Doing more with less is the opposite of what businesses need during challenging times. It like saying “We’ll just buckle down.” Ironically, it tends to be the infamous go-to when market and economic conditions signal the need for change. It implies that we should simply endure the struggle and avoid forward-driving change. Ultimately, this inhibits business and personal growth and supports stagnancy.
As business owners we are dealing with a pandemic that has a number of ramifications on our businesses and the people who support them. We are trying to work around workforce gaps, changing customer expectations, supply shortages, and (at the same time) increased demand.
Doing more with less may work as a short-term solution… Perhaps to ride a brief wave of sudden change due to natural disaster or something else that we know will pass quickly. However, we’ve been living with this pandemic and its effects on our businesses for more than 2 years. This is not a wave you can ride by doing more with less.
This pandemic has pivoted the market. How we do business, where we do business, and what’s important to our clients and customers have all been forever changed. So, taking temporary precautions to permanent conditions will not work. We must pivot with the market, which often means finding new ways to do business.
What can you do?
Do more with more! Look at your business toolkit. What do you have at your disposal that can help soften the blow of this sudden and drastic change in how we do business? What tools do you have that will help you pivot with the market? What other tools are out there that can help you grow your business despite market changes?
Is your website helping you automate some of those processes that would otherwise be done by you or your staff? Can you use it to free up time so that your team can focus on providing better and faster service to more customers?
Start thinking about how technology could contribute to the growth of your company, rather than thinking about how you can , as my mother would say, “squeeze blood out of a turnip”. Some things just aren’t possible in terms of doing more with less. Penny pinching at the expense of growth isn’t how businesses thrive, even in difficult times. Evolving with the market is how businesses remain in business for generations.
