Are you operating your business and making business decisions based on fear due to the economic meltdown?  If you are, you could potentially destroy your business.

What an extraordinary period of time we are living through with our businesses. 

The majority of the business community has never experienced such business turmoil. 

Unless you were living in 1929, you’ve not witnessed anything like our current economic conditions.  Depending on how old you are, our parents, grandparents and great grandparents who were living during the Crash of ’29 and into the decade of the 1930s can tell story upon story about how bad that particular period in history truly was.  Back then there were not the financial safety nets there are today.  No FDIC.  No government bail out of businesses for billions of dollars.  No way to save your house from foreclosure if you couldn’t pay the mortgage.  No credit cards to help tide you over month after month.

Even with all the safeguards put in place since the Depression the current economic crisis could not be stopped and the feeling of uncertainty permeates the future.

The economic crisis is REAL.  It is being felt by every one regardless of individual financial circumstances.   And it’s global, not just limited to the United States.

It seemed to come from no where.  And hit us all with a sledge hammer effect.  Everyone is saying: What happened?  How could this be?  How could so many people lose their homes?  How could unemployment numbers be so high?  And business be so bad?  But unfortunately the astonishing facts are reality. 

The one aspect we have in common today with that of 1929 is the fear being created. 

Fear is the emotion that can make us do things we would not do when we are thinking clearly.  As a business person, you cannot afford to operate your business based on fear.  Instead you need to sit down, work the numbers, know every aspect of your business, leave nothing to chance and study a situation fully before making any business decisions. 

If you are making business decisions based on fear, there is a good chance those decisions will be wrong. 

Completely assess where your business is, then gather the best possible people you can find to get an objective opinion as to what you need to do differently in your business in order to remain competitive and profitable – or depending upon your business circumstance to just break even in order to survive the challenging business environment.  Work on turning any negatives into a positive. 

Don’t let fear grip you and take hold of the present moment. Removing the emotion of fear in your business and replacing it with the projection of positive forward motion – even the in the face of lost sales, downsizing, cutting costs or whatever else you may have to do for your business to survive the recession, will only aid you in actually making your business stronger and better prepared for future business.