Economy Archives - TODAY INDIA

Government Intervention and the Nigerian Economy: Present, Past and Future

For most of its existence since independence in 1960, economic development in Nigeria has been determined by state planning and direct government participation. Inclement policies pursued by successive military regimes amid the rough of tumble of Nigeria’s chaotic past resulted in massive macroeconomic imbalances that are still inherent to Nigeria. The country’s historically agrarian economy was transformed almost overnight with the discovery of vast oil and gas reserves, forcing a culpable overdependence on hydrocarbons that eventually blocked economic diversification. The oil boom of the 1970s brought further devastation to agriculture and traditional livelihoods and ushered in massive unemployment and food shortages across the country. Human development indices had plunged to among of the lowest in the world by the turn of the 20th Century, and the ‘Nigerian Paradox’ of extreme poverty despite substantial national wealth was born. Even today, 54% of Nigeria’s 148 million people live in extreme poverty on a daily income of less than $11.

Government intervention in the economy during military rule was mostly characterised by sporadic and often ill-informed policies that delivered meagre, if any, results. The IMF-funded Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of 1986 was one of the first attempts to relax decades of economic regulation. However, there was little domestic consensus on measures outlined in the programme and the tough market reforms that the state of the economy demanded never really came through. Bureaucratic incompetence and corruption were largely to blame for this bad experience in reforms which also strained Nigeria’s relations with international financial organisations including the World Bank. Some positive signs emerged in the mid 1990s, when trade liberalisation brought down tariff rates and import dependence while opening up the economy to foreign investors. Further, Abuja revoked laws allowing monopoly public sector enterprises in petroleum, telecommunications and power to encourage private participation in important areas. These measures together helped push GDP growth up to 2.5% between 1993 and 1997, reversing an average decline of 2% registered over earlier years2. However, the recovery came at the price of low growth in the non-oil economy, which continued to flounder amid falling demand and low liquidity.

The peaceful transition to civilian governance in 1999 brought with it relative political stability and paved the way for a more aggressive set of reforms. A resurgent Nigeria signed the UN Millennial Declaration for universal basic human rights by 2015 and adopted ambitious plans for accelerated economic growth in a time-bound manner. A number of positive developments have occurred in the Nigerian economy since 2001:

* Under former President O Obasanjo, the government embarked on a massive privatisation drive, disinvesting in several major oil, steel, mining and port operations.

* International reserves saw healthy growth from $41 billion in 2006 to well over $52 billion in 2009. The average inflation rate dropped from close to 18% in 2005 to 11% in 20083.

* Nigerian lawmakers enacted the Fiscal Responsibility Bill in 2007, institutionalising the deregulation of oil prices. A Public Procurement Bill was also passed the same year.

* In 2004, a bank consolidation plan was executed to strengthen financial institutions and improve their credit capacity for private sector businesses.

* Nigeria’s bulk of outstanding foreign debt was conditionally waived off by the London and Paris Clubs, allowing for increased government spending on poverty alleviation programmes.

Perhaps the most optimistic of recent signs have been observed in the non-oil sector, which doubled since 2001 and currently accounts for 7% of GDP. Another success story is the revival of agriculture and its growth to 42% of GDP by 2008. Although oil continues to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, contributing 85% of all revenues, recent governments have wizened up to the idea that the country’s tall ambitions cannot be fulfilled without rapid economic diversification. The answer, given the country’s abundant human capital and natural resources, is rapid business development in the SME space. Nigeria has a great opportunity and an even greater obligation to foment an enterprise revolution that will radically transform its economic landscape.

The following are some of the broad parameters Nigeria must be guided by while formulation economic policy interventions in this regard:

* Creating a central body with responsibility to coordinate all policies relating to start-ups and existing enterprises.

* Creating a mass base of viable enterprises across the non-oil economy by promoting private sector equity participation.

* Reinforcing micro-finance institutions to enhance loan-disbursement capacity for small businesses.

* Cutting down on high operating costs with tax breaks and financial incentives directed at entrepreneurs.

* Removing institutional deterrents that lead most new and emerging enterprises to operate in the informal economy.

* Improving technical support for rural enterprises that continue to operate using outdated practices.

* Improving entrepreneurial productivity through tertiary skills development and vocational training programmes.

