Turn Economic Disaster into Profits

Every disaster is an opportunity; that's an old martial arts saying that works as well on the field of business combat. In the Art of War, Sun Tzu says:

"Speed is of the essence in war. What is valued in war is quick victory, not prolonged operations."

Entrepreneurs who are willing to be responsive and nimble are best suited to make adjustments necessary to profit in an economic downturn. Moving quickly doesn't mean you should make rash decisions; it means to prepare yourself to make meaningful decisions without hesitation and without regret. This means embracing continual development as an individual and as a company. When you're constantly engaged in research, training and development you're best prepared to respond quickly and efficiently when an opportunity is available; particularly in the middle of a disaster!

Here are some ideas you can implement quickly to turn disaster into profit:

• Reposition your message; emphasize the essential quality of your product or service…
  When the economy tightens discretionary spending becomes a real problem to those who provide otherwise "non-essential" goods and services. Remember that when it comes down to it, anything above and beyond food, shelter, acute medical care and basic transportation is non-essential. Find essential qualities that people will not want to do without under any circumstances and promote that message vigorously. Of course I'm assuming you deliver quality goods and services!
  
  If you operate a restaurant emphasize the need for an occasional night out to reduce stress and keep your sanity during tough times. If you run a gym make sure people know that health is not a luxury but a necessity, particularly compared to the cost of medical problems related to a lack of exercise. If you sell financial advice, what better time to impress prospects with the need for sound guidance during confusing and fearful times?
  
  
  
• Give it away…
  There is no better time to give than when there is genuine need. Giving during tough times earns greater appreciation and builds loyalty with current customers and prospects. You still need to stay in business, but decide what you can afford to give and do it today. Can you do a seminar offering substantive advice? A restaurant might give a free cooking class highlighting how to prepare great meals on a budget. A doctor's office can give away a free exam to new patients. Membership businesses could offer a trial period, even if you haven't had to in the past. Give bonuses with premium purchases.
  
  Look for ways to contribute to your community; non-profits are hurting during these times as well and the goodwill and networking you'll develop with a gift of time or other resources is extremely valuable.
  
  
• Coopertate! Embrace the competition…
  "Coopertition" is a word I coined to describe my willingness to look at competitors as allies. Leverage trade associations, Chambers and networking groups to develop strategic alliances with competitors. Together you can create co-operative marketing campaigns, develop buying pools and share resources. Compete fairly and work cooperatively.
  
  
• Increase marketing; reduce advertising…
  I define marketing as what you're willing to do to promote your business. Advertising is when you pay someone else to do this work for you. Make decisions quickly to leverage your resources and go guerilla in your marketing efforts. Put some feet on the street and get back to good old fashioned relationship building and community networking in your market.
  
  
• Downsize…
  This is always a tough pill to swallow, but sometimes a quick reduction in staff, facilities or overhead can keep you running in the black rather than digging a deeper hole just to stay in business. Smaller companies and "soloprenuers" may lack the resources to weather a bad economic storm; don't be afraid to cut quickly when necessary and utilize newly available resources to build back your strength.
  
  
• Lower prices…
  Maybe the last resort, but usually a viable alternative compared to closing your doors. Can you operate for a time on smaller margins? If so, change prices quickly and make a big hairy deal about it! Make sure your customers know you're walking the walk with them. Times are tough, we're all in this together. Turn a price reduction into an opportunity to develop good will with current customers and a marketing opportunity to generate new business.
  

It's most effective to combine several strategies. Make decisions quickly and implement them immediately. Never look at any of these adjustments as a failure. You're doing what it takes to survive and prosper during difficult times. At the same time you're developing skills, knowledge and resources that will position you as a leader when the economy recovers.

No matter what you're facing; continually develop yourself personally and as an organization. Use down-time as a new found opportunity for training, research and planning. Position yourself to make more effective and efficient decisions now and in the future, in good times and bad.

Jim Bouchard is America's Black Belt Powervator; speaker, coach & author of Dynamic Components of Personal POWER. Watch for upcoming programs on how to prosper during an economic downturn. Stay up to date on this and other program, and receive thousands of dollars worth of bonus resources by joining our "NO SPAM" mailing list! Register at JimBouchard.org!

Gratitude is not a Platitude

To succeed you've got to have the "attitude of gratitude." Big deal! Law of Attraction? Laws are broken every minute. But, if you don't practice gratitude you won't attract the wealth you deserve; really? What about greedy pigs who take what they want with no appreciation for where it came from. Do we really need to waste time on examples?

I do believe the Law of Attraction works and I do believe that Gratitude is an essential part of the formula for authentic success in life and business. This is because I know that true success is a product of abundance in 3 key areas of life: material, emotional and spiritual. Tolerate scarcity in any one of these areas and you will not feel successful.

