With mid-term elections just around the corner here in the United States, we’re coming up half to the half time hooter in the main game. Let’s look at the scoreboard.
This week the National Small Business Association released its midyear economic report. Based on a survey of 400 small business owners, the report found;
What’s causing this sentiment?
Well, here’s my take. As a speaker and author, I am lucky that I don’t really have a full time ‘job’ anymore – I get to choose my day and how I invest it. And, as a result, I spend a lot of time researching, reading, learning, and seeking to understand more about business in general, global influencers on business and, in particular, business in the US.
Some days that means I get to spend anything up to three hours watching, reading, listening to information. And I am confused about so much that so many governments of the day are trying to achieve. Translate that to what the average US small businessperson is trying to adsorb in probably a tenth of the time and, of course, you can only end up with a perceived bleak view of the future.
In short, the unknown is frightening. It stands to reason that you can’t plan around something you don’t know! So, therefore, your only friend is fear.
If the US economy is to come good sooner than later, it is going to be driven by small business stimulus. In the absence of any of that stimulus coming from any external source, there are simple things small business can do to get moving again. Step one is to take responsibly for their destiny and just get on with it!
I am a firm believer that business happens in cycles, and your ability to manage these cycles successfully lies in how you interpret information from the past, deal with it in the present and prepare for the cycles of the future.
In the absence of any clear and concise message coming from any government of the day, take the responsibly on your own shoulders to analyze the information you do have at hand in your own business and use that to chart your course to a better future.
Troy Hazard is the former global president of the elite Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and Switzers’ resident alien in the United States. He has owned managed and run ten companies in the last two decades; is an international speaker and author of Future-Proofing Your Business.
Important information: This content has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular individual. It does not constitute formal advice. For this reason, any individual should, before acting, consider the appropriateness of the information, having regard to the individual’s objectives, financial situation and needs and, if necessary, seek appropriate professional advice.
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