From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
How does one shrink their company and know what services or actions or processes to drop? If we’ve been doing things a certain way for a few years and now, cannot continue, yet our accounts/clients/customers are used to things a certain way – how do wean them off those things?

Response:
Your customers may be used to things a certain way, and they will soon become used to things in a new way. They are going through the same market strains, no surprises.

But how do you make those decisions. Finished cutting the fat, we now cut the muscle. What are those goods and services that will no longer be provided? What are those goods and services that must be retained?

What are those goods and services that create the profit that allows your company to survive this period. One of my clients could not imagine how to cut overhead lower than $700,000 per month. Today, that overhead is $70,000 per month. What has remained is ONLY those goods and services that customers are willing to pay for, in sufficient volume to create a profitable business. Everything else that is not necessary, must go.