Don't Let Your Business Jump the Shark.

When a television show loses its plot and the show goes in a totally different unbelievable direction that show is said to have "jumped the shark." It is a desperation move to do anything to get viewers back and keep advertising revenue dollars.

In challenging economic times, businesses are falling into the same traps. How can you prevent your business from jumping the shark?

Think twice before abandoning foundations of your culture.

You have been a flex time work environment and suddenly you feel the urge to lock in everyone’s hours so you can have tighter controls on work productivity, you will lose the investment you made in your employee good will by removing that benefit. If you trust people to get their work done in the good times, trust them in the bad times. Avoid the knee-jerk reaction of trying to grab control and strangling your employee efforts.

Don't lose your public persona.

Under the weight of the pressure to perform, companies are losing the corporate persona and employees and customers are wondering what happened to the corporate attitudes they used to enjoy. This is why incentive trips are still necessary regardless of what political minds say from inside the belt way. It's important to keep the focus and morale up in employees, e3specially the best performers who deserve these trips.

Small courtesies and special treatments customers expect need to be maintained. If you are the hotel with the wine and cheese reception for guests, keep that going. If you are the restaurant that periodically announces free cookies for everyone in the dining room, keep those fun surprises happening. These are what keep your organization fun and unique. Don’t lose that persona.

Resist the urge to take your business in a totally different direction.

I am an innovator and I believe every company needs to be in a mode of constant innovation. When I say don't go in a totally different direction, I mean as a reaction to tough economic times. If you've always been the solid reliable quiet provider of services to your clients, now is not the time to go whacky, and loud. It smells of desperation. If you suddenly expand your product mix to include everything you can thing of providing, you sound desperate.

People don't want to hire a speaker who suddenly is an expert in topics he has never spoken on before anymore than people want to walk into a furniture store and have someone trying to sell them shoes. Yet restaurants are trying to sell any food product they can think of, even if their branding is one type of food, and B2B providers are trying to be a one stop shop.

Stick with what you know, innovate to improve the current services you are delivering. When a TV show jumps the shark they lose their core fans and never capture as many new fans as they want, your business will get the same results.