The Recession Roller Coaster And Your Business: Questions To Provide A Path Forward

Like it or not, as a business owner, you bought a ticket on a wild roller coaster. The only constant in today’s economy is information overload, often resulting in seemingly contradictory conclusions. More and more economists are pointing toward a recession, and perhaps a steeper one, yet, small businesses are, in many respects, not yet slowing down. It is critical to pay attention to both macro and micro-economic factors. But the challenge I hear from many CEOs is, “how do I filter through all this noise?”

There is no questioning the conflicting information and forecasts as to where we are and where we are heading. We have heard about the “soft landing,” the “hard landing” and other scenarios where the plane “stays airborne.” We are also seeing conflicting thoughts internally within companies—with CEOs, sales, operations, marketing and finance often having dramatically differing views. Some companies, for example, may be sitting on significant inventory levels. The sales team is very bullish they can sell their way down to more normal levels. Finance may be concerned about all the cash tied up and having to sell through inventory at discounted levels. Operations may be struggling from a labor perspective to get product out the door in a timely manner.