Let’s recap:  According to the Wall Street Journal, on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 678.91 points.  On Friday, the Dow fell another 697 points shortly after the opening bell before surging late in the day and finally closing the day 128 points down.  Friday turned out to be the most volatile day ever on Wall Street if you go strictly by the numbers with a 1018.77-point swing from high to low.  It was also the Dow’s worst week in its 112-year history. Yet on Monday, the Dow was up 936.42 points for the biggest one-day gain since 1933 during the Depression era. As I write this post on Tuesday, the Dow was down 76.62 after starting the day in positive territory.

I have a lot of business people asking me if it is time to jump back into the market.  I am not a financial advisor.  I am a business expert.  Let’s talk about this from a business perspective and what the turmoil of the ongoing credit crisis and the government bailout really means. 

In one word, balance. 

One day the stock market swings one way and then the next day, the market swings yet another way.  The mood of uncertainty remains embedded in the business world and among customers of your products and services.  Nothing has really changed.  The economy isn’t any better today than it was yesterday.  A lot of the wild swings in the stock market are being caused by panic and fear.  The upswing in the market is being created because the market wants to believe the government intervention will have some positive effect and begin to get the country moving in the right direction again.  But nothing’s really changed. 

As business people we need to keep our balance.  When the market falls, it doesn’t mean the sky is falling.  And if you are a CEO, company president or business owner, you certainly don’t want to act like Chicken Little running around thinking your business is about to crash.

As smart business people, we will all need to run a better business from this day forward in order to work through the changing marketplace.  Your company’s business strategy needs to include cost cutting and, at the same time, be sales driven. 

When the stock market goes up, that doesn’t mean we should believe everything is going to be just fine.  Because again, nothing has changed.  Stay neutral to what is happening on Wall Street as best you can.  Keep the emotion out of your business decisions.  As business leaders we need to keep our balance in order to get a true picture of what is going on. Calm and reason are called for.  Not fear and panic.  Nor any feelings of jubilation because for one day the stock market went up.  These events require caution and focus.  Act with reason and good business judgment not with emotion.

Above all, remember:  Stay in balance with your business.