Hard economic times provide excellent strategic opportunities for entrepreneurs who are willing to buck conventional wisdom. 

Hundreds of successful entrepreneurs currently rely on Garrett B. Gunderson to help guide them on unconventional paths to business and personal success.  Here is what Garrett is currently advising his clients:

     1. Raise Salaries.
     2. Spend More.
     3. Meet Less.
     4. Stop Saving for Retirement.
     5. Put All Your Eggs in One Basket.
     6. Go Back to School.

1. Raise Salaries

When so many employers are reducing their workforces and cutting salaries, step up by showing your employees how much you value Human Capital and give them raises.  Employees, contrary to conventional accounting wisdom, are assets, not liabilities.

Savvy entrepreneurs recognize that each dollar invested in raising salaries during economic hardships leverages the loyalty and productivity of employees far more than handing out comparable raises during boom times. 

Now is the time you need to get the best out of your people.  Increasing their salaries demonstrates strength, vision, and importantly, gratitude for their contribution to your success.

2. Spend More 

Some great bargains are available now, for those who have the courage to nab them.  Many assets are undervalued and can be acquired at discounted prices, be they inventory, fresh hires, office supplies or even real estate for future expansion.

It is far more conducive to wealth creation to focus on increasing your production, rather than on slicing your expenses.

Spend where your money will have the most impact. 

3. Meet Less. 

Control freaks meet.  In good times, this inefficiency is easily glossed over.  But now is the time to empower your people, set clear expectations and boundaries, and then get out of their way.

Instead of sitting around in meetings talking to one another, encourage your employees to get out and improve contacts with customers and vendors.  Your team members can’t spot any market opportunities passing time in your company conference room.

4. Stop Saving for Retirement 

The best pension plan is simple: be successful.  Although qualified plans are sacred cows, you can’t afford to lock your money up in retirement plans now when liquidity is so essential. 

Ultimately, your business is a far better investment than a 401(k) anyway, especially since it can provide ongoing cash flow without the worry of depleting principal. Invest in yourself and in your business. By improving your liquidity, you’ll have cash to fund your enterprise and seize opportunities created by the economic dislocation of others.

5. Put All Your Eggs in One Basket 

Let others worship at the alter of diversification.  Now is the time to take a long, hard look at your business’s core reason for existing – its so-called Soul Purpose – and focus all your resources and energies on it.

Who are you?  Why do you exist?  Who do you serve?  What can you be the best in the world at?  Stay true to yourself in hard times and shed the excesses you’ve allowed yourself along the way.

6. Go Back to School 

Forget what you think you know about business, marketing and the economy.  The world is constantly changing and fortune-makers will use slow business periods to bolster their education and leadership skills. 

The most successful entrepreneurs I know are those who are constantly reading, attending seminars, engaging with mentors, and exposing themselves to new adventures and ideas.   This is even more imperative when the difference between those who weather the economic storm and those who don’t may well be the extra edge and contacts that continuing education provide. 

Conclusion 

While others are downsizing, cutting back, floundering, and desperately trying to diversify, you should be building your people, spending more money on the right things, thriving by being on the cutting edge through education, and maintaining laser focus on what you do best.  

How To Influence the External Economy With Internal Decisions 

Every expert in America agrees that our economy is under serious strain. We even hear speculation that the U.S. is headed for another Great Depression. The government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will cost taxpayers $5.3 trillion. The proposed $700 billion bailout of other notable financial firms is a Band-aid approach to a gaping-wound quandary.

So what is the long-term solution? Does the current crisis represent the end of

America as we know it? What can you do to contribute to a more secure and prosperous economy? Is it possible for you to prosper in economic downturns?

The first step to identifying solutions is to accurately diagnose the problem. While the reasons are diverse, our current predicament is the product of three primary factors, on three different levels: 1) the government manipulates the economy with the money supply, creating artificial demand and warping natural market forces, 2) corporations have been guided by shortsighted greed, and 3) average Americans consume more than they produce.

Since corporate behavior and government policy represent individual action, the only long-term solution to

America’s economic woes is for individuals to be the change they wish to see in the world; to focus more on their internal economy than on the external economy.

Internal v. External Economy 

The external economy represents everything outside of you: GDP, the Federal Reserve, international trade, supply and demand, manufacturing, etc. Your internal economy is the sum total of the value you offer to others minus the factors that limit your production. It is your human life value—your knowledge, skills, abilities, relationships, confidence, etc. It is what happens within you that determines your material and spiritual prosperity, or lack thereof.

Our pressing crisis hasn’t happened in a vacuum; it’s the result of a steady shift in culture, based on personal, internal decisions. We can blame the government and corporations all we want, but government agents and corporate executives are common Americans like you and I, doing common things. There’s little you and I can do to influence government policy during this crisis, but there’s an infinite number of things we can do to ensure security and prosperity regardless of what happens in the external economy.

