Fireside update

It’s 19 degrees outside and I am taking a break to enjoy the warmth of our wood stove. Working from home allows me to spend more time on the things that matter to me, but it doesn’t always translate into blog  posts even though writing is one of the great pleasures in my life.

Blogging got put aside for days while I dealt with the problems of running a business and caring for my wife while she recuperated from surgery. We are making progress in all areas, but it is taking more time than expected. Today, things are going well and I wanted to post an update.

The biggest challenge of doing business in hard times is maintaining confidence that something can be done to achieve positive results. Since I am wrestling with this problem myself, I try not to waste your time with my opinions. It is hopefully more useful if I can report on what works and what doesn’t.

I try to draw useful conclusions out of every experience and have found that bad experiences can produce long term benefits if completely understood. Since I try to do the right things, if things turn out wrong I need to figure out what I did not understand and get it right for the next time.

I was no better prepared for this recent downturn than anyone else, so I am not dispensing knowledge from some ivory tower. I write things down as I discover them in the hopes that  they may be useful to others.

Now that many of my customers are retrenching, I have cut back on my expenses and have increased my networking to reach out and find people who need services I can provide.

Fortunately, this has produced encouraging results. It is not business as usual by any means, but it is movement in a positive direction and I will happily take what I can get these days. I am also taking every opportunity to assist others in promoting their businesses and to connect people up in every way possible.

In a small community such as ours, peoples lives are tightly connected. When one family suffers a loss, others are more likely to reach out and lend a hand. This benefits the giver as much as the receiver.

This recession may inspire a greater sense of community in many areas as people learn to rely on each other for support again. We generally do better in life as we are aligned with others. If you feel out of touch and alone, there is probably something you should do about that. Try finding someone else you can help. That is a good place to start.

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