Remember the show Naked and Afraid? I loved that show. Two volunteers agreed to be dropped in the middle of nowhere with no resources but a few small tools they could carry (maybe a knife, or a fire starter) to see if they could survive for 21 days and ultimately make it to a destination that would take them out of their self-imposed wilderness. Or the show Alone, where the game was to outlast others and theoretically had no end (the longest survivor outlasted the others with 87 days). The interesting thing about those shows is that you realized that survival wasn’t just a physical game. It was a mental game. Is this worth it? Should I keep going for another day, or should I quit?

Well folks, we are in the wilderness now, aren’t we? We’re in a real game of Naked and Afraid, and Alone wrapped into one but there is no quitting.

The economic shut-down is real, and the anxiety around it is starting to amp up. You can feel it in the air. People want the country to get back to work. If you’re in a small business, you’re especially vulnerable, but even big businesses are starting to convert those furloughs into layoffs. The reality is that right now, businesses have to do whatever it takes to survive, and that may involve shedding a few pounds in the form of jobs and other resources to keep the company body strong.

What is not healthy though is pretending like it’s not happening. If you have a job, consider that you may lose it no matter how secure you feel and how vital your contribution is to the company in your own opinion. If you’ve recently lost your job, do not play the victim and stick your head in the sand or play the lowly pawn comforting yourself with the fantasy of things being out of your control. If you have a company — large or small — do not be obtuse and pretend that the game of business has a pause button and you can wait until things turn around because things always turn around.

What is the fat, muscle and bone of your business?

Now is a time to take action. Consider it training. Even professional athletes continue to train. If you have a business (or if you suddenly find yourself in the business of YOU) you must first assess what your resources currently are and how long they will last. A mentor of mine (Keith Cunningham, brilliant businessman) breaks it down this way.

1. First, cut the fat. Most businesses are carrying a few extra pounds. What are you spending money on that you really don’t need right now. Do you need new equipment right now? Probably not. Do you need that service from the florist to keep bringing flowers to the office? No. Ask yourself, what do I need to keep my business moving. How can I maximize cash flow? Take a look at all those subscriptions your business pays for. Are there any that you can cancel, or pause?
2. Second, cut the muscle. If you’ve already cut the fat or don’t have any to cut, it’s time to cut deeper. This will get uncomfortable. This could mean laying off employees. This could mean selling underutilized assets (assuming you can find a buyer). This could mean reducing your own salary. What can you cut without doing the body unrecoverable damage?
3. Third (and finally), cut the bone. This is really going to hurt. This is akin to amputation. You will lose real and significant capability, but the body will survive. Do you need to shut down a piece of your operation? Withdraw from a market? Fire a customer that is costing you money?

The point is, regardless of where you find yourself right now, you need to be thinking about what your business’s fat, muscle, and bone are and where you would cut. The objective is to keep the body alive. Just like the body needs calories to survive, a business needs cash. So when there’s a sudden scarcity of calories you need to start rationing what you have in your pantry to survive as long as possible while looking for a new source of food. In business, cash is calories. So you need to start rationing while you look for a new source of revenue.

Business IS marketing.

When you’re out of resources, it’s time to get resourceful. Where could you find a source of calories that will sustain you until food is plentiful again?

Think about it. The only thing that will keep your business alive is having a market that values what you put into the marketplace so much that they’re willing to exchange money for it. If you have something worthwhile to take to market and people give you money for it — boom, you have a business.

So what do you have that people want or need, right now?

I’m sure you’ve noticed. The market has changed.

Suddenly there’s high demand for toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and face masks. There’s also a new demand for home exercise equipment. And books are coming back — even though we’d die without the internet and Netflix. People are crafting, and making sourdough! Flour, rice, beans. These things are in demand.

Suddenly there is no market for gasoline, and why are we still paying for car insurance? In fact, there’s no market for transportation of any kind. Airlines are in dire straits. (When Warren Buffet dumps ALL of his airline stocks, you know it’s going to be a long time until airlines are fully back on their feet). And since no one is going anywhere, there is no market for housekeepers, or babysitters, or pet-sitters, or gardeners.

Buckminster Fuller (great man, inventor, architect, futurist) had an epiphany that changed the course of his up-to-then pretty sad and unsuccessful life. It was “you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.”

That is business my friend. What do YOU have, or have experience in, that you can convert to the advantage of others? What can you take to market that is needed right now?

Now is a TERRIBLE time to stop marketing (i.e. ‘going to market’). History has demonstrated time and time again that companies that stay in the game will end up on top.

Going into the great depression, Post cereals was the category king. They pulled back, and Kelloggs who doubled-down passed them and maintained their category leadership for decades.

During the recession in the mid-seventies, Toyota — who was starting to creep up on Volkswagen as the top auto importer in the US — stuck to their strategy of promoting their fuel efficient cars as ‘miles per gallon’ started to be a selling point in the weak economy. In 1976 they surpassed Volkswagen and never looked back.* And FedEx, Microsoft, Vanguard and CAA were all launched during this period.

How about the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009? You can thank that recession for Uber, Slack, Instagram, Credit Karma, WhatsApp, Venmo and others.*

And Amazon sales grew by Amazon sales grew by 28%.

Harvard Business Review observed that consumers will prioritize their expenses into four categories.*

They prioritize consumption by sorting products and services into four categories:

- Essentials are necessary for survival or perceived as central to well-being.

- Treats are indulgences whose immediate purchase is considered justifiable.

- Postponables are needed or desired items whose purchase can be reasonably put off.

- Expendables are perceived as unnecessary or unjustifiable.

So what essentials or treats could you take to market? And if your product or service is being pushed to the ‘expendable’ category, how can you pivot?

The point is, if you want to stay in the market (and you do!) you MUST continue to market. There’s an old adage that goes basically like this

“When times are good, you should market. When times are bad, you MUST market.”

“A McGraw-Hill Research study looking at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985 found that those businesses which chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981 and 1982 recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered. Specifically, companies that advertised aggressively during the recession had sales 256% higher than those that did not continue to advertise.”* And “those companies that cut their advertising saw paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%.”*

So cut if you must, but don’t cut your marketing. What seems like an easy decision today could have terrible consequences down the road.

Instead ask yourself 3 questions:

1. What do I have that people or businesses need right now. This applies to a service, product or expertise.
2. How will I let them know now, and in a way that is obvious. What is your ‘one sentence’ that says “If you are [market] and need [this solution], we have [promise of value that is worth more to them than what they will give you in dollars]. For example, if you are a [freelancer who earned more than $50,000 last year] and need [help securing a PPP loan], you qualify for over $10,000. [Give us your your info and we’ll submit your loan to 3 separate banks for just $100].
3. Where will I get the message out? In other words, what’s your marketplace? You wouldn’t take an antique rug to an electronics trade show, would you? So you need to determine the marketplace that will respond to your message. If you’ve got a great offer, you don’t need to spend much (or anything) to get people to bite. But you have to at least open your mouth and speak.

Wrapping up

• First thing to do is to determine whether you need to cut fat, muscle or bone. That’s just business.
• Next figure out what people need that you’ve got, articulate your offer in a clear and simple way, and then start making offers. This is marketing.