For small businesses that do not have the benefits of staff economists and strategic planners sifting through reams of data, trying to determine how best to invest the very dear operating capital back into the business is difficult at best. What are the leading economic and business activity indicators relevant to the business that can guide your decision making process. This is a critical time for small businesses, the economic turnaround that is rumored to have arrived has not shown up at your door step just yet.

The companies that have survived the “Great Recession” have done so by cuttings costs, deferring or reducing investments in hard assets and laying off personnel. However, there is only so much cost cutting a firm can do before that which was meant to save the business negatively impacts its ability to operate effectively. The amount of cash left over at the end of each month may not accurately reflect the health of your business, at this point in the business cycle.

As a small business owner making the time to really analyze your product line and sales strategies can provide the best information on what, where, when, and with whom one needs to spend those precious operating dollars needed to grow your top line revenues. Reviewing your portfolio and identifying those products and services with the lowest margins, longest sales cycles, longest supply chains and most expensive transportation costs are the ones that need to be de-emphasized and or discontinued. This excercise is essential to survival. Selling the products and services that have solid margins, competitive prices, shorter sales cycles, reliable supply chains and manageable transportation costs are those products you support with personnel, administrative and operating cash. This action plan may not guarantee success but it will certainly give you a fighting chance. Last but not least listening closely to the anecdotal customer information positive and negative collected by your sales staff is critical to confirming your objective analysis.

Any business operating in the midst of a recession faces a tough challenge with elements that must be addressed simultaneously. First business owenrs must stop the erosion of sales, next they must get the products and services customers want to the customer in a timely and cost efficient manner and lastly they must do this at every opportunity, at an ever increasing rate to turn the business around. Plainly put increasing revenues on a consistent basis day in day out, month to month, quarter by quarter, year to year is the only true indicator the recession is over. Furthermore, to add to the difficulty of determining when a business and the economy will emerge from a downturn ready and able to compete, the increasing revenue indicator only confirms the evidence of a larger economic upturn 3-6 months after it has begun.

This daunting challenge can be mitigated with the assistance of skilled professionals at no cost. The Small Business Administration Technical Development Centers located on almost all state education system college campuses are available to any business. Any firm can locate an SBATDC by visiting http://www.sba.gov . While the staff will not do the data collection and analysis for you they will certainly review , comment and coach you to an accurate assessment of your business situation. There is no limitation on the number times you can visit the center, therefore , the limitation is only whether you as a business owner decide to take advantage of the resource.

The recession has resurfaced the operational landscape of global firms whether they wanted the change or not. This fundamental shift topped off by the fiscal policy imperative of buying locally in order to jump start the organic elements of national economies has added to the requirement of such firms to rethink their supply chain network processes. This has created a unique oppportunity for Chambers of Commerce to get ahead of this curve to champion the larger members of its community to increase the supply capabilities of and relationships with their local business community neighbors.

Earlier in this decade the risk associated with long supply chain networks in this environment were masked. Today dramatically changing currency valuations, fluctuating energy costs, consumer safety and quality concerns, tariff policy, increasing offshore production costs and competition in their own "backyard" markets by former overseas suppliers adds to the risk and complexity of the global marketplace. Now is the time to bring production and supply capacity back home. Why is the time right, the time is right because, the abiltiy to communicate in real time with real data with virtually unlimited processing power, and to share that data is at hand. The ability to coordinate the activities of multivariate sources of materials, capital and labor are not the boundaries of today that inhibited the firms in the past. Web based online centralized planning is now literally at the fingertips of every organization regardless of size.

The business planning functions needed to guide the entire enterprise are available at relatively low cost but they require consistent , dedicated, and rigorous execution. The Vital ToolBox is the platform capable of delivering the expertise of centralized planning and deployment strategies across many markets simultaneously, without having to reduce or shift personnel.

The Vital ToolBox creates the environment for instant communication, consistent planning, and the power to disseminate weekly and monthly directives from headquarters based on the best pracitces and policy established in the strategic planning process designed to guide the entire organization. Another element in the portfolio of the Vital Tool Box is the capacity to develop expertise across the organization via its Learning Management Systems platform and technical training tool Online Expert.

Consider this you have your home grown compeitors of varying shapes and sizes, on top of that you now have on the horizon, well capitalized foreign competitors that are coming from the countries of your suppliers. The strategic and competitive advantage previously enjoyed is shrinking.  The market becomes price driven and headed toward commoditization. How do you combat this challenge? You focus on quality, service and the ability to give your customer what they want and when they want it, day in day out regardless of the physical distance between you and that customer. The Vital ToolBox gives you the platform to share product information, establish a service level for that particular customer regardless of size. Firms can use its web based universally compatible productivity tools to analyze information from across your organization and share it quicky in order to react and then move ahead of the changing landscape. Organizations must be able to distribute essential business intelligewnce, put the product on the customers doorstep for the lowest total cost while servicing customers as if they have always been located around the corner even though they are thousands of miles away.

The Vital ToolBox gives you the platform to achieve these objectives today.