Lots of people are worried about the economy right now, but what are you doing about it?

Have you taken steps to protect your business and your own income?

The obvious first steps are …

1. Cut unnecessary overhead, those three course meals and first class tickets are not essentials
2. Measure and track everything, trim or tweak anything that isn’t providing value
3. Review any contracts up for renewal, both on the buying and selling side
4. Build and optimize your sales pipeline, and get those deals landed
5. Expand your product lines, income streams and service offerings

If you look over that list you will see what works for a larger business will also work for an individual, even one who doesn’t fit into the entrepreneur category.

We all have overhead, and we all have income streams. For protection and robustness we need the income to be more than our outgoings, plus a bit for savings and investments.

Right now would be the worst time to stop advertising and marketing, in fact there is never a better time, that pipeline is a priority, as is making sure you keep existing customers super happy.

When everything else is in place as best you can, then concentrate on #5, building a Plan B. If you are a business, see what products your target market are in need of, asking for, or most likely to snap up. For solo folks, your plan B is a second or third contract, your own product, or spread the risk with different income streams.

Now is not the time to just leave things to luck, but with the right preparations you might actually come through much stronger!