What Can You Do to Ensure a Market Downturn Doesn't Affect Your Business?
Guest Blogger Spotlight: This is an article from our partner, BELAY, about the current economy. While it's addressed to businesses, we think it applies to ministries and churches, too, and are excited to share it with you!
We’ve got good news and bad news.
The bad news? We’re in an economic downturn.
The good news? It doesn’t mean we have to be in full-on panic mode.
Not only does this downturn not have to negatively impact you and your business, but you can leverage it to scale and grow. Here are some ways to do just that.
Cut Spending—Intelligently
In a down economy when costs need to be cut, hiring fractional employees can save you and your company a lot of money.
One of the smartest ways to gain some relief on spending costs is hiring.
Hiring can be expensive to say the least, and there's more to think about than just a wage. What about all of the countless other variables that go into determining cost?
What about recruiting, benefits, training, paperwork, supplies, equipment—even the cost to provide AC for an employee?
Our Employee Burden Cost Calculator will take you beyond pay to give you a clear understanding of the true financial burden of any employee.
With a team of fractional employees, employers save considerable money in real estate and other infrastructure-related costs.
You can also work on setting a realistic budget. What are absolutes in your business and what can you outsource or stop altogether? Are there any subscriptions you have that you aren’t using?
Build Up Your Savings
Once you have identified the items you can eliminate within your budget, you can start to smuggle a portion of that money away for a rainy day.
Another fun way to save is to put in place a wager or reward for meeting your goals with sites like stickK. There are also plenty of apps—like Digit—that will automatically set aside money for you without you realizing it’s missing.
Understand the Market
It could be time to raise your prices. But first, do some marketplace research.
Identify a few of your competitors and peers and examine how they’ve changed their pricing or services to accommodate the shift.
Make certain that your product is reasonably priced and can keep up with inflation. When you price your services and products accurately, you’ll be able to keep your budget more in line.
Don't Be Afraid to Advertise
Don’t shy away from continuing to market your services and products—even Harvard Business Review says so.
If you’re able to build and manage a strong brand, your audience will trust you. And your brand doesn’t have to just sell. It can serve.
Create a company that customers not only recognize but also trust. Use your reach to educate, entertain and provide institutional knowledge.
And when the time is right, you can begin to advertise your solution to their problem.
Navigating The Great Resignation
When it comes to navigating The Great Resignation, it’s vital for employers to understand its impact and why it’s so imperative that it be slowed down.
There are many ways to manage the likelihood of employees quitting, so it’s important for employers to take time and figure out what changes need to be made. Some ways to reduce losing good employees can be done by improving the internal processes within the company and working to improve employee wellness.
Improving internal processes involves looking within the company to figure out where there may be issues or challenges causing employees to feel overworked and burned out. The increase in remote work has given employees the ability to work from anywhere, but in turn, has led to difficulties in separating work from their personal lives.
As employers, there should be frequent discussions with employees to understand how they are doing and when adjustments should be made. Continue reading to learn more about how to reduce the frequency of quitting in the workplace.
Improve Internal Processes
The majority of one’s stress comes from their job due to either a stressful situation at work or having too much on their plate that they don’t know how to manage.
Dealing with large amounts of stress for too long can lead to burnout. Burnout can cause employees to become easily overworked, resulting in stress levels being heightened.
For those overwhelmed in their day-to-day jobs due to the amount of work they have, it’s important to recognize when the work may be too much to handle.
For those who would benefit from delegating tasks or getting extra assistance, investing in fractional staffing may be a good idea.
If employers are noticing an increase in stress and workload, fractional staffing can help alleviate the overwhelming workload by providing services such as virtual assistants, accounting help, website specialists, and even social media management.
Fractional staffing provides employers with the opportunity to get outside help from a third party on daily tasks.
Using the fractional staffing efforts of BELAY Solutions can help give you time back during the day to focus your attention on other tasks that need to be completed.
Having the ability to get extra assistance with tasks that you may not want to do or have the time for can help you better manage your time and resources. Being able to provide employees with the opportunity to delegate some of their work or restructure their workflow, can assist in alleviating some of the stressors that currently exist in their lives.
If you’re able to help reduce the amount of stress in employees, it’ll not only help them but also you as the employer because you will regain the full potential of your employees.
Focus on Employee Wellness
Another way to mitigate the great resignation risk is through employee wellness.
As an employer, making an effort to invest in your employees can be beneficial as it’ll not only be good for them but also the company as a whole.
Types of financial assistance programs that can be offered include tax preparation help, financial webinars, and budget planning.
Implementing a variety of wellness resources will help employees feel more educated and secure in their personal lives. This will allow them to feel more confident in their personal lives and provide them with the resources they need to reach financial stability.
Another way to encourage financial security can be through informational sessions regarding FHA loan requirements. If employees are considering relocation due to the flexibility of remote work, providing different financial assistance resources can help alleviate their stress by helping them understand their financial situation.
This type of loan requires less strict financial requirements with a lower down payment and credit score threshold, which can be helpful for employees to understand when committing to a mortgage.
Employers need to consider all aspects of their employees, not just their contributions in the workplace.
Providing employees with the resources to learn how to better manage their financial situation, as well as their workflow, can reduce the risk of losing good people.
BELAY’s modern staffing solutions help church leaders accomplish more and juggle less. Since 2010, BELAY has connected over a thousand church leaders with virtual assistants and accounting specialists. Our custom matching process pairs churches with highly-vetted, U.S.-based professionals designed to fit their needs and their church—and our fractional staffing model ensures you only pay for what you need so you can get back to doing what only you can do: Shepherding those God has brought through your door.