Time to Move Out of Survival Mode

“For most businesses, the past year has probably been all about trimming, cutting, sometimes chopping, and basically staying alive. The next year should be about reinvention, diversification and expansion into different markets. Now is the time to transform to move beyond survival.” – Tony Wanless, Use this lull to reinvent, diversify and expand, Financial Post

How do you do this?

Mr. Wanless suggests four strategies that businesses can use to create new products and/or find new markets: taking a portfolio approach, creating contrasting lines of business, going downmarket, and going upmarket.

Of these, I find creating contrasting lines of business the most interesting because it’s the one I think many small businesses overlook. They become mired in viewing their business in a one dimensional way; “I sell these products” or “I provide these services”.

But actually products and services are two sides of a coin and for many small businesses, it’s much more profitable to integrate them and offer both.
So, as Mr. Wanless points out, a product-oriented business might provide related services as an added value or even to lay the groundwork for another business – and service businesses can package and sell their expertise (italics mine).

For service-based businesses, such “productization” of their services might be the only way to break the ceiling on profits imposed by hourly billing. (If there’s only one person with a particular expertise, he or she can only work so many hours a day, and there will be a limit to what people are willing to pay for the service no matter how skilled the person providing it.)

Puzzled about how you might productize your services? C.J. Hayden explains in Turn Your Services Into a Product.

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