Down turn, slow down, general belt tightening

It seems to be topical, so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss giving you my thoughts and opinions on the downturn, slow down or whatever other euphemistic way you would like to put it when there is just less cash floating around freely in our economies.
It's funny but I was watching reports on the various stock exchanges around the world for the past week and the trends all looked similar, a big dip on the 22nd of April and then a bit of an upturn. In what could be called the larger economies (just sheer size of land and population) the upturn was a lot higher than in smaller economies, just an interesting but maybe also not so relevant fact and it could have to do with the fact that I was born in a small economy (Belgium: about 11 million of us) and now live in an even smaller economy with more land and bigger ambitions (Ireland: 4.5 million). My immediate thought was that a one week summary really only gives us a snapshot, the monthly or even yearly trend would give us a better indication of where the turn of the economy is heading, but I am sure you can read that in the trusted media, who don't like to hype anything either way or politicians who come up with new 'positive' words every day to avoid saying recession. Interesting developments, don't you think?

Anyway what does it really mean to the man in the street really? I know from my experience that getting paid for your services seems to be like drawing blood from stones lately and that alot of people are holding off on training and coaching because it's a perceived luxury for when there is money in surplus. In my (biased) view, now is 'the' time to invest in coaching and training, because now more than ever you need that focus and advantage over your competition. I deal with start-ups a lot and now is an ideal time to set up a business, why? Because if you manage to grow a business in an economy where the drivers are going the opposite way, you are building a business from the right basics and you will have a close eye on cost controls, effective marketing, operational efficiency, etc. In an up-time anyone can set up a business and gain a part of the money that is floating, in a down-turn those that really have value to offer and do it efficiently will get that slice.

Is it time to panic? I wouldn't think so, my advice to clients is keep up what you are doing, keep an eye costs and look where you are spending without returns, but marketing is really where your message may need to be adapted, finding joint venture partners where you can share skills, looking at other markets. No matter which way the economy goes, there are always large corporations making some serious profit and lots of small ones too. Small companies have the advantage that they can adapt and change and respond to a changing market, so now is a good time to have a look at which parts of your market are making money and then use focus. Also look at what opportunities are out there for you, which if you worked on them now, will create great returns in years to come.

In my case what I am doing is looking at associate partnering with a number of other organisations, I am tweaking my online presence and learning about e-commerce at a rate of knots and I am working on more products, which is something I have been meaning to do and didn't get around to because I was too busy. As for potential work I have a pipeline full of projects, that are supposedly ready to go any minute now (for the last 6 months that is if not even longer). All I am saying is do what you can do to keep your faith in your success and business, even if it is only one small step at a time.

Recession are always full of stories of businesses closing and staff losing jobs and the media does their bit to keep us focussed on this, however the same climate is also where true business success is created because entrepreneurs learn the business basics the hard way from cost control to efective marketing to the importance of the team. If you haven't figurred this out, find the best coach (I know one up close and personal) and work with them on getting the basics right. At this point in economic times putting your head in the sand and doing what you always did, is not a smart move, in my view it's asking for trouble. Remember small business is adaptable and can move quickly, and that's where you for once have an advantage over the big boys.