Over the last few months I’ve had the fortune of talking to retailers who are holding their own right now. They admit it hasn’t been easy, but the decisions they’ve made are returning dividends. Who knows? Maybe there’s something here that can strike a chord with the masses.

First, these retailers agree it starts with a very basic premise: When fewer people are walking through your door, if you want to stay in business there are only four choices:

1. Increase margins

2. Increase market share

3. Decrease overhead

4. Diversify into new products or segments.

When it comes to increasing margin, the two options are buy better or sell better. One retailer said he is taking better control of the pricing on his floor. Interestingly enough, the big change has been a move from handwritten price tags to computer-generated tags. His margin is up three points because it has taken negotiating out of the mix.

Along the same lines, another dealer said he took a hard look at how he priced his entire floor. He looked at the items where he felt he could get one or two more points. The result: “In a remodel market that is down 6% or 7%, our profitability is the same as last year.”

Conversely, one rather large retailer is actually lowering prices, focusing on increasing market share as opposed to margins. How? For starters, he has renegotiated with the mills—not only the mills, but everyone with whom he spends money. “Business is tough. You can’t be easy with anyone.” The next step was to negotiate with his independent installers. “We proposed to them, ‘How about we cut what we charge the customer and you cut what you charge us, so we can advertise an installed price on hard surface and be cheaper than we used to be?’” Instead of working one day a week they are working five. “Hey, times are tough. They appreciate the fact we are trying to do business.” This retailer was up 25% in February alone.

Decreasing overhead is also a popular route to keeping numbers in line, but that doesn’t necessarily mean reducing the workforce. One retailer instituted across-the- board pay cuts: 3% for a $30,000 salary; 4% if they were making $40,000, all the way up to 10% for $100,000. The key is being honest and a good leader. “Every day they were hearing bad news, so they were happy to just have a job. Your team needs to believe in you, and you have to take the cut yourself.” Only two of 200 people left the company, and one was an hourly who was on her way out, anyway.

Another retailer looked at areas that may not have been important and pushed it harder. “We had room to get better in the hard surface area, so we took on wood in a big way.” He focused, lowered prices, lowered labor and is selling 12 times as much wood as last year.

Food for thought.