In these crazy times, many businesses are having to downsize their business in order to survive. While that’s necessary, you also likely want to do it the right way.

In an article over at Business on Main, there are 6 big mistakes businesses make when they do the downsizing.

1) Underestimating the severity and length of an economic downturn

2) Implementing across-the-board cuts

3) Communicating too infrequently

4) Failing to handle layoffs with caring

5) Hoarding inventory

6) Failing to demonstrate how cost-cutting hurts you more than it does your employees

Want a $50 Amazon gift card?

Read the article at Business on Main, then come back here and share YOUR biggest downsizing mistake a business can make. It could be something your business did, or something you’ve heard about, or something you’ve nearly missed but avoided.

Leave a comment by August 30th, 2011 at 6 PM central time, and I’ll pick 2 winners at random to award a $50 Amazon gift card. Please make sure you comment with a VALID e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.

Thanks and good luck!

Disclaimer: My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jontintinjordan/3736890944/in/photostream/

Note from Phil: What follows is a guest post from my friend (and best selling author) Carol Roth. I asked her to write this post for you my friends, as I know how hard she’s worked to make her book kick butt (it’s at #1 on Amazon overall now) in addition to kicking it in the backside in her business. I hope it’s helpful in your journey!

Got an idea that you just can’t shake?  That idea could manifest itself as a business or a book.  I have spent a lot of time talking about how entrepreneurs should approach a new business and have found that there are a lot more parallels between starting a business and launching a new book than you might imagine.  As I launch my first book, The Entrepreneur Equation, ironically on launching businesses, I thought I would share a few insights on the similarity between the two.

What’s Your Purpose?

Deciding to start a business is different than deciding to start a successful business.  The plans to open one store vs. a goal of creating a massive nationwide retail chain vary significantly.  It is hard to know what steps to take if you don’t know your end goal.

The same goes for your book.  What’s your end game?  Are you using it as a calling card to get more clients?  Are you seeking a label of achievement (like “best seller status”) for your brand?  Are you hoping to make gobs of money from it or are you using it to spread a message (by the way, if your goal is make gobs of money, you might want to chat with a few industry professionals first)?  These goals will significantly impact the planning and strategy of not only your manuscript, but the launch and marketing of your book.

And while you are at it, you might as well set the biggest goal that you can.  Nothing happens if you don’t achieve your stretch goal, but as Wayne Gretzky says, “You miss 100% of shots that you never take!”

Know Your Customer

I am always preaching in business about how important it is to know your customer, but my first book manuscript go-round was somewhat lacking in this department (which got fixed in the second go-round, thanks to great feedback from industry folks!). 

To be successful in business, you have to know what pain point you are solving for your customer and how you are delivering value.  Plus, if “everyone” is your customer, you are going to have a hard time reaching anyone at all, so having a focus is critical.  The same goes for your book (particularly non-fiction books).  Ask yourself what tangible benefits your reader will take away from investing their time and money into your message.  Who is your specific reader and what quantitative and qualitative benefits are they seeking?  This will shape not only how you deliver your message in the book, but also how you plan to market your book. 

The Idea Isn’t Valuable; It’s The Execution

In an era where we have access to virtually everything we want and need, plus a whole bunch of crap we don’t care about, it is hard to have a truly novel idea (pun intended).  Having the idea for a business isn’t valuable; it is executing on the business plan every day.  The same goes for a book.  Once you have the idea, you have to write the manuscript and then market, market, market!  Most publishers care at least as much, if not more, about your marketing plan than the content of the book.  So, even if you have a great idea, if you can’t or don’t want to pound the pavement to meet your goals, there isn’t a lot of value there.

The Day You “Open For Business” Is Where The Hard Work Starts.

Conceiving a business idea and writing your plan is a cakewalk compared to what you have to endure day in and day out to make your business successful.  The same thing goes for a book.  The common misconception is that you are done when you finish writing- not so!  Writing the manuscript, as daunting as it may seem, is easy compared to everything that comes next.  Prepare to devote a lot of time, effort (and depending on your goals, money too) AFTER the book is written!

The takeaway: Make sure you evaluate and prepare for launching a book, just like you would a business, if you want to be successful with it.

And if you want to learn more about The Entrepreneur Equation and some of these principles, it is available at Amazon.com and everywhere now!

About Carol Roth

Carol Roth is a business strategist, deal maker and author of the new book, The Entrepreneur Equation. She has helped her clients, ranging from solopreneurs to multinational corporations, raise more than $1 billion in capital, complete hundreds of millions of dollars in M&A transactions, secure high-profile licensing and partnership deals, create brand loyalty programs and more.

Carol is a frequent radio, television and print media contributor on the topics of business and entrepreneurship, having appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, Fox Business, WGN TV Chicago and more.  Additionally, Carol’s Unsolicited Business Advice blog at CarolRoth.com was recently named as one of the Top 10 small business blogs online.   You can find her on Twitter @CarolJSRoth.

If you read my article about hooked on Twitter for personal reasons, you’ll see there are at least 5 reasons I love it for me.

You’re probably also wondering, “Can I really use this for business?”

In a word: ABSOLUTELY!

Here are 5 of my favorite ways to use Twitter for business.

