Our Honorees on Weathering the Current Economic Downturn: Spring 2009 discusses the survey results of how Top Small Workplaces and Best Bosses are weathering the current economic conditions:
Although frozen credit, especially for smaller firms, has dominated the news over the past six months, only 21 percent of respondents say that reduced credit lines or access to new credit are their chief war wounds from the credit crisis (compared to 20 percent in Q4 2008)…However, the chief hardship related to the recession is not credit, respondents say – it's customers or clients who have trouble paying their bills. Almost a third of respondents (32 percent) said this was a big problem. Another 32 percent, however, said the credit crisis is having no effect on their business.
While there were a variety of responses, the highest responses of the surveyed companies were the following: experienced a slight (less than 10%) decrease in sales, the recession became evident in the fourth quarter of 2008, cut operating expenses in response, and expect the next 12 months to be flat or show a 5-10% decrease in sales. It also compares the key strategies now to six months ago and shares a breakdown of the strategies used to solidify their business:
- Improve operational efficiencies: 27%
- (Tie) Launch new products/services: 23%; more aggressive selling: 23%
- (Tie) Retain top talent: 9%; Additional staff training: 9%
- Switch/renegotiate prices with vendors: 5%
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