Turbulent quarters test even durable operations. With interest rates in the 5 percent range and demand running uneven, cash tightens and decisions speed up. The aim is steadiness, not heroics.
1. Shore up cash first
Liquidity buys time to make good choices. Build a 13-week cash runway, confirm your line of credit, and map a weekly draw schedule. For gaps, consider fast working capital loans to bridge receivables without stalling payroll or inventory. A Chicago cleaning contractor facing 45-day receivables paired a $150,000 bank line with an invoice advance to cover March payroll while keeping crews on accounts from O’Hare to Oak Park. Cash may not solve every problem, yet a lack of it solves nothing.
2. Cut costs customers won’t notice
Trim nonessential spend before touching the product. Renegotiate leases, software seats, and freight, then normalize variable pay tied to contribution. A Boston bakery moved to LED lighting, cut a pricey linen service, and swapped a month-to-month space for a 24-month lease at a 7 percent lower rate. Customers still bought cannoli. The owner freed about $1,100 a month, which covered flour price swings without raising prices on $4 pastries.
3. Sell where demand still buys
Shift effort to resilient segments and SKUs. Package services for value, not vanity, and meet buyers on channels that still convert. A Phoenix HVAC firm pushed $89 seasonal tune-ups in ZIP codes with older housing stock and ran Google Local Services ads during a slowdown in new construction permits. Technicians stayed booked at 80 percent utilization, and the company sold higher-margin coil cleanings on-site. Small tickets kept trucks moving until big installs returned.
4. Hold customers close with service and fair terms
Retention beats acquisition when budgets shrink. Offer clear SLAs, proactive check-ins, and flexible but bounded terms to top accounts. A Dallas industrial supplier used HubSpot to flag churn risk among its 50 largest customers, then assigned reps to quarterly walk-throughs and offered Net 45 to on-time payers only. The team added free same-day pickup at the Irving branch. Twelve months later, gross churn was down 3 points and on-time payments improved, a pairing accountants rarely complain about.
5. Tighten the cash cycle, daily
Manage receivables, payables, and inventory like a pit crew. Offer 2/10, Net 30 discounts selectively, batch payments to take bank holidays into account, and liquidate slow movers. A New Jersey machine shop in Newark used QuickBooks to set automated A/R nudges at 7, 14, and 28 days, then phoned the top five late accounts every Tuesday. It layered a 2 percent discount for early pay and collected $85,000 faster in one quarter, which funded a critical spindle repair without tapping a higher-rate card.
6. Keep the team steady, informed, and focused
Uncertainty drains productivity. Share a simple scorecard, define weekly priorities, and protect focus time. A Denver marketing agency ran a 15-minute Monday huddle, a monthly 30-minute Zoom town hall, and adopted a two-week 4×10 schedule during a crunch so staff could batch deep work. The firm added a Calm app stipend and set quiet hours from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday. Morale rose, and so did billable utilization, which tends to beat motivational posters.
7. Watch the data that matters, not everything that moves
Pick five metrics tied to survival and pull them daily or weekly. Cash on hand, booked backlog, qualified pipeline, unit economics, and lead time usually tell the story. A Sacramento e-commerce brand selling on Shopify stopped chasing vanity clicks and focused on CAC payback under 90 days and inventory turns above 6. The team cut two ad platforms, shifted spend to search in California and Texas, and cleared a stale SKU with a 48-hour promotion. Revenue steadied while returns dropped.
Tough conditions reward clarity and speed. Choose two moves for the next 90 days, assign owners, and measure weekly. We can’t steer macro data from Washington, yet we can set rules for cash, customers, and execution. Leave the hero capes on the rack; a clean dashboard and a sharper pencil work better.
