From granola bars to networking, firms trying new ways - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The following are samples of responses to a BusinessJournalo e-mail survey asking, “What are some of the more creativd ways that you have used to change your business in the currenrt economic climate to beat the “At MRA, we offer hundreds of training programsz on business, management and leadership skills as well as HR-related program at our Waukesha conference As a courtesy to program attendees, we’vs always provided coffee and doughnuts in the morning. As you can that adds up to a lotof doughnuts. A few months ago, we decided to act on attendeed requests for ahealthie breakfast. Rather than doughnuts, we now provides yogurt, granola bars and oatmealp or mini-bagels.
This win-win change has decreased MRA costs, and providex a healthier alternative forprogram attendees.” “I am an entrepreneure in the business of representing owneres of major health care facilities in managin g the development of their facilities a fairly unique specialty and small market. Up untiol the fall of 2008, I was still under the illusiobn that the health care construction market would not be affected much by the rapidldeteriorating economy. I was sorely Billions of dollars of projects around the countr that would be under construction by now were halted whiles owners ran for thebomb shelters.
So, unlik larger business in this recession, whose revenue and profitsx are down by 5 to 45 I lose that one large project that was a sure thintg beforethe air-raid sirens went off, and my revenu e goes down by 100 percent. “So how am I surviving?? Just as my business is helping ownerx find creative solutions to theier design andconstruction challenges, I needed a creative solutiob to my own problem.
I needed a solution to get me througgh this recession with the money I needee to survive and the pursuiyt of worthy goals I needed to maintainmy “The solution was ‘downsizing’ not in people like everyone else, but in project Through my networking and associations with peoplde I’ve worked with in the I was linked up with a dentist who operatese a clinic in the town of Genosa City. This dentist needer a new facility and had some real problems with gettingv her projectunder way.
She also had concernws that the project cost was getting outof “So after giving her some ‘pro advice, I met with her and received permissionj to submit a proposal which was latet accepted. That was a month-and-a-half ago. The projecrt has recently been competitively bid and the cost will be within her budget. The projec t size is 1 to 2 percent of the typical projectr in which I become involved when times are But I can paymy bills, enjoyg the work and feel very luckgy each time I hear about the scores of peopl each day losing their jobs.
” “Mertx Associates is beating the recession by staying closed to our clients’ and prospective clients’ changing We have increased our flexibility on projec t scope and adapted our fee structuresd to fit the scope. We developed and have implemente d fasttrack M&A for projects where speedf is of the essence, such as gettinfg to market in days, not weeks. “We are also talkingf with financially strong companies abougtbuying opportunities, and if they don’tg have a strategy for growth, we’re helpingf to develop one.
Finally, we’re workingh with companies with excess capacity and a strong management team intereste d in filling up the plan t again by buying a book of business from astruggling company.” Mertx Associates Inc.