Gratitude is not, however, an ethereal concept to me. Gratitude is extremely practical and rational. It simply works; here's how:

Pay attention to what you've got right here and right now and you always have an accurate inventory of the resources you have in the present moment. No matter where you're going from here or what your plans for tomorrow you've realistically got to start with the resources you can access in the present.

No matter how few your resources, gratitude gives you a perspective of abundance. Focus on what you don't have and your perspective is one of constant scarcity. What can you do with what you don't have? Focus on what you have and work from there; no matter how modest those resources are.

A gratitude practice doesn't need to be formal, religious or written out in a twelve-step program. Just take a daily look at your life and give some thought to what you have, the people who care about you and the gift of life that connects you to something larger than yourself. I try to start and end my day with this simple exercise. When I do I always start the day from a position of relative abundance and end it with a feeling of appreciation.

I'm not saying you have to be satisfied with your current conditions or circumstances. What I'm saying is that focusing on scarcity always leads to more poverty. Goals and aspirations for improvement can be very powerful motivators. To have the faith necessary to support action you've got to have some reasonable expectation of success. That faith comes from knowing that you have access to the resources in body, mind and spirit you need to take at least the first step. Practicing gratitude gives you an inventory of those resources.

My gratitude practice is very simple; I'll share it here:

Thank you.

Jim Bouchard is America's Black Belt Powervator: Speaker, coach & author of Dynamic Components of Personal POWER. Book Jim for your next corporate event or conference. Call 800-786-8502 or visit JimBouchard.org.

Get Back to Work!

Martial artists like to throw around Asian words and phrases from time to time. One of my favorites is "Kung Fu."

Kung Fu literally means an achievement as a product of great effort. A more direct translation for the Western ear would be "work." To achieve you've got to practice positivity and you've got to open your mind, body & spirit to possibility. To increase probability for success you've got to take action; you've got to get to work.

Today we're facing enormous challenges in business. Whether you're an employee or an employer there are conditions and circumstances beyond your control that are impacting everyone. More important, no matter what the current conditions and circumstances there are actions you can take here and now to take control of your success.

1. Ignore circumstances and conditions beyond your control. That may be a tough pill to swallow, but until you let go of what you can't do anything about and start focusing on what you can do you'll be stuck in a vacuum of negativity. Decide exactly what you can and can't control and start focusing on actions that will produce direct results.
   
   
2. Always prepare for the day you're obsolete. If you're in business, prepare yourself for the day when your goods or services are no longer marketable. Explore how you might transfer your skill sets to a new sector, look for new & receptive markets, and investigate new marketing angles or repackaging & repurposing your product or service lines.
   
   If you work for someone else make sure you're networking with people in your field outside of your workplace. Join associations and trade groups and know who is looking for good people. Take advantage of every training and educational opportunity available at your place of employment.
   
   
3. Make yourself more valuable. In business or employment, there is always opportunity to make yourself more valuable. You do this by making yourself more effective; by increasing your ability or capacity to perform or act effectively. You make yourself more powerful.
   

You probably have no control over the global or even local economy. You probably don't decide which military bases will be closed, which manufacturers decide to go overseas or which retailers file for bankruptcy. You can always control the process of continual self-improvement.

With the access to training and education we have today there is no excuse for complacency. You may face tough decisions including moving, changing careers or delaying retirement. Some of these decisions may be made for you. There is no reason to face these decisions unprepared.

1. Take full advantage of every training opportunity available at your place of employment. Don't wait for these opportunities; seek them. If they're not available, find them on your own.
   
   
2. Network; get to know the people who can help you find your next opportunity. As you increase your value and others know your value; there will be people in your network waiting for you to become available. Networking is not just for entrepreneurs, sales reps and CEOs; it's for everybody.
   
   
3. Learn: Always! Take courses at your local adult ed or community college…Can't afford that? Get to your local bookstore or get on-line…still out of reach? Get to the library; they still have plenty of books and most of them now have computers.
   

Power is your ability or capacity to perform or act effectively. Power increases value; the greater your capacity to act effectively the more valuable you are. When the axe comes down, the more valuable you are the less likely your head will be the one on the block. If it is, the more likely you'll quickly find your next opportunity.

There is much you can't control; you can always increase your power. The way to generate power is to get to work: Kung Fu!

Jim Bouchard is America's Black Belt Powervator; speaker, coach & author of Dynamic Components of Personal Power. You want a kick to get you started, become more powerful and develop more options in your life and career? Visit JimBouchard.org and click on the PersonalPOWER, EntrepreneurPOWER or Life Coach button!

