Five Tips for Surviving in Bad Economic Conditions

Posted on February 22nd, 2010 by Dennis

Doom and GloomDoom and gloom.  That’s about all you hear these days.  Unemployment is high.  Housing is still sputtering.  The financial markets are acting crazy.  Businesses are shutting down.  Fewer businesses are starting up.

Well – believe what you will – but I’ve put together five little tips that might help you survive the storm:

1.  Don’t believe everything you hear or read. A great example is the first paragraph of this blog post.  Sure – the numbers can look bad on the surface but when you start digging in and weeding out some of the obvious – it’s really not that bad.  The only economy you need to be concerned about is YOUR economy.  YOUR numbers.

2.  You can only cut so much. Good economic conditions or bad economic conditions – whether you are an individual with a job or a small business owner – you can only cut so much spending.  It’s not going to fix a bad situation.  Your focus should be on income and revenue.  In simple terms: make more money.  People and organizations will spend a ton of money and massive amounts of time figuring out how to save a few dollars – I suggest that time and money is better spent generating new business and additional income.

3.  Use Social Media. We now have a way to connect to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people.  Use it.  Learn it.  Hire someone to teach you.  Whatever you have to do – don’t dismiss this phenomenon.  Whether you are digging around for new customers or looking for a job – social media is one of the most effective means of marketing yourself or your business in our entire history.  Why do I see businesses without a FaceBook Fan Page?   Why is there companies without a Twitter account?  I still see unemployed people without a LinkedIn account.  Use what’s available.

4.  Stop over-analyzing and get back to basics. The name of the game is rather simple:  Generate cash flow and create net worth.  It isn’t rocket science.  Our objective is to make more money than we spend – and to reduce debt and accumulate assets.  I think sometimes we get too smart and forget these basics.  You can put together a plan that works with a yellow legal pad and a bic pen.  Forget the fancy software.

5.  Be proactive. When you see trouble on the horizon don’t wait until it’s a major issue – deal with it immediately.  Don’t procrastinate.  Don’t wait to call the mortgage company when you are three months behind.  Don’t wait to go see that customer who is having some difficult times.  Some things we need to do – are not pretty – not fun – we put them off.  Don’t do it.  Dive head-on into problems.  Hell – life is a series of problems – those who solve them better and quicker than others are generally happiest.

One more piece of advice:  READ.  Here at our fingertips we have access to pretty much anything you can imagine.  Use it.  There is so much information available to us right now – we really don’t have an excuse.  We have to condition ourselves to use the tools that are available to us – if we don’t know how – find someone who does and let them teach you.

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I want to be a weatherman

Posted on February 17th, 2010 by Dennis

I want to be a weathermanI want to be a weatherman.

If you live here in the south you know exactly what I’m talking about.  The weather around here has been absolutely crazy during February.  The weather PREDICTIONS and FORECASTS have been totally bizarre.  It’s almost like the weather folks were drawing forecasts out of a hat.

I understand enough about meteorology and technology to know that these folks can’t be right 100% of the time.  I know that the words “predictions” and “forecasts” are just what they say they are – nothing more.

What I don’t understand is how it can be so far off.  Not a little off.  A ton.  At times it’s like they predicted a summer and winter showed up.  The thing that really bothers me – my wife and I can sit in front of the TV or computer – look at the radar images – and make a prediction that’s much more accurate than what we just watched on the local news or the Weather Channel.  How is this possible?  Who holds these people accountable?

Another thing that bugs me – I often scroll down on some of the weather sites and click “forecast discussion” – typically this discussion does not reflect at all what I’m seeing as our official forecast.  Again – how is this possible?  Why?  Often this discussion is very accurate while the predictions in public are not even close – and these are the same people doing both!  What’s up with that?

So I’ve heard so many people over the last few weeks make this comment: “…if I did my job like the weatherman does his job, I’d be fired.”  Duh.  No kidding.  Why don’t they just come out with a one-day forecast and forget the five-day forecast?  Wouldn’t that be better?  They could maybe come up with something called “The Five Day Guessing Game” and post that everyday.  Don’t tell us you think you know what the weather is going to do when you have absolutely no clue.

For the most part this is just water cooler conversation and we like to give the weather folks a hard time – but for some people this is serious business – missing a prediction as far as these people have done over the past few weeks can be a catastrophe and cost thousands or millions of dollars.

I wouldn’t have written this until this past Monday I woke up to blue sky – not a cloud within a hundred miles – and my TV is showing snow on top of me and snow coming from basically all directions.  C’mon.  That was totally ridiculous.  It’s one thing to miss a forecast – but when I can look up at the sky – look at a radar – and the forecast is exactly opposite of what I’m seeing with my own eyes – I have to start questioning the competence of some of these people.

I’m ready for some snow.

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