Best Year Ever Series #5: Recession-Proof Your Success: Strategic Growth in Any Economy

Alisa Kay: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Best Year Ever series. My name is Alisa Kay and I help spiritual entrepreneurs turn their unique wisdom into thriving, sustainable businesses.

So whether you're just starting out or ready to scale to multiple six figures, this year is all about growing your impact. If you know you're meant for more impact, but you feel like you're playing small, you're definitely in the right place.

Over these next six episodes, I'm pulling back the curtain on what's really working for conscious leaders right now, including some controversial but truthful truths about growing spiritual businesses. Right now, we'll explore how to maintain your magic while expanding your impact.

And more importantly, how to position yourself as the trusted choice in your industry.

No matter where you're starting from, whether you're launching your first premium offer, going through your phoenix moment, or you're ready to scale from infinity and beyond, this next series is really about helping you create more spaciousness in your business. And really, this series gives you that insider insight that you'll need to make it happen for you no matter where you are on your business journey.

So, ready to make this your most abundant and aligned year ever? Let's dive in.

Alisa Kay: 00:01:12

Recessions are generally a super scary time and generally, you know, it's a topic that most people shy away from.

But as I am a business coach and it's my job to help you make more money and expand your impact, I think it would be remiss for me to not include this specific section. Right.

Or this specific prediction that I have been talking about with my clients and, you know, behind the scenes with my friends for quite a while because I feel like everyone and their mother has really felt the shift in our economy that's felt the shift in, you know, how much things cost that businesses are, you know, yes, they're really easy to start, but they're also really expensive to run, you know, and if you are like me, then you probably spend, you know, at least £500. 500, whatever it is in just like tech costs to upkeep a business.

And yeah, sure, they're like, all right, like tax write offs and we love all of the systems that we use and recommend.

But I think that the price increases in tech, the price increases in food, in accommodation, in just the economy going up has really made a huge impact on the way that business owners make decisions and has made an impact and how you should be making your decisions going into this next year.

So I think that it's really important for you to understand and know that, you know, with a, with a English Speaking market, particularly if you are US or UK based and you serve those types of customers.

When there is an election the first year, typically speaking, the economy, you know, stabilizers get slightly better in some cases and actually most cases I would say. And that in the second year is where the economy dips.

So if we're thinking about, you know, the new American election that just passed, then the prognosis is that the economy is like the dollar actually was stronger post election.

So this is an interesting thing to consider because if you know that the trend is that in the second year the economy dips and people start feeling again the crunch or the, the money being tighter, that we can start to make better business decisions. And again, I don't see anyone talk about this, particularly people who like teach systems and marketing. And I always think it's a bit odd.

Like if you're a strategist, you should be able to plan for these things, right? And you should be able to tell your audience how to plan for these things.

So for, for my perspective and my strategy and my advice, again, I'm not a loyal, it's not legal advice and I'm not a financial advisor. It's not financial advice. However, I can tell you what I am doing and what I am focusing on. What I'm focusing on is cash.

I really think that every single business owner in this next year, particularly, you know, towards the end of the year, should start focusing on cash, having cash reserves.

If there is one thing that I am truly, truly grateful for is when I went on my sabbatical earlier last year and I, you know, took a break from doing coaching and I took a break from really running any programs, I closed them all down.

I had cash in my bank and I had the foresight to give myself that cushion and give myself that, that space to be able to, you know, have that freedom to, to not be super depleted. And it was super difficult. Don't get me wrong, I didn't have a lot of cash and I actually wish that I'd still stacked my cash a lot better.

But I think that having, having had that experience, it's renewed my vigor and renewed my, what's the word I'm looking for. Renewed my commitment to creating more cash in my business. Like I really am a lover of stacking cash. I love a payment plan.

I love to offer people payment plans. I love to have payment plans coming in.

And I think that the problem with payment plans is that you take on risk and the trend that we have seen across again the border over the Last two is that people do not have any integrity is how I would, how I would say. And I know that that's again, not an, not a popular, not a popular statement amongst business owners because we should, I think all have compassion.

And also as a business owner who takes on risk and gives people access to programs, coaching, services and then when you are not paid for it, it is supremely frustrating and supremely irritating because you do not have the same stability and the same cash flow that a big business does. And again, we could talk about the ethics of that in another, in another time, in another episode.

