What to Do When Your Employer Goes Bankrupt

Even the best companies can fail. Issues like a collapse in the industry, a serious economic downturn, or a product that suddenly becomes obsolete can bring down companies that seem perfectly healthy. Which means that you are left scrambling for a job under what are likely to be uncertain conditions.

Utilizing your marketing budget in a down economy

(MoneyWatch) President Barack Obama got himself into a mess recently by saying at a press conference that "the private sector is doing fine." Negative reaction was intense, which is understandable during an election campaign. (To be fair, the president attempted to correct his earlier remarks by telling reporters in the Oval Office, "It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That's the reason I had a press conference.")

From Social Sharing to Creative Collaboration

A Sharing Economy
The early part of the 21st century might be called the age of social media--though perhaps the era of sharing might be an even more appropriate description. Whatever we choose to call it though, there's little question that we've entered into a "sharing economy," creating an economic landscape wherein both for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations leverage the power of content sharing, to the greatest extent possible, to get the word out about their products, services, programs, and promotions.

10 Business Survival Strategies for a Bad Economy

What do you do when your steady source of income suddenly disappears? That's a question many businesses are having to ask themselves these days. These suggestions can help you land on your feet when times get lean.

Life ringThe prospect who seemed excited about your product last month is stalling this month. Another company says they want to buy from you, but want you to cut your price in half. When you called the buyer you usually deal with at third company, you got a recording saying, "The number you dialed is no longer in service. Please dial 0 for the receptionist." Then you found out your biggest client is going to start using an overseas company to do the work they had been outsourcing to you.
Do scenarios like those sound familiar? Running a business is never a sure bet, but sometimes it can feel like you're caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. What can you do when things get tough? How can you get ahead when your business is beginning to make you think of a bus emptying out on the last run of the day?

Here are several strategies to consider:

Brand Building in the Face of Declining Economy: Here are Some Tips

In recession, people check their spending to save money for the other day. This has a direct impact on business organizations. Organizations find it difficult to maintain their growth and existing market share. All effort is directed towards minimizing the damage that recession can cause to business.
Brand building is possible even during an economic slowdown if an organization knows how to go about it. A new product line that offers value for money can work much better than imposing a cut in marketing spends. Businesses need to innovate to get valued by consumers as the brand which they cannot afford to compromise.

5 Reasons You Need Finance Talent on Your Start-up Team

Here’s how things go for the typical software startup: An engineer comes up with a product that he or she thinks is pretty cool. The engineer spends six months building a prototype, possibly in a garage. But to bring the product to market that engineer needs financing, and that’s a whole other challenge. 
So the entrepreneur writes a business plan and hopes hard to get a VC or an angel investor interested. There are a number of problems with this approach, one being that people who are good at creating new products are rarely also good at creating new business plans. 

New Rules for a New Economy! What Successful Sales People Need to DoTo Thrive in a Changing Marketplace

It's been called everything from an economic downturn to one of the most important challenges of this generation, and no matter how you choose to define the state of the economy today, everyone recognizes a simple fact: these are game-changing times. Old rules and old assumptions must yield to new ones. And indeed, that transformation is already taking place in businesses and professions of all kinds across North America and around the world.
A hallmark of successful sales professionals everywhere is that they possess a keen sense of recognizing when changing conditions are upon them, and that they adapt quickly to those new conditions. Adapting (and by that, I include the act of making good decisions that give you the results you're looking for) starts by asking the right questions.

Κακή αρχή το 2012 για το λιανεμπόριο

Στη μαύρη τρύπα που ρούφηξε το εναπομείναν διαθέσιμο εισόδημα των καταναλωτών βυθίζεται και το εγχώριο λιανεμπόριο, το οποίο στις αρχές του 2012, και παρά τις εκπτώσεις, βλέπει τις πωλήσεις του να κινούνται σε αρνητικό έδαφος.
Σύμφωνα με παράγοντες της αγοράς, η σύμπτωση των νέων εισπρακτικών φορολογικών μέτρων (έκτακτη εισφορά, τέλος επί των ακινήτων κ.ά.), σε συνδυασμό με την εξάλειψη του 13ου μισθού, προκάλεσε πραγματικό έλλειμμα στο διαθέσιμο εισόδημα των καταναλωτών. Στα παραπάνω προστίθεται το γεγονός ότι η πιστωτική επέκταση μειώνεται δραματικά, περιορίζοντας έτσι και τις πωλήσεις επί πιστώσει που επί χρόνια συντηρούσαν τη λιανική.

Πέντε οικονομικές τάσεις για το 2012

Τις πέντε σημαντικότερες τάσεις που -κατά την εκτίμησή τους- θα πρέπει να προσέξουμε το 2012 προβλέπουν έξι οικονομολόγοι, σε συνέντευξή τους στο Συμβούλιο Διεθνών Σχέσεων. Οι εκτιμήσεις αφορούν την αμερικανική πολιτική σκηνή, την παγκόσμια οικονομία, την ανάπτυξη της Κίνας και τις επενδύσεις, ενώ η αβεβαιότητα φαίνεται να είναι το επαναλαμβανόμενο μοτίβο στις προβλέψεις τους.

The size of Greece's debt