Navigating the challenges of today's economy - 2009

2008 Was The Year of The Rat … On To 2009

They don’t call 2008 “The Year of the Rat” for nothing. Although some small businesses will emerge from 2008 relatively unscathed by the financial turmoil, it is likely that most will be affected negatively as we move ahead into a recessionary economy and the perils of uncertainty in the global economy. This period is likely to last at least 1-2 more years and could go longer. Although new and great challenges are always coupled with new opportunities, my feeling is that the best small business strategy moving ahead is to cut your expenses as much as possible, assume the recession could last for several years and seek stability more than growth unless you can grow the business very inexpensively.

Rather than borrowing to grow, consider options where you can effectively monetize your own time and experience towards the longer term goals rather than take on more business development expenses (and thus usually more debt) as one tends to do in a normal business environment. Following are a few examples:

http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/12/31/ten-tiny-things-every-small-business-owner-should-do-in-2009/