It's not just...
"the economy stupid"!
I am so tired of hearing the excuse that the economy is why my business is failing.
The truth is today is a great opportunity to grow. I have a friend who owns an advertising magazine franchise. Yes the economy is down, as a matter of fact three of his biggest competitors went out of business. HOORAY for him. This Crisis is His Biggest Opportunity in years allowing him to dominate his franchise's zone.
The biggest trick is to understand that the old rules no longer apply. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In today's economy what used to work may no longer work. My neighbor lost his house because his business (painting contractor) dropped by 60% in two months. Now, there are a lot of reasons this happened and yes the economy is one of them but he didn't do anything differently. When the pie shrinks you need to figure out how to to get more of it not hope what you did the previous year will work again.
So remember you are the CEO - DO SOMETHING! AND MAKE SURE IT'S SOMETHING DIFFERENT!