Given the vagaries of its economic history, Africa’s second largest economy faces tremendous hurdles in securing a better place for itself in global rankings. Nigeria has not had a particularly impressive track record in terms of timely economic intervention, as the gathering banking crisis demonstrates. What Nigeria needs today are aggressive, pro-active policies that have the full benefit of both its past experiences and its future aspirations!

3 Ways to Make Money Online in Our Current Economy

There are literally millions of online money making opportunities. Sadly, the majority of these online money making opportunities require selling and/or recruiting; which most of us simply do not want to do.

Don’t give up. In this article I am going to outline ways to make money online without recruiting or selling.

Before we can begin you will need to start a blog. I consider a blog to a be an online diary. There are

literally millions of online blogs on every topic. Create a blog around your favorite hobby or create a review blog around products and services that you tried. Give some honest feedback on the products.

Creating a blog does not require that you know how to create a website. Many online blogging services offer very basic templates which will allow you to create a blog in minutes.

You don’t necessarily need a blog or website to earn money online but this gives you more control and allows you to brand yourself.

Here are 3 of the hottest ways to make money online:

1. Become an affiliate. Companies are always seeking individuals to sell their product or service online. As an affiliate you can market these products and services on your blog or website. You will place a banner or link which is provided by the company on your blog or website. Every sale that is generated from your website will earn you a commission (usually 5-20%). You would be surprised by the number of companies that offer an affiliate program. Many fortune 100 and 500 companies have affiliate programs that pay extremely well.

Most affiliate programs will give you an affiliate website (sales page), banner or link to advertise. If you decide to advertise the affiliate program website you can not add or remove items from the website. Creating a blog and linking to your affiliate website gives you more control over design and content.

2. CPA Marketing Leads are the lifeblood of any business. Did you know that you can even get paid when someone completes a form to try out a product or service? This is called CPA marketing and it is a form of affiliate marketing. Whenever someone completes a form with their name or email address you can receive a commission. No sale is required in most cases in order for you to get paid. Companies will pay a few cents up to $200 per lead.

3. Google AdSense. I told you in the beginning that making money online does not require any recruiting or selling. By simply placing a 2 line code on your blog or website you have the potential to earn daily. This code rotates a series of ads. Every time on of your website visitors clicks on that ad you earn a commission. Google has millions of advertisers so there will never be a shortage of ads to circulate. You can earn hundreds of dollars per day from individuals clicking on the ads on your website. No sale is required in order to receive payment from Google. You can receive .5 or .10 cents per click to up to $50 or even $60 per click depending on the product.

You now have 3 easy ways to make money online without the headaches of recruiting or selling. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Simply follow the instructions above and you will be making money online in no time.

COVID-19’s Impact on the Economy of India

The Covid-19 epidemic is one of the major disasters in the history of pandemics. The impact of corona virus pandemic is very disturbing and it has spared no one with its ill effects. There has been a major increase in the death rates across the world. Not only people are losing their loved ones but they are also losing their jobs and their source of income. Economic activities of more than 100 countries have been affected and some of the countries have even asked for monetary help from IMF.

Impact on Economy of India:

India is a developing economy and after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced 21 day lockdown for the safety of people, the country has observed a high unemployment and economic depression. India has observed a great decrease in growth of the income and government revenues as the novel corona virus hits economic activities of India as a whole. According to a recent study the country has observed a job loss of 40 million people, majorly in the unorganized sectors.

Schools and colleges have been shut down; sports events such as IPL are postponed, businesses across the world like entertainment, hospitality, aviation, restaurants, hotels, pubs, malls, transport and factories have also faced major negative impacts in terms of their economy. Due to the fear of corona virus people were not going out of their houses even to buy daily necessary items, all these have somewhere contributed in affecting the economy.

There has been a cut in the global growth from 2.9% to 2.4%, and it may fall as low as 1.5% according to the Organization for Economic Co- Operation and Development (OECD).

The lockdown in India will have a major impact on the consumption level which is the main element of GDP. There will be a disruption of global trade and supply chain this will majorly affect the countries that are strong exporters and also those countries which are importers.

Total electronic import of India is equal to 45% that of China. India imports approximately two-fifths of organic chemicals and one-third of machinery from China along with automotive parts and fertilizers.
Also approximately 90% of mobiles and 65% to 70% of active pharmaceutical ingredients are imported from China to India.

There will be an expected global trade fall up to 32% in the year 2020 according to the World Trade Organization (WT0).

