tri·ageFunction: noun1 a : the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors b : the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care





Now, if you are wondering what to do to save money, gain market share, build goodwill, I suggest you do anything except the following:

• Slash staff
• Slash advertising

After 25 years of business ownership through multiple recessions, I can virtually guarantee that those two items provide more ancillary benefits than anything else during a rough economy. Conversely, if you slash those items during a panic attack, the downside will reach far beyond this recession. You will regret those decisions for years to come. Managing this trade off between our short-term compulsions and long term sustainability will be one of the big challenges we face entering this last quarter of 2009.

This is not to say that you maintain status quo at all costs! If personnel depart, you may choose to keep the spot vacant. If you want to improve your advertising reach by shifting to proven social media at a lower cost than traditional print media, you are wise to do so!

Now that we've covered a couple of priorities as we triage our budget, let's get to the "how" you make changes:

1. Do not drop a bombshell "staff slash" or innocent bystanders will become victims. Put it this way: This economy has everyone feeling like they have landed on another planet. No one is sure of the rules, or if the "leaders" are kind or cannibalistic. If you, as a business owner, make a drastic change of any kind, then morale is going to plummet. Shrapnel that you cannot control is going to fly around the water cooler. You will have more fallout in the form of decreased productivity, and more victims as some employees decide to leave the company, motivated by distress of one kind or another. Your employees will be wondering if they have any power at all over their own lives or their future roles in the company.

2. If you want to make significant changes to staffing, or to important programs you launched with their help, then you need to maximize the number of survivors. How? You involve everyone in the decision-making process. If they are given a choice to consider flex time (fewer hours or days of work) vs. the option of kicking someone off the team, most staff will opt in for you. Provide a "buffet" of options to everyone. Some are likely to take shorter hours, while others elect to make changes in their medical coverage or other benefits. Some employees may choose a commission-based structure that manages cash flow. You may find you even have a few part-time employees who will work on contract basis, as they build their own client base for their services, as in the case of bookkeepers.

3. More considerations: If you are the on-site supervisor or head honcho in your division and if your company is owned by another entity that controls the dynamics of who is laid off and what projects / ad budgets are cut, then you must not abdicate your power to maintain morale. You may feel you have no power to change the course of events, but in reality, you do. You are in complete control of the aftermath of a cut or layoff.