Networking Now

Was really pleased to find this article at the Times Online site today (not pleased about the message though!!)

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6909961.ece

It talks about the fact that the second wave of the credit crunch is yet to come. The scary thing is that I gave a presentation two weeks ago to the CFO and finance department of an American Software company and told them that I believed that in 2010-2011 there would be a second wave of insolvencies due to many large deals that took place a few years back - they were not sure if they should listen or not... I'm glad to say that as of today they are reassessing their portfolio to check the longer term problems that could occur.

Hate to sound a typical State Hater, but is this one again due to the way the American financial system is set up?

Their banking and mortgage rules costs us a hell of a lot the first time around, I feel for companies that are already teetering on the verge of financial ruin, this will send some panic waves out!

We do need less panic enducing articles, however, as I have another toe in the kitchen retail business with my husband, I know just how tough it is out there still. I think there is along way to go until more luxury items such as kitchens are back on everyones buying agenda.

Hi Global Assistant,

I've read your concerns about "Kitchens" elsewhere.

Have you ever considered doing a monthly "recession busting" marketing thing. Like January, focus on work-tops. It's quick simple and most people have dents in them. Come in bish-bash-bosh one in, one out. Not a full refurb, but you can probably service 10 or so customers in a month no problem.

PS - I wouldn't suggest this to you on the other forums, but here I would.

Probably not a wonderful solution, but the market has changed and people are in to "saving money" and "repair and make do".

DigitalStationery wrote:Probably not a wonderful solution, but the market has changed and people are in to "saving money" and "repair and make do".

This is a good point and opportunity for you Global Assistant; I have heard this around a bit. Totally agree with Doug on this one.

Speak to Doug about some Digital Stationary for your campaign maybe?

DigitalStationery wrote:Have you ever considered doing a monthly "recession busting" marketing thing. Like January, focus on work-tops. It's quick simple and most people have dents in them. Come in bish-bash-bosh one in, one out. Not a full refurb, but you can probably service 10 or so customers in a month no problem.

This is a really strong example of thinking around a problem and finding way(s) to adapt to something negative and make the best out of it.

We desperately need to do some basic re-fitting in our kitchen and bathroom - I'm currently repairing them myself in spare time, but if it were possible to start the 'proper job' by getting an expert in to do the bare minimum and fix the real issues - with a view to refitting the whole thing later.. we probably would.

That said, ours is pretty trashed, so it's a case of glueing it back together until it can be gutted! That and we're on an island, so limited selection of service providers. :)

I thought perhaps I'd upset someone.

The way I see it is the masses are "spending", just not taking out "huge debts". Volume and frequency on small jobs that people need doing rather than "want doing" is what its about.

If people have a "good thing" they are doing, then some stunning "power marketing" never goes amiss to penetrate that market. We do set-up marketing stationery...

My advice is get on the phone, put a circular together and build up relationships with people. Email is a great communication tool for for keeping you infront of warmed-up people. 1 message to 1,000 warm people goes down a treat.

DigitalStationery wrote:The way I see it is the masses are "spending", just not taking out "huge debts". Volume and frequency on small jobs that people need doing rather than "want doing" is what its about.

This is very much what we've seen in the market(s) we are involved in.

People are not borrowing much - those who have debts are focussed on reducing them as much as possible - this is partly because a lot got caught out and were 'over exposed' when the recession began to hit and also because the future is still very uncertain.

However, a lot of maintenance work has emerged - for example, we've had a lot of "Classic ASP" work come in recently - several clients who have talked to us along the lines of "We were planning to completely rebuild the system in ASP.NET, but really we just need to keep the old one going for a bit longer.."

We make ourselves very available for maintenance, fixes, etc, though - so if anything this is a good chance for us to build strong relationships with new clients!