But I do think that it is an integrity piece for sure. And I think that it is a, you know, thought for everyone here.

Like how we operate within our money and how we operate with our cash is generally right. Again, if we're talking about energetic exchanges, how the cash is going to come, come back to us.

So over this next year, I would say to you that like having cash at the forefront of your mind and mitigating those risks, perhaps not having such a long payment plan available, having, you know, like shorter span payment plans, not having 12 payment plans as an example, having three pays instead, making sure that if you are doing service, provide a project so you have, you know, at least 50 of your service be paid up front, making sure that, you know, people honor their contracts, making sure that you have a system in place for collecting debt. Right.

Again, this is, you know, we want to honor our clients and, and always operate thinking that they're going to be in full integrity and they're going to honor their commitments.

And I think that it's also really important for everyone to understand that like that digital landscape has changed and a lot more people are defaulting on their payment plans and a lot more people are, you know, not fulfilling their contractual obligations to pay. So I just want to make sure that you protect yourself. And again, this is not so much about being in scarcity mindset.

It's not about, you know, having any sort of opinion whether it's good or bad or whether it's, you know, judgmental or not. I always have compassion for, for clients who are going through a tough time. And I always have, you know, a different solution in mind.

We're always in, as in our company policy, SOP is we're always trying to help our clients out. Ultimately, it's my again, role to help people market their business and make money. Right.

So if clients are struggling, I will point them in the direction of strategies, documents, videos to help them do that or I will Literally give them extra coaching or support if they're going through a tough time.

Like, there are different things that you can do to support your people, but as a business owner, it's also really important for you to support the business and to keep the business in mind.

Ultimately, yes, there is a human factor and we want to make sure that people are taken care of and that they are, you know, seen and again, supported.

And also as a business owner, it's your job to pay your staff, to pay your, you know, virtual assistants, to pay yourself, to bring food to your table, to feed your children, to help your family or whatever else it is that you choose to commit to. Right. If you choose to commit to travel every month, it's your, it's your job to fulfill that. Right?

And I think that ultimately it's really, really important for you to prioritize cash and make sure that you have reserves. If not three months, then, you know, at the very least three months, but I would say six months is, is really where I would aim and plan.

Another thing I would think about is also like consolidating systems. A lot of us have loved playing around with AI tools, have loved playing around with different tech, you know, innovations.

Do we really need all of those tools? Again, think about, where are you spending that cash? How can you start to streamline more of the tools that you're using?

And like, I absolutely love FG funnels. It's an all in one tool.

We have been consolidating a lot of our systems and cutting down a lot of our expenses by integrating different, you know, different elements of it. And I'll link F2 funnels in the show notes because I rave about them.

It's an amazing company run by two incredible women who actually one of whom I met in my very first mastermind many years ago. So it's, it's an awesome company with a lot of support and it's an all in one that's super affordable for every business owner, I would say.

But having that, that cash and really thinking about, okay, is this tool supporting me?

Is this, strategically speaking, like, if we are to hit another downturn, where are my business systems so that I don't feel like I'm scattered and I don't feel like I have to take on more and more work in order to meet the requirements of the business, you know, as in business bills specifically. So I would just be really, really mindful of that.

I also think that a recession is an awesome time and awesome opportunity for a lot of businesses to make Money.

A lot of businesses make a lot of money during hard financial times, particularly if you're working in the B2B space and you're really good at what you do, which I know for a fact that you are listening to this. Like, understanding that people are going to be making more of a decision based on how much money they're going to make back is a really powerful.

In terms of messaging and marketing, you can literally tell people this is the roi, this is what you can expect to do or have or achieve in this next period.

So having that focus is really, really, really awesome because it means that you can actually articulate that more in your marketing and understand that the messaging that you were using when everything one is, you know, everyone was happy and making all of the money in the world and not feeling right. The pinch in their budget, as in they don't have as much money left over at the end of the month.

It's really important for you to align your messaging again to that and articulate that through the words and the stories that you're using. I also think that client experience is going to be a huge, huge, huge element to this. It's like how can you support more of your clients?

How can you start to, you know, make sure that your clients are well looked after and how can you make sure that you are really taking accountability for the stuff that you're creating? Again, for me, I am not responsible for the results that my clients have. That is really up to them.

