We were only a few days into 2023, and it was enough to witness massive layoffs in industries like fintech, crypto, tech, and traditional finance. And it shouldn't be a surprise to see this trend on the market. As the global economy is in turmoil, inflation has reached all-time highs and levels we haven't seen in decades, creating a cost of living crisis. Besides these and fears of a looming recession, the ongoing war in Ukraine has also taken its toll on financial markets.

As a result, giants like Coinbase, Twitter, Meta, and Goldman Sachs are all firing a significant part of their workforce to survive the current crisis. However, while I agree that enterprises have to adapt to new market conditions, there is always a way to pivot some projects or functional teams. Consequently, their work can be utilized to increase profits or reduce other costs without relying on layoffs to achieve the same goals.

Such a crisis is a time to be creative, strengthen your organization, and gain market share while your competitors are downsizing their teams and closing many of their projects. To ensure a company's further prosperity, founders should instead find ways to optimize their businesses' working capital, develop efficient emergency plans, and commit themselves to keep their teams, which they can expand with specialized talents to get ahead of competitors.

Revise Your Business' Working Capital

While Meta reduced its workforce by 11,000 employees in November, Twitter fired almost half of its staff in 2022. Following this trend, Coinbase starts this year with mass redundancies, reportedly cutting 950 jobs, and in mid-January, Google reports it will lay off 12,000 people from its workforce.

As labor costs can account for as much as 70% of a business' operating expense, it shouldn't surprise anyone that layoffs are the default response to an economic downturn. But just because everyone is following it, it doesn't mean it is the right strategy.

And, as I see it, turning to job cuts as soon as a crisis hits the market may not be the optimal approach. While it might generate some short-term gains in cost savings, mass layoffs will hurt your business in the long run as it deprives your team of crucial members, which could provide an excellent chance for your competitors to capitalize on. In addition to a loss of knowledge that is often coupled with a decline in innovation, such a decision could also create bad publicity around your project.

So, instead of relying on layoffs as your go-to strategy to survive a crisis, use it as your last resort. Before you start thinking about cutting your staff, revise your business' working capital sources and expenses. With a thorough analysis, you can identify and eliminate financial bottlenecks and unsuccessful projects draining your organization's funds.

A crisis is also the right time to optimize your operational processes, as well as ensure the long-term sustainability of your products and business plan.

Hire Instead Of Fire

Crises may seem challenging to survive. But, in addition to hardship, they often provide startups with excellent opportunities.

For example, due to the mass layoffs of tech and financial giants, the focus of the labor market has shifted candidates to employers. As a result, hiring a high-profile specialist for the job has not just become easier but also cheaper than in the last few years when employees had the upper hand in negotiations.

Earlier, only market giants could afford to hire outstanding talents with international expertise since the latter chose to work exclusively with big brands. Now, the same specialists are lowering the bar and are now ready to consider employment at other firms besides the high-profile ones.

Most importantly, as numerous recently laid-off specialists are currently looking for their next jobs, you can capitalize on this opportunity to hire them and gain a significant advantage over your competitors.

Eventually, the bear market will end. And while your company has grown its market share and strengthened its position by retaining its workforce and expanding it with specialized talent, your competitors will have to rebuild their teams from scratch. At this point, they have to spend significant resources in an attempt to regain what they have lost due to their ineffective crisis response.

Develop A Relocation Plan For Crises

During the start of a bear market, an economic downturn, or other forms of crisis, businesses are often clueless about what to do and how to respond. When you are unprepared, you have a great chance of making bad decisions, which can have grave consequences for your startup.

For that reason, you have to enter every crisis with a well-designed and actionable relocation plan. I believe this helped me and several other Ukrainian founders efficiently respond to the Russian invasion. As a result, when the war started, we knew what to do and managed to swiftly move a part of my team to safer countries like Poland and Georgia.

Fortunately, our relocation plan not only helped ensure the safety of the team but also enabled the company to continue operating without interruption.

As I see it, CEOs are their businesses' leaders, and they are responsible for their employees. No matter the crisis, a good team plays a critical role in your organization's success. For that reason, you should organize brainstorming sessions with your staff to find out together the best way to steer through the storm, relying on layoffs as a last resort.

Be A Forward-Looking Founder

In a crisis, a default response from businesses is to lay off their staff. However, this is an approach generally taken by short-sighted founders who are firing their newest and most expensive employees for some temporary cost savings.

The expenses of hiring new talent are often much higher in a post-crisis market than the costs an organization would have saved by firing them during an economic downturn. Moreover, taking the path of layoffs would likely have significant consequences for the business — mass redundancies would surely impact a brand's image and, consequently, might damage its reputation.

On the other hand, forward-looking leaders look for different ways to optimize working capital, enabling them to keep their team together and even make them more robust by hiring the specialists that others had laid off. The founders in this group already have an emergency plan for crises, which helps them adapt to the new market conditions quickly and effectively.

Besides that, small businesses can even turn the current crisis to their advantage. In normal market conditions, high-profile specialists prefer to avoid the huge workload associated with startups and instead work with renowned companies offering a stable income and attractive incentives. Now, as the market decline is in full swing, these candidates are considering alternative options for employment, including contracts with small businesses.

When the economic turmoil is over, businesses led by competent founders will not just survive the downturn but will also gain a significant advantage over their competitors. Ultimately, a crisis is an excellent test of flexibility and long-term planning. And those who survive will become much stronger and much better prepared for future challenges.

Max Krupyshev is the co-founder & CEO of the crypto payment ecosystem CoinsPaid