With the economy in free-fall and so many countries officially reporting a recession, it would be understandable to feel gloomy about the prospects facing us in 2017.

But remember with challenges also comes opportunities.

One of the periods of greatest business diversification and growth happened during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with a shift towards more service-based and small and medium-sized venture enterprises.

It was then that entrepreneurs flourished by clearly addressing the demands of their clients/customers and discovering appropriate market niches that needed to be filled.

If challenging times bring out the best in people, then these may be construed to be great times for our entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Fortunately, if 测辞耻鈥檙别 an entrepreneur, 测辞耻鈥檙别 in a unique position to not only survive tough times, but actually turn them to your advantage.

罢丑补迟鈥檚 because entrepreneurs have two key advantages over larger companies 鈥� flexibility and the ability to respond quickly to changing economic conditions.

But admittedly the margin for error is smaller.

It is vital to focus on key results, understand what your customers want and discover how your venture needs to develop to meet the needs of your customer base.

Here are some common sense suggestions to help you 鈥渢丑谤颈惫别鈥� over this roller coaster economic period until stability returns to the marketplace. I will highlight these suggestions in two parts to offer both a practical and psychological course to follow.

Devote two extra hours each day to your venture: When times get tough, hunker down and focus extra effort on your business.

Scrutinize profit and loss areas: Study your books to assess which activities bring you best return and which bring loss or generate marginal profit.

Focus on making money.

Plan: This is not the time to bury your head and wait for the sunlight. Be proactive.

Develop a 12-month strategy and be prepared to revise it quarterly.

That way you 飞辞苍鈥檛 be caught by surprises, no matter what the economy does.

顿辞苍鈥檛 let the long-term direction of your venture evolve on its own as many business owners will tend to do.

Look for ways to keep revenue flowing.

Review every expense, every day.

Watch your cash flow like never before, and take steps to conserve your cash.

Make reviewing your books and cash position a daily ritual.

Continually ask yourself, is every expense absolutely essential?

Cut fat, not muscle: Keep your eye on your bottom line. Avoid across the board cuts.

I recently attended the 琉璃神社 Chamber of Commerce Roundtable on the downturn in the economy and heard the expressions of doom and gloom that for those people are very real concerns.

But the most powerful message I took away was a unified cry from the attendees to support each other locally in the region, to 鈥渄辞苍鈥檛 just say that 飞别鈥檒濒 work together, 濒别迟鈥檚 actually mean it 鈥� and prove 颈迟.鈥�

That was worthy of a celebration in itself.

滨迟鈥檚 definitely time to embrace the changes that are coming and go after it.

There is unquestionably a tremendous amount of business for you out there across the OkanaganValley 鈥� you just need to go after it. 滨鈥檒濒 be cheering you on!