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"Using an e-mail blast and word of mouth (both methods are very cost friendly) I implemented a program in which customers would be given discounts on new items like shoes, racquets or clothing, if they would bring in used items. A pair of shoes in decent condition would give the customer $10 off of a new pair. Old tennis racquets in playable condition would give the customer $20 off a new frame, and a usable coat would warrant 25% off all of the new clothing purchased.

The collected used items were then donated to charity programs for the homeless, and the racquets were given to a local kids at risk program to teach them tennis and racquetball. This program begins during the holiday shopping period after Thanksgiving and appeals to the goodwill of the season. In addition, it boosts the image of my business and helps the bottom line when things are tight."

"Once we faced the reality that this economic climate was not about to change, we made some hard decisions. Although automated, our insurance agency needed to use our management system more efficiently. We reviewed our processes and focused on streamlining workflow.

We invested in equipment that made the workflow smoother and more convenient. We reduced staff, eliminating any position that did not directly relate to client assistance and reducing hours for support positions that were essential, like bookkeeping . We renegotiated our lease, giving up some space we had originally leased with the idea of expansion but were still only using for storage. We reviewed our expenses carefully, allocating money to new business development plans.

We are taking advantage of cooperative advertising available from our insurance carrier partners and are mindful of any opportunity to get our name out into the community. We are rethinking our traditional yellow pages advertising and developing an internet presence that will compliment the print ads.

In curtailing all non-essential spending and being price conscious buyers, we still try to support the businesses in our community. Many of these are already our clients so, in supporting their success, we derive the benefit of a strong and loyal referral network. We are still facing this economic challenge along with every other business out there. But, we now have plan and, the challenge does not feel quite so daunting."

"After assesment of the situation, we turned back to our client data base and contacted all the qualified customers while blasting email promotions to the rest of the client on the data base. The result was that after three months of almost no revenue, we turned it around to be a much more profitable business model. The business works with less clients but achieves a 1005 closing ratio. Every single loan gets approved with comparison to the stated income loans hat was 60% closing ratio. We spend the same amount of time on our clients but we are able to get them more money than ever. With the extra time that we have on our hands, we can invest in a better infrastructure and business development and marketing. In hind sight, this credit crunch came as a blessing since it opened a door to many more deals."

"Our business has taken several measures to try to combat our  challenges. We are exploring opportunities in feed by-products, such as starch bases used in human grade medicines that are rejected for human use, by-products from ethanol plants, and other various opportunities.

In the recent weeks, we have been forced to reduce employee benefits such as health insurance and overtime. We also laid off 2 employees. We are also looking at opportunities to change some equipment to more energy efficient technology. This requires capital expenditures that are not in the budget right now so these options have been put in our 1-3 year goals.

Another way to increase efficiency will  be to add more cows to the operation. This again would require a large capital outlay, but would increase facility and equipment efficiency by 20% or greater! This would also allow us to hire back the 2 employees we laid off and possibly create another job. This by far would be the best avenue to take. Also by adding the cattle it would reduce the leveraged position and make other energy saving technologies achievable in a shorter time period. The best thing about this avenue, is that it can be achieved with NO additional overhead costs. Constant monitoring of expenses has been key to maintaining breakevens at this time, but a breakeven business will not survive very long in today’s economy."

"We knew we had to act quickly or face losing a high percentage of our non-U.S. customers! We already had a high percentage of repeat buyers (we run 2 weekly auctions with 1,000-1,500 items every week!), so we implemented a "Pay and Hold" program, where non-U.S. customers have 30 days to make purchases from us, and they pay for them as they buy them, but we don't ship any of the purchases until 30 days has gone by, and then we combine them into a single package, for a single shipping charge.

This means repeat buyers now pay FAR less in shipping than they did before the massive price increases, and it greatly encourages customer loyalty and repeat purchasing. The program means that non-U.S. buyers have a total of 8 different auctions to purchase from and to combine from, around 5,000 to 6,000 items.

The success of the program has caused our percentage of non-U.S. customers to INCREASE, and if we had not implemented the program at all, the percentage would surely have greatly decreased. The program DOES require more work on our part, but the extra work is amply rewarded!"

"Because the camera had to be 3 dimensional and realistic; and because mold injection was cost prohibitive, we combined some new technology with tried and true ways methods to create a fantastic display that came in well under budget.

After a couple of flops, we decided to take hi-resolution images of the actual display camera from every angle. Those images allowed us to capture the various colors and given the perception of depth on what was really a flat surface. Those images were transferred onto an adhesive backed material. We then created a CAD file (using the actual display camera as the model) and used that file to cut styrene into the actual size and shape of the real camera. When all the pieces were complete, we adhesived images and glued them onto the 3-d blanks to create the actual camera display. We cut a photo into the camera LCD screen and voila...a cost effective, realistic camera display was born!

This camera is now on display in virtually every Rite-Aid drug store in the U.S. Needless to say, we had a very satisfied customer!"

"Instead of moving the highly qualified personnel, we were able to deal with the client to have intermediate personnel on-site and the seasoned professional can have a virtual presence at the remote location via tele-conference and remote PC access.

In this win-win solution, the client spend less on the intermediate personnel and we get to keep the top gurus in-house to support all the other personnel working at the remote locations."

"Barri made a decision to take on the challenge of running the shelter for FEMA and their prime contractor. As president, I went down to run the shelter and oversaw the operations myself. It would mean 4 months away from my company. But I believed the influx of cash would bring back confidence. I felt it would give us another business area to develop and it did.

Barri developed procedures immediately for this work. Our home company COO and CFO put together a plan and time sheet procedure & graphics to overcome the fact that many had never worked before and didn't know how to fill out daily & weekly time sheets.

While working 14 hours a day in San Antonio, it allowed the rest of Barri to work on the recovery of the sales we were close to winning. Keeping them seperate meant Barri could continue to increase other sales and complete RFP's, new accounts. We used the national recolonization to open new doors and it worked. To ensure I had good assistance a major point was to hire Katrina & local residents. They took responsibility for ensuring the shelters safety & policies. By forming a simple "home association" to speak for the residents changed the overall attitudes in the "dorms." This decision of "separation" changed the ability of my home office to work with other clients and continue new sales. Most importantly the stress at the home office went down. Win Win."

"I painted the store and gave it a whole new upscale look. Purchased merchandise on promotion and closeout so I could mix it in with the old merchandise and then pass on savings to my customers. Made 9 room arrangements to show customers how to use the merchandise in their homes.

Sent 2200 postcards with a 20% off one item on it. Advertised on TV. Called old customers to tell them about an in store event. We offered door prizes, one hour and refreshments. Rented tables and chairs to make it feel a little more formal. I got all dressed up in a long dress and looked my best. I decided the last minute to hand out $10.00 gift certificates for door prizes so customers would continue to shop and THEY DID. While I picked the name of the winner, I announced ALL merchandise is now 20% .

It worked. The store was packed for 2 days. Customers did purchase a lot more and they used the gift certificate to get more merchandise too. When one person purchased others just followed. I was able to reconnect with my old customers and met many new ones. I have leads for Window coverings and Design jobs. Also orders on the furniture we have on our floor. I did my best to make it a fun time for the customers while they were shopping."