A Little Inspiration

Your business resolutions for 2008 probably aren’t the same as they were for 2006, or even 2007. Economists are still saying 2009 is when the economy will begin to turn around, and for the multitude of businesses affected by the housing slump, the economic environment has changed a lot of assumptions and goals for the coming year.

The 2008 outlook? Businesses are adjusting their sales goals down, freezing expansion and hiring plans—and replacing them in some cases with reductions and lay-offs—and scaling back marketing and employee benefits. Companies—and individuals—are trying to accomplish more with fewer resources.

On the optimistic side, it’s true that streamlining is often a good thing. It forces businesses to reevaluate target markets, reassess expenditures and short-term goals, and become more efficient.

Among the downsides: Cutbacks and belt-tightening ratchet up stress, both at work and at home, and as Elizabeth Heath reports (p. 22), that sometimes translates to alcoholism, depression and other mental illnesses showing up in the workplace. Certainly, these are not tied only to economic conditions, but anecdotally, mental health professionals see more cases as the economy declines (about the same time that public funding for mental health resources gets squeezed). In Elizabeth’s article, you’ll meet a couple of local businesspeople who help some employees with mental health problems turn their lives around.

It turns out you don’t have to look too far to find businesses and people who have succeeded against the odds. What brought it home were the Southwest Florida Blue Chip Community Business Awards in November, where motivational speaker Jason Hall told his story—with a great deal of humor—of triumphing in business and life in spite of two major accidents that left him a quadriplegic.