It doesn't matter if you are a female or male entrepreneur, sports analogies are universally understood. Right now, every small business who has been able to survive the downturn is in the 4th quarter. Cutbacks have been made in staff, inventory, supplies, marketing, and new initiatives.
The clock is running out on how long the business can sustain the smaller margins it has been operating on since the recession began. Many, or most, small business owners/entrepreneurs have sacrificed their own salary in order to keep a reserve of cash for emergencies since the banks seem unlikely to open up their wallets. The question small businesses ask is why don't we see bank money flowing again? An article by Stephen Gandel in last month's TIME Magazine relates:
"In October 2008, the Fed acquired the power to pay interest on the balances that banks hold on reserve at the Fed. It has been using that power ever since, with the interest rate on reserves now at 25 basis points. Puny, yes, but not compared to the yields on Treasury bills, federal funds, or checking accounts. And at that puny interest rate, banks are voluntarily holding about $1 trillion of excess reserves.So the third easing option is to cut the interest rate on reserves in order to induce bankers to disgorge some of them. Unfortunately, going from 25 basis points to zero is not much. But why stop there? How about minus 25 basis points? That may sound crazy, but central bank balances can pay negative rates of interest. It's happened."
It's clear that the Fed, the banks and yes, at least up til now, the government isn't worried about this being your business' 4th quarter with only minutes remaining in the game. Yet today, PR Newswire reports:
"America's small business owners are considerably more upbeat about the financial performance of their businesses than they were a year ago, according to The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. Fifty-one percent of small business owners surveyed in June of this year anticipate their 2010 revenues will exceed their 2009 sales. A year ago, only 32 percent expected better financial performance in 2009 than the prior year."
The disconnect between what seems to be optimism and confidence and what truly is happening at the core of most small businesses is that often we do more with less. The well-known expression "when things get tough the tough get going" is a truism that can be seen in the smallest of businesses today. Often when time is running out, we (small business owners/entrepreneurs) dig deeper and prove that we will survive and actually thrive.
The common denominator among successful entrepreneurs is not watching the clock and making every down count.It's building the business one client at a time, never giving up and knowing your competitor. It's believing that the only option is success.