Paul Krugman's Op-Ed piece in last Sunday's New York Times talked about how we should not stop all of the unconventional government interventions into the economy now that we are a few inches back from the edge of the abyss. Stopping now, he argues, would put us right back where we were a few months ago and maybe even over the edge into a full-fledged depression.
Paul's piece is equally applicable to creative businesses, large and small. Strategies and structures you may have put in place when the economy went south are still necessary, even if business is looking up. The temptation to go back to what was comfortable (and maybe what you even liked better) is significant, but needs to be resisted. The world that was will never be again. If your new paradigm IS working for you, then it should be your new baseline from which you should operate.
I look at it this way — a rising tide carries all ships as does a falling tide lower them. If you have figured out how to float in a lower tide, you will rise faster and further when the tide comes back. The changes you had to make were based on the new (and grim) economic reality your business confronted starting a year ago. You probably had to outsource more, be more creative in how you stretched your marketing dollar and focus on only that which was most valuable and profitable for you. In short, you had to bring as much efficiency to your business as you could just to survive.
Abandoning that efficiency now belies its true light. You might be on the other side of the crisis, but you have no idea how far the changes you have made can take you if you do not embrace them as permanent. I do not believe you will fall into the abyss as the American economy will if we stop our interventions now, but you will miss the rewards that leverage and efficiency bring to any business.
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Such very sound wisdom. Thanks for reminding us to stay the course. I’m confidant that we will all be much better off because of this.