Economic Forecasting - Whether It Makes a Difference to Your Business

Just the other day, I attended a very interesting presentation by Dr. Sohn, an economist at California State University of Channel Islands. (Note: This was part of a speaker series sponsored by the Business Advisory Council of the Martin V. Smith School of Business.) In essence, he gave an overview of the economy of our world, nation and state in about an hour. Whew--that's a lot to cover! And, for our country in particular, the news was not all that positive. (If you're living in China, though, the economic engine is going full bore!)

But, it led me to question not whether it mattered that are economy was in bad shape because we all know it matters, but what was I going to do about it and, in fact, what we could all "do about it" in terms of our businesses. We can't do much about changing fiscal policy unless we're good friends with Ben Bernecke or other economists in the Federal Reserve. And, we can certainly write to our legislators about our opinions about the tax cuts and other ways that government can help businesses save money or create reasons to hire but the wheels of government are slow. Most of all, I think all of us in business need to forge ahead.

We cannot give up. We cannot give in to doom and gloom. Being a business owner requires you to be positive. Probably we wouldn't have started a business if we'd listened to all of our friends, family and colleagues who cautioned us about the pitfalls of owning a business. We do need to be aware and agile, though, in how we operate. And, perception can drive reality. If we are positive (and persistent!), usually positive results follow.  So, it makes a difference only in the sense that you can make necessary changes to your business to adjust to the state of the economy.