Of course, we all realize by now that we’re in a recession.   We really didn’t need CNN to report that the recession started a year ago, but it does help to crystalize our thinking.  If you’re like most of us, whatever industry we’re in, we’re seeing revenue go down as people spend less money, and bills being paid more slowly as customers either hold on to their cash, or juggle it around, trying to make it stretch to cover their own bills.  Not a pretty picture.  And the truth is, it will get worse.

I myself have several revenue streams because my father, who I’ve already mentioned, was an extremely successful entrepreneur, told me to always have at least three businesses (which we would now call revenue streams) because there was never a time one of them wouldn’t be doing badly.  I remember someone else saying: “What you lose on oranges, you make up on apples.”  But what if both orange and apples are in the tank?

That’s the time to look for a market in pears.  Or pecans.  Or speaking about apples or how to grow apples.  Or turning apples into apple butter or dry them for apple snacks. Or put them in a basket with wine and cheese and selling them that way.  Or at a local farmers market.  Or find a county with no apples but dying to have apples and export them there.

Here’s the point:  Change happens.  It can be from the outside or the inside.  Many times, the change that really rocks a company and possibly threatens its existence is change that comes from without, from the world beyond your company. After all, it’s not your fault the global markets  tanked. But wherever it’s from it’s your job to deal with it.

I wrote a post about Business on the Net: The Morphing Imperative. It’s all about facing the fact that something is not working right and you need to change it. You are selling “A” and the market wants “B”.  Or a recession has hit and you can’t make enough profit on “A”, so how do you survive?

That’s the critical juncture at which we have to not only listen to the market but act on what it tells us. In many cases, it may just require moving the spotlight from one corner of your display window to another, showcasing a different aspect of what you’ve proven you can do and for which you are recognized. The trick is to look very carefully at what your expertise really is and move in that direction, not away from it.

• If you are selling something, whether it is apples or widgets, see if you can sell it in smaller increments so you can sell it for a lower price and sell more of it.
• If you are selling a product see if there are other products you can sell through that same channel
• If you are selling a product, see if you can sell a service around that product: “How to build a widget”, or “I will help you build a widget.

In my morphing post, I gave an example of Beyond.com which was in a continuous morphing process for many years. Beyond.com was a business to consumer software site. When the business to consumer model seemed to flounder all across the Net, Beyond.com decided to leverage its existing knowledge and experience of selling online. It then targeted CEOs and executives of manufacturing companies who wanted an online presence to sell their products but didn’t want to undergo a long learning curve developing their storefronts. Instead of selling software, Beyond.com now used direct mail to sell their expertise to manufacturers touting the logic of outsourcing to “e-Stores by Beyond.com”. The pitch to businesses was “Why reinvent the wheel? Let Beyond.com build and manage your eStore for you.”
Beyond.com’s morphing continued.  They went on to become what they describe as the world’s largest network of niche career communities, powering thousands of job sites, apparently with success.
Beyond.com recognized, at their core, they were essentially a technology and networking platform. They chose to sell their expertise and the use of their platform to different communities, first those who wanted store fronts, second, those who wanted job boards.

If you look deep inside your self and focus on what is your core expertise, you can probably find a number of ways to monetize that, even in a down market.

Remember, when TV killed the movies, the movies discovered popcorn and candy could be their new profit center.  When movies figured out they could create big screen epics which couldn’t be replicated on TV they rose again.  And so can you.  Just keep morphing and evolving until you do.

If you’ve gone through a morphing experience yourself, please write us and share that experience so we can all learn together

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