Many of your competitors are sitting in their offices hoping Wall Street and the Federal Government will do something soon to end the current recession and restart consumer purchasing. While this will do nothing for them, their inactivity is great for you and your business. You and many of your fellow small business owners understand only you and your team can keep your business profitable and successful.

In about a year, we will all see television reports about small businesses that have grown and expanded while their competitors filed bankruptcy.

Refuse to participate in any financial downturn and use this time to correct your business!!

How often have you told yourself that when things slow down you will start the budgeting process or write a better employee manual or find a new lawyer or think about new internal procedures? 
The world has heard you and has given you all the time you want each week. Use it wisely

Now is the time to truly review your mission statement and vision to see if you are heading in the direction you initially planned. Have you taken a different direction because it seemed to be the right way at the time? Take a day off, even if it seems to be the wrong time, and have a board meeting with yourself. Rethink your vision and review the initial thoughts you had about starting your company. Now is the time to make the adjustments.

Now that you have a clear vision again, do you have the right people in the right areas? Put that objective employee performance appraisal system in place and be objective about your employees. Have you allowed a friend, your nephew, the son of a good customer or the great hire that has soured over the past several years to hold your company down? Take a very good look at all employees and allow the recession to help you make some personnel changes. Dont, under any circumstance, let your core personnel leave. They know that now is not the right time to look for a job and will be very happy to stay and help through the difficult times.