Economic drivers

Chuck BowenEvery day on my way to and from work, I drive past a Chrysler plant. The 2.4 million square foot building is surrounded by a vast parking lot with an ever-dwindling number of cars and trucks. About 600 people work there now, down from 1,800 two years ago, and they make – for a few more months, anyway – doors for minivans.

The plant is scheduled to end production in March, and when it finally sputters out, those 600 people will be put out of work. The people who work there now are gearing the plant up to shut it down. Auto plants – and steel mills and newspapers and restaurants and landscaping businesses – are still closing or shrinking. Many more thousands of men and women across the country can all tell a similar story. It’s not unique to any town or industry.

And while I sympathize with those 600 people – and everyone else who has lost a job because of the recession – I don’t feel sorry for them. They’ve got a great opportunity in front of them: Start something.

Many of you have already taken that opportunity and struck out on your own. I won’t bore you or insult your intelligence with a bunch of platitudes about how every day is an opportunity or how today is a gift, and that’s why they call it the present. If that’s what helps you get through your day, more power to you.

Truth is, every day is scary. It’s difficult. As a business owner, you have men and women and their families depending on you and your business to succeed. There’s a voice in your head every day that demands action.

Residential customers are cutting back. What are we going to do? We lost the maintenance bid at the office park. What are we going to do? Our hardscape division is down 30 percent over last year. What are we going to do?

Well, what are you going to do?

As an entrepreneur, you’ve chosen a difficult road. It would be easy to sign on to another company and let someone else worry about all this stuff. But you didn’t, and you don’t. Your reward for that is the chance to make decisions – every day – to answer that voice and fight your way out.

This year was tough. 2010 might not be any better – especially if those 600 Chrysler employees decide to take their Dodges and start their own landscaping companies. But the one surefire way to guarantee it will get worse is if you do the same thing you did this year. This doesn’t mean trying every new service you can think up or copying your competition. It means taking a hard look at your market and your company, figuring out what you can change and doing it. 

It’s that last part – the doing – that is difficult. Getting up every day, pulling your truck down into D and inching toward success is tough, and a lot of people can’t make it through to the other side. But entrepreneurs are in control here. You’re the people who will pull the economy out of this downturn. Now let’s get started.