Right now most businesses and individuals are faced with challenging times. Every Television station, radio station and newspaper is reporting on the doom and gloom (how is it that they rarely report good news) and the more people hear it, the more they believe it.

The good news is that everyone has a choice. Here are my strategies to manage your business through challenging times

Cutting or apportioning costs - is there anywhere where costs can be cut that will have little detrimental effect on the business. Now is the time to take a good look at the balance sheet and staff and see who and what is giving the company the best returns and who and what are not, and then making some difficult but effective decisions.

Culling time wasters - we all know the Pareto principle, that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients. Every organisation has those wonderful 20% of clients who are great to deal with, always pay on time and will stay loyal through challenging times. These clients are pure gold! How well do you look after them and how many referrals do you ask for from them?

Here is an effective exercise - write down the names of your top ten clients and then write down ten things you know about each of these clients. Get everyone at your company to do the same thing and you might be surprised at how little they know about your top clients.

How do they like to be communicated with (email, phone or face to face), how often do they like to be contacted, what are their prime motivators in doing business with you, who are their top clients (and plenty more). This is the time to really take care of these top clients, make them feel special and let them know that you appreciate their business.

Next you have your 60% of clients who will stay with you if you look after them, but could just as easily move somewhere else if they feel neglected. Right now is the time to keep in touch and ensure that all your staff really takes care of these 'steady eddy' clients.

Eight percent of your problems, headaches and unpaid accounts will come from your bottom 20% of your clients. They will give you eighty percent of your hassles.

Do you have a client that when you see a message from them or an email, you immediately tense up because you know it is going to be bad news. Now is the time to rid yourself of these clients and concentrate on your top twenty who will easily replace the business with no headaches and you will sleep easier.

The best decision I ever made was to stop working with two organisations that had given me a fair amount of work over the years, but more stress and hassles than you can imagine. Every time they booked me for a talk or training it would be a huge fee negotiation and then having to wait to get paid. I easily replaced them with clients that I enjoy working with.

See the full article that explains the rest of the strategies, including:

• Develop a 10 touch plan
• Sharpen your sales skills
• Upsell and cross sell
• Increase your marketing efforts
• Create an awareness of your company:
• Let people know exactly what you do
• Let your clients know that you can do it better than your competition
• Taking action
• Set Goals and stay motivated
• Opt out of the recession

The economy is affecting so many businesses right now and this is the time to be pro-active and get back to basics.

This is also the time to focus on sales and finding new business and clients.

Having worked in 48 countries with numerous organisations and individuals I have discovered that just about every company has three sales forces:

• The traditional sales force
• The unrecognised sales force
• The unseen sales force

The traditional sales force - this is what we all know, these are the people in our organisations out there prospecting for new business, conducting meetings with prospective and existing clients and bringing in the business. Now is the time to ensure that their sales skills are sharp and that they are focusing on results.

The unrecognised sales force - this is everyone that works for your company that is not involved in direct sales, but has contact with your clients and prospective clients. These are your account clerks, truck drivers, technicians, essentially everyone that works for you. It is traditionally known as customer services, but it is much more than that.

I worked with a company in Pennsylvania where I was booked to do a one day sales seminar. When I arrived, there was an audience of about 200 people and when I mentioned to the CEO that he had a huge sales force, he said this was not the case.

Only 25% of the audience were sales people, the rest were chemists, truck drivers, clerks and maintenance workers. He said that he wanted everyone to know that they were relationship managers and sales people. If a truck driver was rude when making a delivery, he could lose his biggest client. So with your organisation, is everyone sales focused, have you provided them with the right sales training as well as ongoing skills and customer service training? Without constant training and motivation, your company will soon be lagging behind the competition.

Remember, I can help with your organisations sales and technology training and consultancy.

The unseen sales force - These are the people looking for the products or services that you offer on the internet. If your website does not show up in the first page of a search or if your sales copy on your site is weak, you will be losing a ton of business to the competition.

Try this exercise: put yourself in the position of a prospective client and write down all the keywords or phrases you think they would type into a Google search if they were looking for your products or services. Now take these words and type them into Google and see who comes up on the first page. If you are not there, you will see your competitors who will be taking the business away from you.

If you are in a very competitive area, you can try paid advertising (pay per click) which will get you to the top of the searches, but this will cost you a fortune if you don't know what you are doing. Once again, this is an area where I can help with training or consulting services. My 60 websites are bringing in a steady income stream and I have found a 'whiz' who is a specialist in Google Adwords that almost guarantees me top placings for some of my sites. Drop me an email at frank@frankfurness.com and I'll put you in touch with him if you are interested.

So, this is the time right now to evaluate your three sales forces and optimise them all for effectiveness.

I am passionate about technology and keep discovering incredible sites. I have just registered www.greatwebsitelinks.com and by the beginning of next year the site will be launched with links to the best sites on the web.

Here are just a few that will be featured:

Video Sites

Revver - http://revver.com Revver automatically adds adverts to any video post, netting you 50% of the commission

Blinkx - http://blinkx.com This video search engine indexes more than 26 million hours of online viewing material

Howcast - www.howcast.com Learn to do something new with a visit to this site. It has stacks of 'how to' guides

Also, remember to download the 'Video Resources List'

Music

Shoutcast - www.shoutcast.com A massive collection of streaming radio stations covering every genre of music. I love this site and use it all the time to listen to music while I work

SKY.FM - www.sky.fm Home to 35 streaming radio channels including Smooth Jazz and the best of the 80s

Live 365 - www.live365.com Lets you listen to thousands of radio stations from around the world

Photos

Flickr - www.flickr.com The biggest and best photo sharing site on the net. Also offers great tools

Morguefile - www.morguefile.co m A huge collection of royalty free images that you can use for anything

As a bonus to the technology section this month my good friend Derek Gehl has decided to take a stand... He's exposing the TRUTH behind search engine marketing. Derek has created a free training video to show you his "Simple 3-Step Formula" that will help you attract FLOODS of eager buyers with a top search ranking.

Scotland

Moving north, you will experience the warmth and friendliness of the Scots. When you think of Scotland you can picture a burly Scot in his kilt playing the bagpipes and I'm sure you must have tasted the world's best single malt whiskey, which is produced here. Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful and elegant cities in Europe. Visit Edinburgh Castle and once again tempt your palate at one of the many restaurants on the Royal Mile. Plan your visit to coincide with the Edinburgh Festival and enjoy endless entertainment and parties.

Glasgow is the home of the famous comedian, Billy Connelly and also has numerous conferences and speaking assignments.

On the west coast near Ben Nevis, which is one of the highest mountains in Britain, you will find the picturesque town of Fort William. Take the steam train ride to Malaig and see some of the most beautiful and rugged countryside. Not far from there, stay over at Drumnadrochit and take a boat ride on the Loch Ness in search of Nessie, the famous Loch Ness Monster.

Aberdeen, the Granite City is on the east coast of Scotland with its oil companies and a base for North Sea exploration, also has many speaking opportunities. Remember to bring your raincoats and warm clothing, as it's cold and wet.

Wales

If you have a speaking engagement in Wales, it will most probably be in Cardiff, the capital. Visit the wonderful little villages in Wales and experience the wonderful Welsh hospitality. It takes a while to become accustomed to their "singing" accent and it's one of the most difficult languages I've come across, but don't despair, all signs are in Welsh but in English too.