A down economy is an interesting beast; albeit a beast that no one wants to encounter.  The problem is that everyone who is in business has to face it at some point in their lives - likely multiple times. 

 With juggernaut news outlets such as MSN, CNN and others reminding us daily that we are in a slump (as if we didn’t know it already!) and telling us the sky is falling, it makes us out to be either an ice cube or an egg.  Yes, we either tend to FREEZE (hence the ice cube) or we tend to SCRAMBLE (you guessed it … eggs). 

 A down economy causes us to all think a bit upon the mortality of our business.  What can we do?  What should we do?  Doing nothing does … nothing, while scrambling for action causes our blood pressure to go through the roof and robs us of sleep at night. 

Our reaction, I believe, has much to do with our attitude about the situation.  Years back, I heard about a few real estate agents in the north east that were on a subway.  A man struck up a conversation with one of them concerning the economy.  It was no secret that most everyone was struggling.  This was decades ago when much of the economy was driven by how well General Motors was doing. 

“How is business?” Asked the man.  The real estate agent replied with a gloomy look on his face “It is awful!  My business is suffering to no end.  Nobody is buying.  Everyone is losing their jobs and no one has money to afford a new house.”

A while later, the same man struck up a conversation with the second real estate agent.  “How is business?” he asked.  The real estate agent responded with an enthusiastic “Fantastic!  Business is going very well.  Thanks to the lay-offs, families now have more time together to look at the houses they want.  They were unable to do this before because when they had jobs, they were always overworked and never had the time or energy to look for a new home for their family!”

Perplexed, the man didn’t understand.  How could two people in the very same industry have such different outlooks and results when times were clearly bad for everyone around?  The only thing that could have been different is the attitude of each person. 

Yes, attitude makes a world of difference!  While it won’t change *the* economy, it could change *your* economy.  It will change how you react and how resilient you are during the hard times.  Your prospects and clients are more prone to do business with an optimist, and believe me, during a down economy there are plenty of the pessimistic variety.  What a better time to go against the current?!  Successful people, and those who want to be successful tend to want to be with other successful people that have a positive energy about them. 

Practically speaking, what can you do?  Instead of scrambling or freezing, try taking this opportunity to put your business under the microscope and see what can be changed for the better to both make your business more attractive and the obvious choice to do business with instead of your competition.  There is no better time to do this - remember: in an economy that is booming, the phone rings off the hook, right?  When that happens again, will you have the same amount of time you do now to work on your business?  If you don’t do this now, when the economy goes up again, you will be kicking yourself because you didn’t work on your business when you could.

Another thing you can do is to check in with your existing client base.  Cement your relationship with them!  Your competition seeks to pluck every one of your clients from your hand.  The better service and value you can give to your existing client base, the less prone they are to leave at the whim of what some high powered sales person tells them.

But what if it isn’t the economy that is down?

In Spencer Johnson’s book “Who Moved My Cheese?”, the author illustrates how sometimes things can change in business (and life) and how we cannot assume that just because things are one way now, that they will be this way forever.  In short, the idea is that in business - especially these days - industries change, shift, ebb, flow and transform.  During these times, your success relies solely upon you to take the pulse of your industry and respond accordingly.  It is up to you to determine what your company offers, what your market requires / needs / wants / desires, measure what the discrepancy is and do something about it. 

Back in the depression, things were painfully awful for everyone.  Food was scarce and jobs were even more scarce.  Every able bodied person was frantically looking for work to make money in order to pay bills and feed their family.  One man decided to go against the flow.  Instead of begging employers around town to hire him for minimum wage, he went to these same employers and told him that he would work for them for FREE - that they only would need to pay him based upon the new business that he brought them.  As a result, he was never without work, and became very successful.  This man truly had the entrepreneurial spirit! 

If this man that could thrive and be a success during the worst of times in recent American history (from an economic standpoint), what is keeping us down during this little slump? 

ACTION:  What are you doing?  I would love to hear your activities during such times.  Feel free to email us or post a message on this article below to share your story!

Tags: tanner creative, tannercreative