Sally’s comment on the original Poverty and Plenty blog was so insightful I wanted to give it more exposure:

“How do small businesses figure out what are the best things to invest in during the financial downturn if they can’t afford all of the things they want to do.

How do they measure the potential ROI before embarking on judicious investing?”

The first thing that springs to mind, Sally, is Douglas Adams’ “Don’t Panic!” and that’s not being facetious.

We do panic and feel we have to take action: we must do something to stop the rot. And that’s where we can make the BIG mistake of ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’.

So, have a quick panic by all means and get it out of the way then just stop, take a few deep breaths and think before acting:

• Why am I in business?
• What is this business supposed to support in my life?
• Chances are many of my customers and suppliers are hurting just as much as me – how can we help each other?
• What is it that my customers/ potential market want that I can provide better than anybody else?
• What are my assets and resources?
• How can I trade them?
• How can I improve them?

We invest in three ways, not just one:
Emotion
Time
Money

And, whilst we many of us may be perilously short of the third , we’re not bankrupt on the first two, so we need to invest them wisely. The above questions do help.

Thanks for taking this deeper, Sally.