Do you want to learn and grow, or complain and wallow in the misery? If you choose the former, then it’s time to grow your internal economy. But how, exactly, is this done? Your personal economy will be strengthened and vitalized by living the following five principles:

1. Entitlement is the enemy of prosperity. 

Stop waiting for someone else to solve your problems and give you economic security. Contrary to New Deal lies and cradle-to-the-grave propaganda the only things you’re entitled to are life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of happiness. The government owes you nothing but the protection of your unalienable rights. Corporations can give and take benefits as they please.

Your suffering during hard economic times will be directly proportionate to the degree to which you feel entitled to “security” and benefits from any person or institution. You’re entitled to the fruits of your own labor and ingenuity—nothing more or less. Don’t abdicate your responsibility to prosper to funds that you don’t understand, investments that you can’t control and that are not collateralized, and managers that you don’t know. Take full responsibility for your money and your life.    

2. Produce more than you consume. 

The average American—while complaining about the federal budget deficit—spends more than $1.20 for every dollar that he earns. Contrary to the crippling myth that “consumer spending drives the economy,” production drives the economy. Production—creating value for others in a way that they compensate you for it—is what gives any individual or entity the ability to consume.

You can’t control government spending. But you can control your own. Spend less than you earn. Never, ever borrow to consume. Pay off consumer debt as fast as you are able. Cut up your credit cards if that’s what it takes. Increase your production through education, better marketing, a career change, etc. Save and invest ten percent of your income. Do whatever it takes to ensure that your home economy produces more than it consumes; this is the best way to fight inflation.

3. Value creation comes before desire fulfillment. 

Who has more money—you, or other people? Obviously, other people. How can you get others to give you money? By providing something to them that they value more than their money. Greed and selfishness are at the basis of so many of our current problems. The wise understand that they can only get what they want by first focusing on what other people want; they are still self-interested, but they are not selfish.

What do you have to offer that other people want? What suffering exists in the world that you have the ability to alleviate? What do other people need and how can you provide it efficiently? Dollars follow value—creating value for others is the only legitimate way to meet your own needs.

4. Integrity is worth its weight in gold. 

Corporate executives are being caught in lies like flies to honey. But what about you? Are you going to unfairly take advantage of others in the name of “Everyone else is doing it?” Or will you take the road less traveled and be a person of your word, a person who others can trust in and rely upon? Does your private life reflect your core values?

When times are hard, people look for stability. Integrity provides stability of character, drawing others toward you. Integrity alone is a magnetic marketing tool and will boost your ability to influence and serve others, and therefore profit in spite of crises.

5. Find and live your Soul Purpose. 

Soul Purpose is your unique set of talents, abilities, values, and passions applied productively and effectively, making tremendous impact upon the world and bringing the highest levels of joy and fulfillment to you and everyone you touch.

You were born for something wonderful. Are you doing it? Do you love to get up every morning? Are you energized by your career? Does it continually stretch you to achieve your fullest potential? Are is it time for you to choose something different?

Prosperity is much more than dollars, investment accounts, and toys; it’s the internal joy that you experience by applying your best work to pressing problems. Soul Purpose is the best long-term investment.Find what you were born to do and do it—your prosperity will increase exponentially.  

The problems we face are big—which means that there’s now more opportunity than ever to create value by alleviating suffering. Big problems require bigger solutions, and bigger solutions pay bigger dividends. The positive side of the financial meltdown is increased awareness; there is now enough pain for us to course-correct and overcome the economic myths of the last century.

The solution isn’t to elect new leaders any more than changing drivers on a broken car makes the car run better. The solution is for common Americans to reform the economy from the inside out by eliminating the entitlement mentality, producing more than we consume, creating value for others, developing impeccable integrity, and living Soul Purpose. If you don’t know what to invest in—especially during hard economic times—your best bet is to invest in yourself through education. After all, the external economy is nothing but a reflection of the aggregate of internal economies.  

There is much talk about a recession right now. There are even some using the “D” word. When it comes down to it, how much will the recession impact you? There is more of a choice than most people think.

I find it interesting that the media does such a great job at scaring people when there is any shift in the economy. This is where the biggest damage is done- when people listen to an outside source and start acting as if that were true for them. People begin to hoard and go into fear mode, effectivly causing a personal recession for them. The true loss is the abundance paradigm, the desire for exchange, and the loss of focus on value creation. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Someone speaks it and then others act it.

If you have been in the real estate or mortgage market as a profession, there is not doubt that massive changes have had a direct impact. But for most people, this may have impacted their stock portfolios, but were they getting cash flow from the portfolio or meaning to cash out? Probably not. The talk instills a fear that diminishes confidence which wipes out certainty. With a loss of confidence there is a minimization of exchange and a focus of fear.

So what are you going to do about the “recession”? The economy that is most important is your personal economy. What is going on with you? How can you create value?

More to come.