My mother-in-law is visiting from Maine and she is proof that physical labor keeps a person young. At 85 she insists on living alone, putting in her garden, mowing several acres and taking care of the needs of many of her neighbors. I certainly hope to be as strong and happy as she is now when I am 85. However, I do have a bone to pick with her. Even though she has had a computer with Internet access for at least 10 years, she still gets her news from her local daily paper and Brian Williams.
When she arrived here in Palm Desert for a welcomed thaw, she started saying that she thinks we must be in a recession. So for two weeks I have been trying to figure out what she is talking about. My research lead back to her news sources. I read her favorite newspaper and watched Brian Williams with her; and even I got depressed.
Thanks to Steven Rattner's article in the Wall Street Journal today, I now have the expert who will back up my sense of the economy. Mr. Rattner says, "...the probability remains that what our economy faces is less a plunge into the dark ages than a cyclical purging of excesses." Thank you. Just like in 2001 when the dot com boom busted, we have had recent splurges and now the market has to push us back to a sustainable reality.
I don't hear business owners complaining because that is not what we do when things change. What we do is adapt. As his business grew, John Hawkins was squeezed hard by the California labor laws. To save his company, Cloud 9 Shuttle, he offered van drivers the chance to be owners. By turning employees into owners the cost of doing business dropped while the drivers' income went up.
Can you use this market cycle to make some changes that will make you stronger and employees happier?
