If you are suffering from reduced activity in the office due to the downturn in the economy, then it can be a really good time to take stock before things pick up again. You need to make sure you are in good shape before all hell breaks loose again when things pick up.

Now is a great opportunity to work on the business instead of chasing your tail working in the business. Here are some things that you might want to look at:

1. Marketing

We have been re-writing our case studies, developing client presentations and designing a video show reel, ready for our new direct marketing campaign. These are the kinds of things that get missed when you are working on projects.

2. Vision and Direction

Have a look at the company mission and values, do they still make sense? Do they need to be changed? Is the company going in the direction you want it to? Dust off the company vision and update it with your new vision and ideals.

3. Connect With Customers

Go out and see your customers, this is a great opportunity to connect and reaffirm the working relationship.

4. Training & Staff Development

Learn a new programming language or framework, think about adopting a new methodology such as agile development. Look at your staff objectives for this appraisal cycle and help them to reach the goals they set.

5. Upgrade Technology

Make sure any systems that need an upgrade get them now, fix all the small work flow issues that have been bugging you for months.

6. Systems and Processes

We have recently completely redesigned our working practices, based on the lessons we have learned over the last six months. It was a great opportunity to address some of the issues that affect profitability (such as over servicing clients, client changes, and feature creep). The whole team was involved in the process and this helped get buy-in to keep to the new system.

7. Work on Internal Projects

Remember all those cool projects that you have planned that you never have time for, now is the chance to work on them. Better yet come up with a project that involves cross functional teams, to improve collaboration.

This current economic cycle will not last forever, and you need to make sure that when it ends you are in a good place to take advantage.

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Tags: downturn, opportunity

This entry was posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 6:06 pm and is filed under General.
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