Please consider these three observations of Epictetus, a first-century Roman Greek-born slave: What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are. AND, It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
But perhaps we should take this piece of advice: Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself, AND couple it with a standard marketing analysis exercise: S.W.O.T. (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat).
Pull back from your grindstone for the wider view. What are your strengths? Strengths can be described in er words such as bigger, older, faster, better… Is your business any of those? If so, it also helps in positioning your business competitively in your market.
How about weaknesses? Analyzing your business’ strengths and weaknesses also helps you to determine what your internal controllable factors are. What do you need to control internally; personnel, payroll, pricing or expenses?
On the other side of the coin, external uncontrollable factors such as opportunities and threats require your diligence. What opportunities exist right now in your competitive arena? Are there any? If there are – can you recognize them as opportunities?
What about threats? Beside the obvious challenges of this economic downturn, what else is threatening your business? Large national chain stores? An unskilled labor pool? Worst of all are the threats you don’t see.