Like if I tell someone to execute a launch and I give them a launch plan and they don't execute it, there is nothing that I can do around, around that beyond, you know, offer support and coaching around why they didn't do it. But I think as again as a strategist specifically, I'm giving you a strategy and you don't execute it. There's nothing I can do.

Just like, you know, if you're creating funnels for people and they're not running ads to them or they don't, they don't have any traffic coming in, there's nothing that you could do about it.

So I think there's again a fine line between taking ownership of like client to do's and also really making sure that you're putting your customers first, your customers feel supported and you're elevating customer support. I think a lot of people are really fast to outsource customer support as fast as possible.

But actually in the customer support is where you have a lot of the gold for copy. A lot of the gold for upselling a lot of the gold for really making sure that you are building that community.

So I wouldn't abdicate, right the the role of some form of customer face to face. Whether it's content, comments, whatever, or like your inbox or even like help Q A calls. I see a lot of people try and outsource though those.

But I think it's really important for you to keep your finger on the pulse and understand where your customers are at.

Because again, as we go through this like weird economic time, it's important for you to understand and be in touch with where the, the people are within the scope of who you're working with. And that can go both ways, right?

Maybe you're working with a really high, high, high net worth individual and for them these are irrelevant, irrelevant things. But you need to be able to articulate the fact that it's irrelevant for them because of XYZ flip side.

If it is relevant for them, you need to be able to again articulate the flip side of that.

So again, like recession, approving your business is really about making sure that you understand the implications on your ideal customer and on how your product service is going to fit into their life.

If there is going to be an economic downturn and how your product or service currently is affecting their life, like how much is it costing them is what is the relevance of what you're bringing to the market. And again, like playing a what if game, I love to call this like the Odyssey experiment. If X happens, this, then Y happens.

And I again, I want to make sure that my coaching, my programs, the products that my clients are creating are really, really impactful to my clients.

So it's, it's again centering the client first and making sure that no matter what happens in the economy, your service or your voice, your magic is needed. Again, I've been in this industry for quite a long time. We've seen different times. It has always been consistent.

It has always been, you know, the case that people need messaging help, they need support, they need my magic, right?

And there are other strategies that will tell you, well, no one pays for messaging and no one pays for, for strategy and no one even has coaches anymore. Right? So again, like what story are you going to believe?

Are you going to believe that you are absolutely vital and important and make sure that you are vital and important no matter what happens in the economy? Or are you going to believe the story that everything sucks and no one's paying for anything?

Because again, I can tell you what's going to make you more successful is definitely option one and option two is absolutely not true. And you know, those people need a lot of coaching and they need to shift their mindset.

So I would invite you to start to think about how can you start to create more of a cash focus? How can you bring in more cash and more reserves for yourself, for your business to be in that safety net and prioritize that over other things?

And I think that that is a really awesome strategy in terms of thinking about how you align your launches, your pricing, even like the way that you sell going forward because cash really is king. I would say that diversifying your streams of income is really, really important.

Again, making sure that you have different, you know, types of money coming in over this next year.

Thinking about, again, not like 50, 000 different income streams, but thinking about, okay, if I have, you know, if I have a funnel, do I have an upsell? Do I have another thing that enhances this product that I've created?

If you have, you know, recommendations or if you have products, services, do you have any affiliate money coming in? Can you start to, you know, expand the amount of income coming your way and can you start to stack that cash?

Because stacking the cash really is the vibe as we're going into this, like, interesting financial time. And ultimately, you know, I really do think that you being visible is your insurance against economic uncertainty.

You being visible and you being at the forefront of your market is going to make sure that you are the go to in your industry, in your niche, in whatever it is that you are an expert in. So focusing on visibility and you being seen throughout good times and bad is going to ultimately make sure that people remember you.

I have people coming back to me from two, three, four years ago who know me because I've been talking about messaging, I've been talking about strategy, I've been talking about funnels, I've been talking about, you know, positioning for a really long time in Internet years, basically a million years in Internet years at this point. So start to. If you haven't been doing that, today is a good day to start.

And if you have been, let's, you know, create that consistent visibility system that's going to amplify that impact and help you be visible and be seen even more with very little effort. So I will see you in the next episode. Hope you love this one. Have a good day.