in opportunities and revenue due to the constraints on the marketplace.
Start looking for new markets and clients, and spend your energy and resources to determine what you have to do to go get them. You may uncover some hidden consideration or agreement not to approach that sector, or maybe you just didn’t have time for it before.
Your biggest problem is always obscurity. Go out and make yourself known in a widening sphere.
