Relax at your peril!

THE recession, we are told, is over. Australia has tacked steadily, cannily and resiliently through the maelstrom with nary a tear in a sail cloth to show for it. Now we’re back on an even keel and rampant consumerism can prevail again. Dealers can switch from “batten-down-the-hatches” austerity mode, hire more staff, lease that new ute and buy that building next door that used to house the failed meat pie business. You reckon? Don’t you believe it!

The Skipper has never claimed to be a mental colossus in relation to matters fiscal (in fact, he has never even been able to grasp the fundamental monetary aspect of why a $2 coin is worth more than the larger $1 one), but when we hear countries like Japan talking about a possible “double-dip” recession not so far down the track, we should be very, very afraid. Anybody who has successfully operated a marine business over the past 12-18 months is to be congratulated, and it is probably a given that such people have run lean, slimmer, tighter operations than was heretofore the case. If that is so, then why not stick to that business model? Keep it that way. Change absolutely nothing.

OK, so your remaining staff will be less than ecstatic that their “emergency” workload will not be diminishing after all; your trade-in display might be less alluring than was your previous wont (because you’ve maybe had to prospect in ‘lower-rent” spheres to attract business), and your service dept might have more crap coming through the door - jobs at which they would previously have turned up their noses like a maitre d’ in a Michelin-rated restaurant who has been asked if the sweet trolley had Lamingtons – than they’d like, but you held your own and rode it through. Didn’t you?

Be honest, being a tightarse probably suits you – it definitely suits The Skipper, who unfailingly asks his five-year-old to produce receipts for his $3 tuckshop money! If you were entirely frank with yourself, you want to spend as little as you humanly can. If your business has survived, stayed sustainable and made profit as a result of austerity measures, then you’ve done something right and it’d be foolish to fully relax them. Keep them going as best you can – don’t waver - and watch your bottom line explode once things really begin to boom again.