The “bad economic news fatigue” keeps building. That’s what I call that resistance people are building up to hearing about how bad the economy is. As I wrote recently, I “don’t know what’s worse, the bad economy or the incessant non-stop blaring of it in every news outlet, 24/7.” Replaying the same sad song over and over does nothing to help you get into a positive business growth mode.
But on top of keeping the bad news bears at bay, we entrepreneurs have to hear about all the ill-conceived ideas-du-jour for getting us out of the recession.
First, there are the outlandish sums of money that everybody has their hands out for. Everybody from big businesses to, apparently even some small business organizations, are asking for public welfare er I mean, handouts bailouts. Hey, I was all for the initial bailout because we had a crisis in our financial system and we needed to throw everything we had at it, like firefighters putting out a 4-alarm blaze. Unfortunately, there’s been little accountability as to where the money went, so the American public increasingly is showing less desire to throw more money at bailout money pits without knowing how the first batch is being used.
And now we have our legislators suggesting huge fiscal stimulus packages. Here’s a breakdown of the House stimulus package, courtesy of Catherine Rampell of the New York Times Economix blog:
No doubt some of the public expenditures would be valuable for the public good in the long run. After all, you need to spend some public money to foster a civilized society.
But no matter how worthy the projects, I have a hard time believing that spending billions of taxpayer money on the outlined projects is going to do much to help the financial situation of my small business and millions of others in the next 6 – 12 months. I’m not the only “stimuskeptic.”
Say — I’ve got a radical idea for how to get out of this recession.
(1) The way out is first, don’t panic — as much as we hate them recessions are normal.
(2) Second, grease the wheels of commerce. I suggest that we each take it on ourselves to keep buying. You can’t cut costs forever and grow. Buy something — especially from another small business. On the other side of the coin, sell — and sell some more. Do your darnedest to sell your company’s products and services.
Don’t get worn down by the bad news blaring everywhere. Don’t look to public handouts. Don’t expect the government to solve business problems. Instead, focus on making your small chunk of commerce more vibrant, by buying and selling as much as possible. That’s something you have control over, at least.