Sectorial Impacts:

Labour sector:

This sector is the worst impacted as most of the labourers lost their jobs as most of them were engaged in construction companies and were daily wage works.
Quarantine and travelling restrictions have left Indian factories short of labours.
The country has seen people moving from urban areas to rural areas.

Restaurants:

According to the NRAI which represents may restaurants have advised its restaurants to shut down. Also all the restaurants, clubs, pubs, cafes have been shut down according to the orders by the government. Also orders on online food delivery platforms such as zomato and swiggy have experienced a major fall of about 60% during the pandemic.

Food and Agriculture:

This sector contributes majorly in GDP to the employment sector. The supply of food and agriculture products such as dairy products, edible oils and cereals will be highly affected this year.
The Agro- chemical companies which deal with the import of raw materials and export for finished goods will also be affected.
The online food grocery also suffers a great loss due to the lack of delivery vehicles.
There has been a major loss in the consumer demand for commodities such as sea food, grapes and mangoes.

Online business:

This sector contributes 10% to the Indian GDP and its major segments are healthcare, household and personal care products, and food and beverage sector.
Due to the fear of corona virus people are avoiding to stock essential commodities such as rice, flour and lentils due to which their is rise in the sales of FMCG companies which saw it fall in trade due to disrupted chain supply.

MSME:

This sector contributes 305 to 35% to the Indian GDP. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh have the highest number of registered MSME’S according to an estimated study by AIMO a quarter of over 75 million is facing closure and if the closure still continues for four weeks then if will affect the employment of 114 million people affecting the GDP.
Garments, consumers goods, logistics have faced a decrease in the business and the MSMEs engaged is still functioning but is likely to isolate due to the purchasing capacity and plunging liquidity constraints.
Since most of the MSMEs depend on the loan funding from the government, there has been a relief since the RBI had announced a three months repayments of loans and reduction in the repo rate.

Stated above are some of the negative impacts that the corona virus has on the economy of India. But this pandemic has all taught us many things. Many Multi National Companies have now shifted from physical to online platforms. People have now started working from home. The digital world got a push during this pandemic as people have now started using apps like PayTM, Google pay for the payment instead of using cash. The schools and colleges have now started operating online on zoom meeting, Google meets and Google classrooms. Students are now able to access their assignments online and they can now give their exams online through various platforms. This crisis also highlighted the importance of investing in technologies and such as cloud data, self service capabilities, e-business, e-governance and cyber security.

This pandemic has also made us realize that we should never forget to appreciate what we have in our lives and we should never forget to thank god for the lives that we have. At CSS Founder, we aim to provide businesses with our world-class assistance, at minimal fee. Our team of professionals aim to help businesses grow despite the serious impact of the pandemic.

Philosophy of the Economy Part Three

There could be distinguished probably many Current International Levels of Development but for simplifying this philosophical conception we will are allocating 5:

1. Basic CILOD up to 6000 BC

* It is characterized with basic physical individual competition best described by archeological discoveries. Small tribal and on a move large family units mostly on a move; nomadic life.

2. Basic Social CILOD up to 1100 AD

1. It is characterized with growing large empires and settling of tribes: described by the Odyssey and Iliad, also by the Old Testament; and the history of China, South America, Persia, Egypt and Rome. Individual competition had progressed from the perception for individual qualities value changing from mostly physical to mostly organizational when organized political structures and trained armies were most valuable then the individual physical strength; the new priorities required skills and knowledge not being known before therefore the socio-economic structures of the most developed societies and countries at the time established rules and benefits for this kind of development; in the beginning political structures were rigid totalitarian of empires as Persia, Egypt, China and then more democratic as Greece and early Rome then the early feudal structures in Europe. Some of the most important developments on this long period were the development of governmental and market structures; the rise of the organized monotheistic religions particularly of the Christianity bringing humanitarian values very powerful and productive to organize social structures. Economics had changed priorities through this time from basic individual survival of the previous period to mostly governmentally control in the old empires to the market economics of the Greeks and the Romans and to the market economics of the feudalism.

