Within the past 4-6 weeks, you've seen an occasional article in the popular press that's not completely "gloom and doom" on the economy.  That's because the economy has, in fact, shown some bright spots lately.  Like any leading indicators, these bright spots haven't shown up yet in broader measures, like unemployment, housing starts, etc., and won't for a while longer.   

A recent Forbes Magazine article noted that in the recovery from all prior recessions, the stock market began to recover well before the broad economy.   In fact, historically the stock market has improved while lagging indicators, like unemployment and perhaps even Gross Domestic Product (GDP) continued to trend down.  That's because the market attempts to price the future, rather than the present.    

What encourages me is this -- I talk with at least a dozen different business owners every day.   And for some time I've been asking, "How is your business looking right now?"  In the past 4-6 weeks, I've been getting answers like:    

"My quote volume is up"
"I'm hearing from customers who have had projects on hold"
"I got a new customer the other day"
"My customers dropped their reorder points 90% a while back, and have finally run out of parts"
"My backlog is holding steady -- no longer shrinking"  

This is indeed good news.  If I had to bet on anything as an economic forecasting model, I'd bet on "gut feel" from business owners.  And the anecdotal evidence I'm getting every day is encouraging.  That's not to say this is yet broad-based.  There are still industries and geographies that will need months -- perhaps years -- to readjust capacity.  And, of course, households are cumulatively now saving money, rather than borrowing.  That will suppress demand on consumer goods until equilibrium is reached.  

So, are you ready to move from defense to offense?  At least one thing will be true when your business begins to turn up -- you'll need more working capital.  Read on for reasons why you'll need some cash and some strategies for meeting that need....

Customers and prospective customers are experiencing the same information barrage that you are.  There's simply more information coming at us than ever before, and humans react to that by trying to sort out the "signal" from the "noise".  

One way they do that is to forget things over time -- new ideas and experiences become more vivid than old, sometimes called "front-of-mind".   So, when prospective (or even existing) customers realize they have a need, they generally reach for the solution or vendor they've heard from most recently.   If you're that vendor and your solution meets their basic "needs checklist", you probably get the call and get the order.  

Do you want to be that vendor?   If so, it's important to maintain front-of-mind with your prospects, and the key to that is how recently you made contact, whether a sales call, phone call, advertisement or electronic communication.  You want to be the most recent person or company on their mind in your market space.  

More -- 8 places to get content for an E-Newsletter, one of the more effective and least expensive means of touching prospects....

Main Street Economic Survey 

Over 100 owners and CEOs of small to mid-sized businesses responded to the CEBI Spring 2009 Main Street Economic Survey.  Results are available to CEBI members, and have been emailed to non-members who responded to the survey.  

If you didn't respond to the survey and would like a copy, please Register Here and we'll send you the info.  

And, as always, we're interested in your ideas for newsletter articles.  Would you perhaps write a guest Editorial?  Please let us know if you have ideas or material you'd be willing to share with others.