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Business Survival Strategies

I spoke me for extra than a full 12 months now of the numerous hardships that the declining global financial system may be visiting upon us during the course of the worsening international recession (which I could by no means call a “despair,” as this latter time period has to turn out to be Politically Incorrect). In so doing, I have had more significant than a small range of deluded souls roll their eyes at me as though I had been an alarmist — “Douglas Castle…Have you not lived long enough to recognize that this is a brief downturn? Give it a few months, and matters will ‘choose-up.'” They have not, and I do now not trust that they will till someday in 2012.

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THIS RECESSION IS DIFFERENT. We are witnessing the disintegration of a credit-fed, overextended financial system. To an awful lot of credit, an excessive amount of innovative accounting and an excessive amount of systemic inefficiency have come domestic to roost, just like the Raven in Edgar Allen Poe’s well-known poem of tragic loss and lament. A delayed, albeit inevitable day of reckoning, has come. I could say, “I instructed you so,” if I were greater like my expensive mom (who will continue to be nameless here, as I attempt to be an awesome song), but I might not. Here all of us are. Yet, as doors to traditional employment and credit score markets are being decimated via the nervous human beings in price, possibilities are coming to mild. I would love to talk about those here. Grinning and head-nodding aren’t best permitted; however, they are strongly encouraged.

1. You in all likelihood ought to by no means trust a person having the last call “Madoff” together with your cash… And although every U.S. Protection legal professional would at once leap out at me and say, “in step with the American System Of Justice (all upward push!), he [Bernard Madoff] is ‘presumed harmless till verified guilty,'” my guess would be with “any man or woman, at any time, is as guilty because the authorities desire him to be.” To wit: former New York decide Sol Wachler (who, himself, become snared using the FBI while dressing up as a cowboy and stalking his one-time mistress) as soon as said, “An exact prosecutor may want to indict a ham sandwich,” and the U.S. Government’s conviction price stands more than ninety eight% as I write this. Similarly: do now not lend cash to a fellow whose call is “Skip”…Be very carefully earlier than a relationship with a person whose ultimate name is “Loveless”…And never throw a couple of footwear at some other character who’s covered through the U.S. Secret Service. As a facet note, throwing a pair of used gymnasium socks is cheaper, simply as offensive throughout an extensive spectrum of cultures, and may make you famous. This ends the funny part of this text;

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2. Understand the difference between Tactics and Strategies — Strategies are the longer-term plans you make for attaining your closing dreams and objectives following your aims, desires, and inclinations. A strategic plan might cover a span of time from several months to a whole lifetime, but its vacation spot is where you want to be. Tactics are quick-time period tasks for dealing with the impediments, complications, and conditions you stumble upon along the route to attaining your dreams and goals. They often involve palliative measures, modifications in timing, a slight detour from the map — however they are immediate accommodations and should by no means maintain your closing awareness out of your goals and targets. The handiest analogy is in a state of affairs where you are making plans to go to a grocery store. Your ordinary route is blocked off with the aid of Police Crime Scene Investigators, a fallen tree, a wooden line of anti-government protestors, an oily chemical spill, or an inoperative site visitors’ light; At the same time, you’ll navigate a brand new course (the strategy); you may nevertheless be heading for the grocery store (the method to appease your hungry youngsters who are suffering from Taco-Bell Gastritis). Don’t lose sight of a method when engaged in a tactical maneuver;

3. Renegotiate your own home mortgage loan, in addition to separate private and commercial enterprise money owed with institutional lenders — while they’re normally as heartless as they’re headless, they could as a substitute have an acting mortgage (or even a mortgage settled at a discount) than a defaulted or non-performing mortgage. They are cutting-edge ‘awful men’ and feature sure subtle regulatory imperatives which are making them more receptive. Be proactive and scare them a chunk. They need to maintain your loan on top standing, even though their tactic du jour is to restructure or modify your reimbursement agenda. They might be more cooperative if you are very specific with them approximately 1) the dire financial consequences with that you are confronted, 2) along with your knowledge that they may be, in truth, doing this for many other borrowers, and with the fact that 3) it is a “win-win” proposition for them [trite but effective] in phrases in their profession paths and compliance with a robust ethical vital imposed upon them by the government which published the money with which to bail them out. Even though you’ll certainly be on the telephone whilst speaking with those overwrought bankers, try and maintain a straight face and refrain from excessive sarcasm. By the manner, don’t waste time with the ones aggressively-advertised patron credit control companies…Negotiate with each credit score card business enterprise yourself;