Show off your best – One of my favorite new Twitter friends is @blatzliquor. Joe does a GREAT job of talking about his specials, reminding folks when it’s 30 minutes before you can’t buy beer anymore in Milwaukee, when he has a party, and all sorts of fun stuff. Joe shows off what he does and is (a liquor store) and does so in a VERY human way.

Search for customers – go to http://search.twitter.com and put what you’re interested in finding more information about, or find out who’s asking what for services you provide. You don’t have to be a freelancer to leverage it, but you DO have to be fast. If someone asks a question you can answer, use the @handle of the person asking the question, and quickly answer it. Better still, if you’ve been writing solution oriented articles, you can include a quick link to your article with your answer to make yourself even more relevant.

Search for thought leaders to learn from them – Unless you’re in a completely unique niche that nobody else is doing, chances are there are folks that do what you do. Use http://search.twitter.com and find who’s in your niche, and with one click, just follow them.

Follow and contribute to trending topics – On the Twitter homepage, you can see what trends are being talked about the most, and you can see where you can contribute.

Track the conversation about your idea or event – If you’re hosting an event or raising money or you have a new idea that you’d like folks to contribute to, think about seeing up a has tag. It’s simple, just use # and the name of the event. We did this VERY effectively for Business School for Bloggers conference I just went to (we used #sobcon) and everyone who was there used the hashtag and we were able to get near the top of the Twitter Trends list. Even today, weeks after the conference is over, folks are still using this tag. It keeps the conversation going AND makes folks wonder what all the buzz is about.

What are YOUR favorite ways to use Twitter for business?

Guest article by Donald J. Trump, Author of Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life

Business is about making money. It’s about the bottom line. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll get a grasp about what business is. I’m very often surprised by people who think business is something else. They come in with lofty ideas and philanthropic purposes that have absolutely no place in a business meeting. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.

I remember when a group of businessmen wanted to build an atrium on the ground floor of 40 Wall Street. It was a beautiful idea. They wanted to make 40 Wall Street the downtown equivalent of Trump Tower, except they forgot about something. What would they do with the steel columns that support a seventy-two-story building? That rather major structural component never entered their minds. I hope they didn’t take it personally when I pointed out their oversight.

Business is business. For example, if you get fired, there’s usually a number behind it, and that can take the personal affront right out of it. Businesses have to watch out for their bottom line or they won’t be in business for very long. Don’t get worked up. If you do, you might be taking it the wrong way. It isn’t always easy, but try to be objective.

I learned early on that business can be completely impersonal even when you’re dealing with human beings. One banker I was dealing with was so indifferent that he was literally like a machine. When a machine says no, it’s very tough. There’s no negotiating possible. I remember writing that you’d be better off dealing with a killer with real passion than with an institutional type who has no emotion and just wanted to go home at 5 o’clock. Sometimes we run into brick walls like that. Our only recourse is to find another way around it, which I did. But I got a good insight into how impersonal business can be.

I’d rather be personable. It also works better, provides more options for everyone, and allows for more creativity. It can require more energy, but I can tell you the results will be worth it. It still strikes me as funny that I suddenly became very popular after I started firing people every week on national television. People really liked me for that. Or so I thought. What it was is that they were seeing the real person behind the famous name. They see that I can be tough but that I try to be impartial. I’m also a bit of a teacher. I’ve always been this way, but it was never seen before except by my employees. I’m personable, but I can be all business. Believe me, it’s a formidable combination.

I have to be careful not to blow people away, because if you cross me personally and professionally, I’ll have a double whammy waiting for you. I don’t enjoy being vicious, but sometimes in selfdefense it becomes necessary. I don’t like the double standard, as in, whatever I do is okay and whatever you do isn’t okay, or vice versa. If you treat me a certain way, then I can treat you that way, too. Some people call that the old “an eye for an eye” approach, but I call it playing fair. Sometimes the only way to deal with a bully is to punch him back. Let them know who they’re dealing with. Fair play is fair play — and once again, don’t take it personally.

It’s wise to be circumspect, and some people just say “get yourself out of the picture” first in order to see the big picture. Don’t take personally what is not meant personally. A lot of times people misdirect their anger, and if you take it personally, you’ll become a punching bag for angry darts. I’ve had people say totally off-the-wall things to me, which I can now deflect, knowing that about 90 percent of the time their comments have next to nothing to do with me. You have to develop a thick skin, and keep your own positive wavelength going at all times.

Be tough, be smart, be personable, but don’t take things personally. That’s good business.

The above is an excerpt from the book Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life by Donald J. Trump. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Donald J. Trump, author of Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life

Author Bio
Donald J. Trump, author of Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life, is the very definition of the American success story, continually setting standards of excellence while expanding his passionate interests in real estate, gaming, sports, and entertainment, which include runaway hits The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice. He is one of the most recognizable and credible “brands” in the world. Trump is the Number One New York Times bestselling author of The Art of the Deal, Surviving at the Top, The Art of the Comeback, and How to Get Rich, as well as other books that have changed and enhanced the lives of millions of people. An ardent philanthropist for many years, Trump is involved with numerous civic and charitable organizations, and has always felt that giving back adds a sense of perspective and substance to anyone’s life.

For more information, please visit http://www.trump.com