Whether you call it Natural Selection or Survival of the Fittest, you can expect to see many of the weak and less agile businesses become prey to the U.S. economy over the next 12 to 18 months. If you are one of the small businesses, don’t be a victim, in fact you can come out of this stronger, leaner and much more competitive. I believe that this recession will create a resurgence in consumer spending at the mom & pop shops rather than the corporate giants.

We have already seen the affects of the down turn in the economy as it has claimed numerous large corporations, like Circuit City, Linen’s and Things, AIG, GM, … the list goes on and on. Consumer spending is down as a whole but that doesn’t mean that your business has to suffer. The businesses that survive this recession will emerge stronger for several reasons. First, many business owners have already made the first move by restructuring their companies, downsizing their workforce, re-negotiating their contracts, eliminating or modifying costly policies & procedures. All of this makes your business more agile and improves its chance of survival. But with consumer spending down how can you protect your revenues? As some businesses will fail this leaves the remaining businesses with competition. The pie may be smaller but that doesn’t mean you have to go hungry, you just need to take a bigger piece.

Do you have a chance against these Goliaths of business? YES. Over the past decade we have seen big business become bigger and bigger (and a little scary), so big that they could not be effectively monitored or regulated. This is why the list of business failures is led by the multi-billion dollar ones like those listed above. This has chipped away at consumer confidence in corporate America, which I believe will make consumers more likely to spend their money locally, with a small business like yours.

So now what? Well don’t be afraid of the recession or those business giants, focus on the internal operations of your business, how and where you spend your money. Work smarter, more effectively and reach out to these local consumers. Rethink how you market your business, if you haven't already done so consider internet marketing.  Now may be the time to redesign your website. The strength of the small business is its ability to adapt, so take advantage of this and make sure your business is running as efficiently as possible.

Don't let this happen to you. Our brain should be exercised daily, don't be afraid to use it. It's like that container of Play-Dough, you use it once, close it up, put it in the back of your closet and months later when you want to use it, you find that it is all dried up. Periodically we need to step out of the daily routine of work and home and use our gray matter in a new way. I set a goal to learn something new every day. I've been doing this for years and I'm still not "full". Push yourself to learn something new each day, it can be as simple as learning how to use a new formula in Excel, how to write a blog (today's lesson) or how to repair your big screen TV (I counted that one as an entire week's worth of learning). It doesn't have to be a life altering event, I promise it won't hurt. When you add it up, 365 days a year over the course of your life, think of how many things you can learn. Try expanding your scope of understanding at work, ie. do you know what happens to that document you hand off to co-worker? Understanding the process a step or two before or after it leaves your desk may help the process run smoother.

Exercising your brain can be fun too. Test yourself with these.

1. Complete this sequence: T W T F __ __

2. This sequence of four words, "triangle, glove, clock, bicycle," corresponds to this sequence of numbers "3, 5, 12, 2." ? True or False

3. Which one of the letters does not belong in the following series: D - F - H - J - K - N - P - R

Answers can be found at Blog: "Full Brain Answers"