3. Social CILOD up to 1700 AD

The Discoveries and Colonization of the Americas, Africa and Asia by the Most Developed Countries brought plentiful resources to the colonizers which helped the feudal socio-economic structures to start braking and developing into pro capitalistic economics’ structures; the numerous ways for individuals to compete for money and power gradually and in some countries like France abruptly through revolutions; the Renaissance has brought freedom of expressions and high expectations to the citizens of the Western and Central Europe: the feudal structures of novelties and kingdom were losing gradually their powers to the new developing socio-economic structures. The historical developments of this time was affected by the ideas for social justice and the crystallizing nationalism; more nations has been becoming nationalistic with feuds among them; the large holders of power were constantly fighting each other for World dominance and at the same time smaller countries and nations were struggling to distinguish themselves from the big ones’ political and economic control. The economic growth in Europe has ignited the nationalism and chauvinism which lately brought the ideologies; the following wars of the 20 Century were already being anticipated by the building hatred among nations and countries. International trade and business even always interrupted by wars and feuds were already showing the signs of importance for political and economic domination by the Most Developed Countries.

4. Advance Social CILOD up to 1980 AD

This Current International Level of Development is characterized by

* the Global Colonization by the Great Powers of the entire World which process was considered the way for them to grow economically and politically: this kind of competition was giving them a social-economic release tools to let more individuals competing and contributing to their growth; the old saying “to keep internal peace one should go to war with their neighbors” was working. The socio-economic injustice and huge crock between the “having and having not”,

* the suppression of social justice by the governments; in the entire World they defended the privileged classes

* the establishment of the United States of America where individual freedoms and free market economics showed to the World what power such approach holds; it was a mass exodus of people from Western Europe, China and Japan to the New World in search of personal freedom and economic prosperity getting away from their socio-economic rulers: the US became a symbol of the new coming just World.

* the technological revolutions which brought grueling working conditions and pollution;

* the October Revolution in Russia which was already based on Marxism a “pro demand” socio-economic ideology

* the great wars which exterminated millions of people and devastated many countries’ infrastructure;

* the growth of ideologies possible because of the new means of communications the radio and later the TV

* the decolonization of the World which came after the great wars when the great powers already devastated by the Second World War figured out that maintaining their colonies was too expensive;

* the post war Cold War between the Soviet Block and the United States: where the ideologies became ruling their Economics:

* from one side pro-demand governmentally run economies of the Eastern Block and China, which inflexible totalitarian regimes limited individual freedoms and individuals involvement in communist economics was as strictly controlled by the governments which approach in economics is quite inflexible and insufficient

* from other side the pro supply capitalistic United States and Western European Countries, Canada, Australia and Japan which differ in their Capitalistic Economics: Western European Countries, Canada and Australia developed a pro social economics, US a trickle down economics and Japan a pro nationalistic export based capitalistic economics closer in structure to US then to Europe; the pro supply capitalism was more progressive at this time in building business and infrastructures thus it was giving their individuals much more open space to compete: even differing from country to country the pro supply capitalism combined with personal freedoms was giving the business fruitful space to grow and build its structures

* the rest of the World was divided to the cold war blocks’ sphere of influence attaching or detaching themselves to one side or the other: overall socio-economic justice was limited elsewhere in the World as well.

* US established itself as the frontrunner and leader of the free world as a protector of freedom and democracy from the dark forces of the communism. People around the World admired the technological advances and the high standards of life US was achieving.

* the humanization of the capitalism: gradually it became obvious that a Market of a country could be strong only if the Demand for goods and services could support its growth therefore an economics of pour redistribution of wealth could have unfavorable effect on its growth; the socio economic policies nave been gradually changing to adapt these new conditions; the Trickle Down Economics worked relatively well using the competition as main economic tool to rapidly expand the Supply and the Demand was following it up: the expending Labor Market followed as well. Thus a strong middle class of white and blue color workers and professionals founded a strong US market advancing the rest of the World in consumption and achieving higher life standards. The European bureaucracy and the inflexible Eastern Block and China’s communist economics were no match for it; US Economy achieved total supremacy having the best economics for balancing Supply to Demand, low Governmental involvement in the Economy, easy regulations of businesses start up, flexible employment regulation benefiting businesses, strong technological advance as a result of highly successful post graduate education and open immigration policies allowing intellectuals from around the World to take refuge in US; the lower prices of crude oil and other commodities dictated by the huge US Market and strong Dollar.

In this kind of economic environment the US capitalism achieved the highest level of growth and it humanized it by giving countless opportunities for virtually any individual willing to do business educate themselves to participate in the economic competition.

