Rolling with the punches: local businesses fight against a tough economy.

Months ago, economists pronounced the Great Recession was officially over. It took awhile, but the private sector is finally showing signs of renewed life--better retail sales, increased manufacturing levels, rising consumer confidence and, finally, a bit of job creation.

The darkest days of the downturn seem to be behind us. With an eye to the future, several Utah businesses take a moment to look back on how they navigated the recession and how it changed their business forever.

Narrowing the Niche

American Fork-based Sound Concepts has long understood the importance of finding a niche. The company specializes in creating marketing tools exclusively for the direct-selling industry, including both large corporate clients like Xango and Isagenix as well as individual distributors.

In 2008, the company saw sales drop drastically as its clients kept a tighter hold on their marketing dollars. "The majority of the decline was on the individual distributor side," says account executive Nathan Cox. "They were a lot more reactive. As soon as the [recession] alarms went up, they started to freeze their spending."

To remain profitable through the downturn, Sound Concepts was forced to streamline. The company reduced its inventory, held off on usual infrastructure and technology investments, and even slowed its own marketing efforts. Some changes, however, were easier than others. "Unfortunately, we had to do some layoffs to keep our profitability up," Cox says. At the height of the recession, Sound Concepts reluctantly reduced its workforce by nearly 20 percent.

Fortunately, with a slimmer workforce also came a narrower focus. The company worked harder to meet the growing needs of its existing corporate clients and found ways to attract new business as well. With the influx of corporate work, Sound Concepts was able to remain profitable each of the past three years.

The company is now seeing a resurgence in individual distributor purchases as well. "It seems like the confidence to purchase has been increasing each month. Our average order sizes are going up and people are more willing to spend," Cox says. "They are more willing to invest in their business."

Though the direct-selling industry looks to be on the rebound, Sound Concepts is not about to forget the lessons it learned over the past few years. "We've tried to run a leaner machine to make sure we don't have that challenge again," Cox says. The company continues to keep tighter reigns on its...