Inner conflicts of a microbusiness journalist

Posted on | November 25, 2008 | 1 Comment

The big challenge for people who are in the business of covering both public policy and the economy is to keep people informed while simultaneously refraining from scaring them to death.

It would be very easy to write endless Articles of Doom right now. All the numbers we normally use to paint a picture of the economy are moving in the opposite direction from what the experts want. And the economy is very different now from what it was during the last major downturn, in the early 1990s.

For the typical microbusiness, understanding the current economy is a very simple thing. Either your customers have money to spend on whatever it is that you make/sell/do … or they don’t.

If your customers have money for your stuff, cool.

If they have some money but not all that much, your mission is to show them why your stuff should be high on the list of stuff they can’t do without even when their belts are tightening.

If your customers are just flat-out broke, then it’s time to go find some new customers. You don’t have to completely abandon your loyal-but-cash-flow-challenged current customers. Be generous. Spread the wealth.

The fact is that there will always be people who do still have jobs and can afford your stuff, regardless of dire pronouncements from government officials.

The fact is that there are still businesses that are making money and that need the service you have to offer (that will, perhaps, help them make more money or help them save what they’ve got), regardless of the headline-generating antics of Wall Street.

The fact is that there are always new and different ways for you to package your stuff or rework it into brand spanking new stuff or otherwise locate yet another revenue stream to make up for flat sales or vanishing customers.

And if you keep your eyes open and, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, DON’T PANIC, then you may find yourself swimming merrily instead of sinking.

In a situation like this, somebody is going to have to keep their head and I don’t know that we should expect to find them anywhere near Wall Street or Washington. Which means, as Jeff Cornwall so eloquently asserts, it’s up to us.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to give you the news (even if it’s bad news) because I think it’s important for people to be informed, even if they are too busy to turn around twice. And I’ll try not to depress you too much when I do.

Related reading

Check out what Mary has to say in “Your Customers Are Still Out There”.

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