Dont Panic (yet)
Dont be too ready to offer discounts to clients to retain them during recession.
Hopefully most of your clients are happy with what you are doing and want to stick with you, no point shooting yourself in the foot unless there are competitors clawing at their door and you want to get into a price war.
I don't honestly think being in a slow down is any different to what you should be doing anyway. ie Offering good service. Keeping competitive. Collecting debts promptly. The last one being particularly important in a slow down. Its easier when things are good to do well than when things are tight, but if you have a sound basis for your business in the first place then there should be no need for panic. Even in hard hit sectors such as East Agents all that will happen is that there will be some long faces, a few people asked to leave and no new BMW this year; but the good ones will survive leaner and fitter and the poorer ones go to the wall.
If anything recession can be GOOD for small businesses. There is a tendency when the budget is cut to shop around and the small business is better placed to make quick moves and tender at a lower cost than larger ones. I know it certainly happens in my industry with larger firms regularly charging 2-5 times as much as smaller outfits as they have larger overheads and large expectations of profit. I have a client who has just landed a huge contract which will double the size of his business - and the area? Recruitment! Which is traditionally hard hit in a slow down.
Also use a slow down to your advantage. If you competitors are making cuts, marketing can be the first thing to be culled. Adversing rates tend to be increasingly negotiable downwards in such circumstances, so how about making a splash? You should be able to do so for less right now than you will in 3 years time.
As Mr Adams wrote "Dont Panic", just use your small size to adapt.
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