Are you taking any steps to cut your costs because of hard times?

[Suckerpunch]

JScott: Cut out the hooker expenses and you'll be fine!

Truthfully this is the best time to grow the business as there will be a glut of cheap talent and sites on the market within the next little while. People are starting to exit the business because all the easy money disappeared a long time ago. They've abandoned sites and watched their commission checks diminish to nothing and don't have the time or energy to continue.

Best way to cut expenses is to find cheaper ways of doing things. For instance I used to write all my own blog posts but posted a couple projects on Scriptlance and found a more economical solution in two freelancers. Now I can freelance out on bigger jobs and still earn a profit while having two people on the go.

Another way to cut your expenses is to barter. I have traded traffic, writing and marketing services for design, coding and ad spots. Takes up a bit of my time but if you find quality people it pays off.

Negotiate deals with your current hosting company. Find equivalent servers with cheaper pricing at a different company and ask them to match it or you're going to move over to them.

Ask for discounts! If someone you regularly pay $100 for the job, preach hard times and ask for the same service at $75.

There are tons of ways to bootstrap... you just have to be creative.

And if people think that the sales are going to dry up because of the economic downturn, that's not the reality in my opinion. There's going to be a lot of unemployed and underemployed guys looking for something to lift their spirits and $25 to join a porn site is just what the doctor ordered.

I am embracing the downturn and plan on making out like a bandit when the economists say its over. Be aggressive, dedicate to finding the best opportunities and follow through with them.

[Eddi]

hey jscott,

sit down and make an actionplan.
write down your strenghts and your weeknesses.
dont try to improve your weeknesses, try to increase your strenghts!!
I mean that in a sense, get rid of for instance tgp or blogs which you dont really need, which have not improved in productivity or traffic since a long time.
check exactly where your sales are being made. try to put more energy in where the sales are being made.
If you have employees, check exactly what they do and what they in return really bring you in terms of money. In case of inproductivity, get rid of them.
I dont know where you have your employees, but as far as you have written so far, you are many times in asia. so try to find a it student overthere, i am sure you find somebody on a university who desperatly seeks work for a "hand of rice".
Try to reorient yourself, where did you stay 1 year ago, where do you stay now and where do you want to stay in 1 year (not only in terms of business, but also private).
once you know where you are going and you have a goal just go straight ahead and reach that goal. calculate how much this goal will cost you, calculate how much it will bring you.
If you need a certain amount of money inorder to reach the goal, work parttime in something else and safe some of your income in order to reinvest.
try to do something which you havnt done before traffic wise. if your main activity is traffic trading, submit galleries. if your main activity is submitting, trade more traffic.
if you run a paysite and tgps, concentrate on the paysite and get rid of your tgps (or vice versa). dont diversitate, concentrate !!

hope the tips help you

[jscott]

Originally Posted by Suckerpunch

JScott: Cut out the hooker expenses and you'll be fine!

Hahahhaa, i'm hella cutting back man!!! LOL

My hand is my hooker nowdays

....1 thing that is HUGE for me that i cannot cut back on is travel, i'm addicted to travelling, it's probably my largest cost per year, totally probably $20-30k/year

[Nurgle]

Originally Posted by jscott

....1 thing that is HUGE for me that i cannot cut back on is travel, i'm addicted to travelling, it's probably my largest cost per year, totally probably $20-30k/year

ive been saving $ by losing some staff and by doing more work myself.. but i just cant help travelling, been away 3 times thisd year already and about to go on 4th.. and along with my fetish for fast cars arghhh