Not my candidate; now my President

First I have to say, "Thank God it's over!" This has been a long, contentious campaign. From the primaries through the Presidential race this election cycle has been at times bitter, even juvenile. It's been difficult to sort out fact from fiction on all sides and I must say that even in the closing days of the campaign both parties seemed hesitant to offer direct, detailed plans to the American people. Let's hope that as we move forward our leaders will trust that we can handle the details.

I say once again, and I hope for the last time: "In the spirit of full disclosure…" I did not support Senator Obama; I slowly came to support Senator McCain. I was disappointed in both candidates' response to the banking crises; why was no voice raised to find and hold accountable the thieves that robbed us blind? I have always been registered as an Independent but as the petty and bitter race continued I grew tired of the rhetoric from both parties, if not from the candidates themselves consistently from their surrogates. I found myself looking seriously at registering as a Libertarian.

I ended up voting for John McCain. I do not think that Barack Obama is a bad man; I simply could not hear the voice I was looking for in his eloquent speeches. I do not favor single-payer health insurance. I do believe friends returning from Iraq who understand the real and imminent dangers they're fighting against. I do not favor an advancement of more socialist policies including re-distributing wealth or taxing successful people at higher rates.

As I heard both men speak, Senator McCain in concession and President-elect Obama in acceptance I could not help but be impressed with the grace, eloquence and directness in both men's addresses. Both speeches were among the best political addresses in American history. My prayer is that the words are authentic. It is time to put aside differences and work together; some of us have been demanding that course of action for a long time. It is time for partisan politics to be subjugated and the will of the people to take full precedence in shaping the future of our nation.

Will this happen? To paraphrase our new President-elect: "Yes, it can!" I do hope so.

Most important it's time for all of us as Americans to move beyond the petty political bickering. Because your opinion is different than your neighbor's does not make him a fascist, a racist, an idiot, a redneck, a communist, or any other of the litany of juvenile name-calling you care to note. We're Americans. Our differences do not make us strong; our ability to work together despite our differences is what makes us strong. We've got to return to a culture of civility; that's what allows us to work together.

You may have supported President-elect Obama, or like me you may have voted against him. He is soon to be our President. He deserves the chance to see if his ideas and policies will deliver. He deserves our respect and our support as President. If you differ with his policies, you should oppose them. Maybe we can start with a clean slate and separate our political differences from personal hatred.

One great step toward healing the divide we've felt is to recognize the sincere efforts of our current President George Bush. You may not agree with his policies; that does not make him an evil person. He does not deserve to be the object of personal hatred and vilification. He served as our President during incredibly difficult times. I cannot imagine a more difficult position than that of President of the United States. How many of us would accept this responsibility? How many of us would be willing to make decisions that cannot help but cost lives or live with information that would freeze most of us in our tracks? Could you start each day full of hope knowing that you must make decisions that will inevitably make you the target of hatred so intense that your life is in constant danger?

No matter what your political allegiance you should be incredibly moved by the historic importance of the election President Barack Obama. It is a completion of a long struggle to elect a black man to the presidency. It is significant that he comes from mixed heritage, as do most of us. It is remarkable that he came from such a humble origin to become President of the United States. He is representative of the contemporary American. His assent to the highest office in our nation should be a symbol of what our founders may not have been able, in context, to fully envision as government of and by the people. This moment should forever complete our definition of "American People."

A moment should also be taken to recognize that had Senator McCain been elected, we would also have elected Governor Sarah Palin as the potential first woman President as well. This campaign was destined for historic significance no matter what the outcome. Within only a couple of percentage points in popular vote we've expressed that race and gender are not in themselves determining factors when it comes to American leadership.

Now a healthy dose of perspective: We elected a President, not a savior. I am not making a joke; I'm making a statement. No President can save the country; that's our job. President Kennedy said that most poetically; I won't make an attempt. You are entitled to support the decisions that fit your values and oppose those decisions that are antithetical to your values. Our new President deserves the opportunity to fulfill the promises he's made. We've entitled him to this opportunity through our incredible electoral process; not perfect but always open to the possibility of continual perfection. This process of perfecting our American process and perfecting ourselves as Americans is our own responsibility.

We have a unique system of elected representative leadership; this leadership is reflective of our will. It's up to us to lead. Our leadership is a daily responsibility. Our leadership is expressed in the way we treat one another, the way we disagree and the way we resolve our disagreements. The time to lead is now and always.

Enjoy this remarkable, historical moment.

Jim Bouchard is America's Black Belt Powervator: Speaker, coach and author of Dynamic Components of Personal POWER…and part-time self-appointed political pundit! Visit JimBouchard.org.