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Traditional business, healthcare and dental practice management approaches need to be re-looked at in the times of harsh economic climate. With the next wave of housing crash coming, and unemployment creeping up to 20%, consumers have to cut back on spending. As a result, many business owners and doctors have witnessed the decrease in customers purchase and for doctors, the postponing of certain treatments by patients.

This presents a problem of great magnitude to small business owners across the country. So here are 5 key points to help you, the small business owner, to counteract the changes:

1. Realize that you are only in the business of marketing your business products to your potential customers, and that is it. Just having a good service or product is no guarantee that you will retire filthy rich.

This concept of ‘providing a good product is all I need’ may have been true fifty years ago. But today, if your service and product is not put in front of the potential clientele on a constant basis through marketing, then awareness of your practice will never reach the hands of the people who need it. As a result of this, you will have a hard time, especially in a slow economy. Ultimately, only those who continue to learn and implement marketing consistently will survive and thrive.

2. Become a community activist’ to reach more new patients and customers. Instead of only relying on traditional advertising, why not do something positive for the community that will create goodwill and ultimately more customers for your practice?

We’re not talking about PR gimmick. While most of us do perform charity in our own ways, few realize that taking this basic concept into genuine interaction in the community by performing community enrichment activities like holding food drives, good deed events, anti-drug events etc – not only raises your visibility through free press, but your believability as well. This is where you easily shine the light onto yourself without advertising.

We call this the “Un-Advertising” whereby through doing actions as a humanitarian in your community, you do not ‘advertise’ but get positive attention that remains in the public’s mind. Especially in a slow economy, doctors who did Un-advertising have found that they get more business without adveritising. These social participations takes little time, contrary to common belief.

3. Ramp up your marketing efforts by 500%. flourishing and succeeding well above average can often be easier in a slow economy than it is in a good economy. It has also been proven that many millionaires have been made during recessions and in depressions.

Most practices owners that cut down their marketing during slow times thought that they are ‘saving money’. This cutting-back will shrink their business even further as the consumers will forget about them and in one, two or three years when the economy picks up again, they will be too paralyzed financially to take advantage of the economical upturn..

Find ways to market inexpensively by using existent free resources – piggy-back your marketing messages to businesses, groups and entities and have them promote for you to their existing customers.

4. Use a marketing system.   If you keep looking for that ONE marketing action which will bring your business growth, then financial hardship and being overworked will unfortunately result. There is no ONE marketing action that increases your business income, it is always a combination of several actions done together.

Talk to different business and dental management consultants and put together a “system” that you can use over and over again. Most people try one thing and if it did not work then they try the next. This shotgun method will not give you expansion, but give you the result of a smaller practice. Go for complete marketing plans which involve both internal and external marketing activities – that could be done without you spending a lot of personal time or money to implement them.

Marketing is as scientific as engineering, and important scientific data show that half of your marketing efforts will probably not work, even if you are very good at it. Another scientific fact is the principle of synergy as applied in marketing. It is like in war, attack with all the ammunition available and attack from all corners possible.

5. You liking the marketing or not will not influence its results.  Patients do not like surgery to fix a health problem. Most do not like to hire lawyers either, but winning a law suit and staying out of jail makes the “liking” part immaterial. What matters is that you get lots of business in the end.

Remember: if you are a business owner or a dentist, you need to ramp up your marketing beyond what you reckon is ‘enough’. Consumers will consume a lot less in the next 2-3 years and you can still get a lion share of the business who is still out there. Search for marketing consultants on the internet and ask around. If you are a dentist, that are many types of dental practice marketing programs that will assist you to grow despite a slow economy.