While the financial survival of postsecondary institutions is being stressed, continuing education operarions are facing increasing difficulties in surviving and competing. Strategies are needed for the significant survival of continuing education operations at the small college. The Lifelong Learning Center and others like it need to be concerned about the customer and service product dimensions. Three key strategies that will contribute to their survival are (1) providing staff development, (2) designing and using information systems, and (3) accessing and integrating research findings. The Center's staff development strategy involves college faculty, center teaching faculty, and center/college administrative staff. Development efforts are linked to staff competency evaluations. A second strategy advocates using system theory and computer technology in program management. A marketing information system based on macroenvironmental and microenvironmental data would substantially enhance the facility in program development, sales forecasting, and optimizing growth. The macroenvironment provides information on potential participants' needs, business and industry's training needs, the competitions' programs, and other relevant data. The microenvironment contains information about the populations the program has served and how the program served this group. The final strategy of research can involve not only information from ADELL and ERIC but also from the marketing field. (CSS)