Time For Small Businesses To Diversify

Synergy Merchant Services specializes in providing small and medium-sized businesses across Canada with the extra capital needed to help expand, grow and succeed in the marketplace. However, the recession that has affected the nation and the world at large has caused some Canadian business owners to be hesitant about taking their companies to the next level.

So many businesses have been hurt by the economic downturn, it has caused most owners to become concerned with getting back on their feet rather than taking the next leap. Management Consultant, Tony Wanless feels however, that it is at a time like this – the beginning of the recession's turn around – that business owners should consider expansion.

In an article published by Financial Post earlier this week, Wanless encourages Canadian small business owners “to move from survival mode to strategic examination of their operations in terms of new products and markets.”

“For most businesses,” writes Wanless, “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.”

Wanless believes that small businesses, who don't enjoy the financial cushions that large corporations do, should diversify in an effort to provide added value to their products and services. Developing new lines of business, he says, will have companies better equipped for a struggling economy.

He writes: “If you're a product maker, for example, start introducing services as an added value or to lay the groundwork for another line of business…If you're a service operation, you have to do the opposite. Some professional services firms are beginning to do this by packaging and selling their expertise.”

Small businesses need to be aggressive in order to reach new financial heights. Wanless believes that the recession has caused larger companies to re-examine their relationships with smaller ones in an effort to potentially cut costs. He asserts that for small businesses to take advantage of this, they need to “deliver a clear value proposition of superior quality and service combined with lower costs.”

Perhaps, doing so may just make the recession a blessing in disguise for Canadian small businesses after all.