United States of America was and still is the Most Developed Country and Market in the World.

· After the Eastern Block bogus system collapse most of the countries past members started integrating into the European Union structures and the rest open their markets to the global competition one way or another, after China integrated in the WTO and India became a power source of high tech professionals and most of the South American countries stabilized politically the World market started globalizing rapidly the old conception of the Trickle Down Economics as well of the Bureaucratically complicated European Union Economics and Governmentally involved Chinese and Russian Free Market Structures are all becoming more inadequate and inflexible to support the incredible growth accelerated by the vastly improving technologies, the internet’s informational and Globalization effect and overall the intellectualization of the Global competition: the World has been changing so fast that none of these Economics could manage it without major disruptions in wealth redistribution: the main issue for all of them is the Demand to Supply balancing when giving more Individuals access in the Global competition and in the same time improving their social structures of access to good education, care for the elderly and the socially disadvantaged, and the over all social stability; building and maintaining their infrastructures and fighting the increasing treat of the fundamentalistic terrorism.

* the dehumanization of the capitalism: the system of Trickle Down Economics based on the Ideology of Capitalism was working fine:

· up until the point where the competition has become Global and the Conglomerates have started exporting all their jobs abroad to a cheaper labor and thus disrupting the Supply to Demand Balance;

· up until Japan overrun US in automobile and many high tech products market share;

· up until the point when the Eastern Communist Block was dismantled and millions of skilled workers flooded the Western and US labor markets;

· up until the point where China released its huge Market to a freer Market business;

· up until the point when India flooded US with its high tech educated specialists and many high tech and software conglomerates open their RC there

· up until the point where the profit margins of the small to medium US corporations doing business only on US soil have been tightening profit margins unable to compete to the cheaper import and raising prices of imported commodities:

So after all these and other developments on the Global Markets the US Economics based on the ideology of capitalism has been becoming inhumane: the middleclass has been losing ground, the good education has become very expensive, the infrastructure has been aging as a result of the shortage of capital as a result of the deficit triggered by the global wars on terrorism and weakening or not growing enough US Economy: the overall capitalistic balance of Supply to Demand has been disrupted and a new Market Forces have been emerging which could not be fixed by using the ideological tools of the capitalism or any other known ideologies: these new developments need a pro Market driven pragmatic approaches.

1. Market CILOD – Market Economics’ characteristics:

* Intellectualization of the competition

* short term between ideas and their realization allowing medium to small companies to participate into the global market

* high technological serge on a Global scale

* global expansion of medium to small businesses

* heavily regulated business interactions, contracting and practices

* internet expending its role in communications, education, exchange of information, sales and general business practices

* heavily regulated direct and indirect investment through exchanges or trusts

* global access for investment to medium to small investors and investment groups

* international politics dictated by the interests of the Global business and investment

* globalization of the banking transactions and credit system

* political and market economic pressure progressively democratizing the rest of the World and expanding the interactive global market

* boost and ever expending international business travel

* heavy environmental regulations

* Global struggle to fight fundamentalism and terrorism

Chapter IV Philosophy of “Market Stability”

The free market competition was in the very foundations of the capitalism and therefore the market economics which too relies on the competition and Market balance is a continuation of the scare resources economics of the capitalism but because of the new market environment it differs into a pro Demand to Supply relativity’ heavily regulated economics. This new environment is prompted by the new developments: the internet, the market globalization and the political liberalization of many parts of the World which will better serve a Global growth; by being well regulated it will prevent business and investment fraud, and uncontrolled pollution to establish relative security on the market exchanges and business practices and by establishing security on the Global market it will allow more individuals from all over the World to participate in the Global intellectual and market competition which will engage their creative powers, improve their life conditions and thus prevent religious fundamentalism and terrorism from expanding their destructive activities currently based on lock of opportunities and widespread poverty.

