Stop Acting in Panic Mode

Every day someone on a news channel will talk about how “things have bottomed out” and “we are starting to come out of the recession / depression” with regards to our economy.  I don’t know what the Government sees but I do know that everyone I speak to is bleeding from their pores!  When fear comes in, common sense goes out the window.  I myself live in a county that continues to suffer housing devaluation. This causes people to put their homes on the market for greatly reduced prices.  Between that and foreclosures creating a housing glut, two things happen. First, people sacrifice everything to get out of the downward spiral.  Then, the county passes an edict without a residential vote that covers schools staying open and an active police force.  Hence, our property tax could increase by as much as 10%!  Mind you, that is not based on the the reduced market value but on the inflated county assessed value.  In business, the panic sets in because of the scarcity of profitable business from new and / or existing customers and this is when you start to do less than intelligent things to survive.  You will get deluged by your sales force with less than qualified sales as they are just as desperate as you are. Your credit people will relax their standards too because they are being pushed by an equally stressed sale manager.  By making these poorly qualified sales, your product and profit will be flushed down the toilet! The only way to win is to work smart before you work hard.