When business slows down, two reflexes almost always appear: cutting spending across the board, and pushing harder on marketing. The first cuts what earns money along with what costs money. The second spends cash you no longer have on a message nobody has re-examined.

Decision 1: know what still pays

Before cutting anything, you need to know where your remaining customers come from. Not a hunch: a list. Your last thirty deals, where they came from, their margin, the time they took. This list takes half a day to put together, and it usually changes the order of your priorities.

It's very common to discover at this point that a large share of revenue comes from a channel you barely invested in, and that a major expense hasn't produced a single deal in months.

Cutting at random means amputating the legs as readily as the tumor.

Decision 2: protect cash before structure

A business doesn't die from a bad result: it dies from a lack of liquidity. The quick levers are well known and rarely pulled early enough: invoice faster, chase unpaid invoices systematically, renegotiate payment terms before you fall behind, cancel dormant subscriptions.

What matters here is timing. A renegotiation requested before the problem is a conversation. Requested after, it's a power struggle you've already lost.

Decision 3: get back in touch, in the right order

  • Former customers first. They know you, the cost of reaching them is zero, and their response rate is incomparable with that of a stranger.
  • Unconverted quotes next. A quote with no reply is not a refusal: it's often a file left on hold for reasons that have since changed.
  • New prospects last. It's the most expensive and slowest channel, so the worst one when time is short.

What not to do

Lowering your prices across the board is the most tempting decision and the most destructive: it erodes your margin, devalues your offer, and attracts customers who will leave for the first cheaper competitor. If a discount is necessary, it should be targeted, justified and time-limited.

Not telling your team is the second mistake. Silence has never reassured anyone: it breeds rumors, then departures, often of the people you needed most.

The three documents that put you back on your feet

Three documents are enough to regain control: the list of your last thirty deals with their origin, a thirteen-week cash flow table, and a list of contacts to call back, ordered by closeness. Nothing else is a priority until these three exist.

A business in difficulty doesn't need a three-year plan. It needs to know what it's doing over the next three weeks.