The new

Chapter V Psychology of “Market Stability”

A few points could comprehend the individual attitude

Processes

· Intellectualization

· Globalization

Qualities

· Flexibilities and adaptabilities

· Open mind

· Individualization of business

· Self reliance

The new system will break old ideologies of the pro Scares Resources capitalism and socialism or communism, it will extinguish nationalism and chauvinism the co-products of even previous level of development thus a competitive self improvement with access to Global market of science, investing and business will change the values of importance. The relativity of wealth in the new system is based on the constant appreciation of assets all around the World which means that cities and countries will compete for their location to attract individuals with hi intellectual and business qualities the internet’s communicational and educational abilities will give the opportunities to individuals who in the previous system were out of competition. In this kind of new competition the old created self confidence based on nationalistic belonging, or advance classes or other belongings will have less bearing on the access to the Global competition for individuals therefore the individual values of intellectual power will be preceding and promoting these individuals. The qualities of life succeeded by individual countries and they will be called Most Developed Countries will attract advantageous individuals to move there; such processes are already very well established in Western Europe which sucks intellectuals from Eastern Europe and from as far as South America, and the United States which does the same from India, China and all over the World; even internally for China as an examples this processes work where the urban areas suck intellectuals from the rural areas along with migrating workers: the process of concentration of intellectual powers by relocating these intellectuals is a very small part of the picture of globalization: there are much more advanced processes in action in which universities and companies will be approaching individuals located elsewhere for virtual education and self-employment providing more and more opportunities not relating their physical locations; the psychology of globalization is about expanding global access for individuals to the global intellectual competition; in this regard global investment will play the role of fueling local economies and thus promoting business competition: when the small to medium corporation and investors from the Most Developed Countries have a better secured opportunities to invest Globally the value of their investment will be much higher in the Less Developed Countries or as a matter of fact the same approach applies for the internal for these countries less developed parts of their own regions: this kind of raising the value of invested capital will widen the margins of return and provide the Most Developed Countries with a huge advance of Concentration of Equity which assets will b elsewhere.

The psychology of this kind of development is one breaking the old system of ignorance toward the rest of the world’s problems too: not only the environmental and rising fundamentalism concerns are prompting close integration on the Global scale but also the common sense of limitless opportunities for business and investment expansion with their wide margins of return will push this kind of attitude of globalization.

In this kind of political and business environment the attitude toward Social Security, Medicare, of building internal infrastructure and transportation system will change too: until now there were considered more like a liabilities and expenditures and this will change with the security of the Market Stability which will change them into assets with their equity: how and why this will happen?

Without socializing the Economics the raising productivity based on the growing intellectual and business competition globally and the value of a country’s common assets will prompt growth by the growing Demand: the infrastructure particularly of public transportations will be most valuable assets.

In the Market Stability promoting and prompting growth are the most valuable tools of Economics for a country to retain or maintain its status quo of a Most Developed Country it has to perfect its abilities to prompt and prompt growth.

In a wide margins investment’ environment the inflationary forces will be strong but as we know from the history of economics competition lowers prices: the regulated but free Market Economics will retain its stability based on the Globalization and the revolving and expanding capital.

Business Ideas For a Shrinking Economy

Even though there may be hopes of recovery on the horizon, we are still living in a shrinking economy. Here are some business ideas that have proven to work during good times or bad. Take time make adjustments in your business to reflect these principals and you can grow despite the economy.

Increase your marketing and your promotional budgets. If you stop advertising, you will stop growing. You must keep your brand constantly in front of the audience that is your target.

Continue to make your established customer feel like they are important. The do not want to be treated like a number. They need to feel appreciated and valued. Make a personal contact with each client every week. You need to initiate the call and it should not be about a sales pitch or getting an order.

Remember that customers change vendors daily. This means you should work to keep your brand in front of the competition’s clients daily. Woo the competition’s clients with your caring attention. Remember that the competition is doing this with your clients also.

Remember that no business relationship is permanent. Business deals are based on relationships, so if your company changes staff or if the customer’s company changes staff, you could lose business. Work constantly to add value to the current customer in order to keep the business they bring your way. At the same time, constantly promote your company through PR, advertising and making presentations.

Market your business so that clients feel that you can do what they need done. Forget the this is what I can do for you mentality. Focus on what needs to be done. First meetings should be about your listening to what your potential client wants, feels or thinks. Second meetings should tie what your client wants to what you can do.

Always seek what new opportunities are available. What if IBM had said we make the best typewriters available, there is no need to change? If you do not incorporate the latest and greatest into your business, you can bet that the competition will.

A shrinking economy forces businesses to evaluate their underlying ideas. As you evaluate those ideas you are also forced to change how things are done and the tactics to reach more clients. If you learn to reach more clients even during a time of a shrinking economy, then you will be able to grow even more as the economy rebounds.