With all of the uncertainty surrounding the financial future and direction, entrepreneurs know that they cannot relegate their futures to folks whose connection with Main Street is sporadic at best.

While a paltry few have been successful in the area of private enterprise, their numbers in no way support the wisdom and credibility that many members in Congress feel they deserve. I’m reminded of a quote I recently heard: “We don’t hire arsonists to put out their own fires.”

Many small-business people just cannot understand the rush and the misplaced sense of knowledgeable credibility that goes into thinking that 20 years of excess can be solved by a self-imposed timeline and a rush to do something, even if it’s wrong. Amity Shlaes in her book about the forgotten history of the Great Depression, “The Forgotten Man,” relates an interesting fact. It seems that former Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon repeatedly pointed out that economic cycles cannot start back up until they first hit the bottom. Outside influences that artificially restrict this bottom hitting merely postpone or push out the timeframe for a bonafide turnaround. In the late thirties, while the rest of the world economies were expanding, the United States actually went into a second depression, only to be rescued by the advent of World War II.

Once we get past all the political posturing and academic and philosophical discussions, however, the fact remains that small businesses are and will continue to be the most vulnerable players in this new game. And many are rapidly coming to the conclusion that their best hope of surviving this temporary downturn is to somehow simply “sell harder.”

“Selling harder” certainly has a certain appeal given the easy to understand nature of the words, but this simplicity is misleading. Virtually all of us know that when we try to run harder, we try to get our legs moving faster for a longer period of time. The individual solely controls the effort and solely controls the outcome. The competition for running harder is strictly within.

Selling harder, however, means having the discipline and energy to look at a number of variables that make up a successful transaction and figuring out where to apply limited time and energy to effect the most change while your competitors may be doing the very same thing. For some, it might be in the quantity of activities and the effectiveness of steps within those activities. For others it might be narrowing the focus of potential clients and adopting a more rifled as opposed to a shotgun approach. Still for others it might be redirecting sales efforts entirely to “potentials” with a slightly modified offering. Whatever the activity enhancement, it has to be supported by an equally intensive collection process. Selling harder also means getting paid quicker, even if it has to be a bit less.

Selling harder also means that small businesses are going to have to come up with creative ways to fulfill customer requirements while carrying significantly less inventory. Inventory swallows cash, and with tightening credit lines, you can’t afford to have it tied up with goods sitting on your shelf. Savvy entrepreneurs are already working with their clients to modify the client’s expectations in this regard and balancing their delayed delivery dates with cost savings for their clients. Other creative entrepreneurs are looking around to see if they can partner up and combine and reduce shipping costs.

While “The way we’ve always done it!” mantra will not work, creative and innovative solutions will. Only those who commit to this mandate will survive what is and will continue to be a turbulent time of newfound opportunities.

John F. Riddell Jr., director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth-Hamilton County, writes each Tuesday about entrepreneurs and their impact on companies and the marketplace. Submit comments to his attention by writing to Business Editor John Vass Jr., Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by e-mailing him at business@timesfreepress.com

Comments