4. If you should pay the Internal Revenue Service or any tax authority, attempt to pay by postal money order instead of via test. This may additionally assist to forestall or even prevent any levy and seizure of your financial institution account. I might upload that in case you are a U.S. Citizen or any birthday party concern to U.S. Taxation, pay timely and deal with the tax authorities as your highest-priority creditor. They have certainly unlimited (and unchecked) electricity and get the right of entry to something you very own or earn, and they can tack on a hobby, penalties, and other prices at will. You are outgunned – render unto Caesar earlier than he sends his squaddies when you, mainly when Caesar is desperate for money to pay lower back old gambling debts;

5. If you’re in a technical business or alternate, recognition your assets, advertising, and efforts on repair and preservation — While humans can’t manage to pay for new autos, houses, and other massive-price ticket items, they may be more and more compelled to take care of and keep what they have already got. Don’t sell a new box — sell the servicing and upgrading of the antique, however salvageable one;

6. Businesses that behavior e-trade via the net are plenty better choices for funding and promoting than geographically-anchored agencies, which humans need to drive to so as you got merchandise. This is the era of the web entrepreneur. Consumer purchases can be declining, but a growing percentage of them will relate to a) maintenance and maintenance, and b) online assets;

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7. Identity theft, in addition to crime, is trendy, maybe growing. When purchasing online, use a PayPal account in place of a credit score card account. Further, if you are an online service provider, you would possibly bear in mind the usage of PayPal as your foremost merchant services provider because of this;

8. In a commercial enterprise, try and keep your fee obligations in U.S. Dollars, and your clients’ conditional buy orders, billings, borrowings, and receivables in Euros (or indexed in Euros) to the most significant quantity possible;

9. If you’ve got an investible portfolio, you might do not forget to keep a number of your holdings in gold, Euros, global Euro-denominated contraptions, and really cheaper multiunit housing houses (non-publicly-traded) which are generating contemporary earnings, and that you do now not should borrow money to purchase. In investing, now is not a good time to leverage up and buy on any sort of margin. Invest for asset preservation and contemporary return. The belief of the “hot tip for short gain” is for pathological gamblers and imbeciles;

10. Develop your networking and relationship-building assets, as well as your crew skills — partnerships provide diversification of talents, sales resources, and moral assist in difficult economic instances;

11. If you are in company middle management, begin wondering like an entrepreneur and constructing an impartial commercial enterprise. You may additionally start to circulate a winning resume with a captivating cowl letter — your conventionally-paced and as soon as-relaxed corporate days can be numbered. If at all possible, make it recognized that you are interested in dedicating your self to the more revenue-generating hobby;

12. The fields associated with self-help, counseling, religion, astrology could be developing — Pay serious attention to them, and get into them when you have the inclination, abilities, and strength. An international of people is determined for the purpose, restoration of wish and faith, and facts to help them address a difficult time and a very uncertain destiny. Help these human beings in earnest, and profit through it.

Leah Leonard

Coffee expert. Troublemaker. Typical music guru. Friendly beer fanatic. Introvert. Web specialist. Uniquely-equipped for implementing bullwhips in Ocean City, NJ. Spent a year importing licorice in Hanford, CA. Have some experience licensing cigarettes for the government. Once had a dream of selling toy monkeys in Las Vegas, NV. Spent the 80's working on hula hoops in Minneapolis, MN. What gets me going now is working with action figures in the government sector.

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