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Las Cruces small business owners work to survive recession(Las Cruces Sun-News (NM) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mar. 7--LAS CRUCES -- Lauren Michaels wants her small business to survive the recession. Customers visit the massage therapist at her small room at 339 N Alameda Blvd. She hopes people who need a session are willing to keep and make appointments, but she knows that economic concerns can cause people to put off something they feel they need, even if their health is involved. So she tries to meet them halfway. "I do things like offer a half-hour instead of an hour," she said. Michaels is not alone. From offering different services to looking for ways to trim their expenses, many small business owners have adapted to the changing climate to keep themselves afloat and ride out the recession. Jim Cowen and his wife Marsha own Bernina Sewing & Design Center on Lohman Avenue. In addition to selling and repairing sewing machines, the store offers classes. Jim Cowen said the company hopes to make the classes more attractive by increasing the variety. "(We're trying to) be a little more creative with classes," he said. "Rather than just the normal, routine classes, (we've gotten) more creative." For example, he said a silk ribbon embroidery class is "something we've never done before," but will soon offer. "We sell a pretty high-end product, so people are shopping pretty hard before they make that purchase," he said. "So we want to go that extra mile as far as the service part of it. You have to follow up on contacts and don't let people fall through the cracks." Al Vickers, president of the Las Cruces chapter of SCORE, an organization that offers free advice to potential and current business owners, said customer service should always be paramount, but even more so during a recession. "One thing you don't want to do is cut back on is customer service," he said. "Treat customers with special care and make sure not to damage that relationship." Customers understand that businesses need to adjust policies and practices, Vickers said, but owners must be hyperaware of how customers are responding to changes. "You've got to keep your antennae up to see how they're reacting to changes," he said. Vickers said owners should not let customers feel like they are getting less just because the business needs to watch expenses. "Add value to what you deliver to your customer; add value where they can see it," he said. "You can increase service or perhaps add a product." Still, business owners can and should still look for ways to trim their expenses. "Look at the way you're spending money," Vickers said. "Look at every one of your financial statements and make sure you're not spending money you don't need to be spending. Cut out things that might have been nice to do but are not essential." Linda Wilson and her husband own the landscaping company Pond Scapes and have recently started PSS Cleaning Services. She said she took a hard look at advertising expenditures and cut where she did not think she was getting enough return. "We track it actually," she said. The company dropped some phone book and Internet marketing that Wilson said were not producing enough customers. "That saved us a ton of money," she said. In addition, she said the company keeps a close tab on the work of employees and even travel. "We track our man hours very, very carefully," she said. "We're very conscientious that somebody is not wasting time." As for travel to and from jobs? "What we did is we designed our routes so that we weren't crisscrossing town," Wilson said. Brook Stockberger can be reached at [email protected]; (575) 541-5457 To see more of the Las Cruces Sun-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lcsun-news.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |