Manager – Somebody who is responsible for directing and controlling the work and staff of a business, or a department within a business.  (From Encarta Dictionary)

Complainer-someone who expresses discontent or unhappiness about a situation.  (From Encarta Dictionary)

It’s easy to become a complainer in this economy.  Today I watched a Powerpoint presentation from a large lobbying group for the Construction Industry in Washington State.  The first slide after the title was a picture of a toilet.  It was obvious and effective what the toilet stood for – Construction in Washington State is in the toilet.  We know that. 

The next slide showed that nationally, the construction industry has lost 1.6 million jobs since the beginning of the recession in 2007.  Those jobs have just disappeared.   The national unemployment rate in the construction industry is 18.7%.  It just so happens that nationally, the Construction Industry accounted for about 1/5 of all jobs lost in America in the past 5 years.  These are all interesting facts; they are certainly things I wouldn’t have known without somebody pointing them out to me.

What are we to do with bad news like this?

We can sit around and complain about the loss of jobs and the families that have been hurt.  And no doubt, we’d be right.  We can do the blame game and point our fingers at all sorts of people, because there are plenty of scapegoats in this economy.  However, none of that will be productive; it will just make us complainers and not managers.

As Business Owners and Managers, it is our job to correctly see a situation and then make the best of it.  Complaining won’t do any good, especially if we complain about things we have no control over.  So here are some things I suggest you do to deal with the economy.

1.)    Be realistic about your situation (if you’re in Construction, it’s going to be tough for some time into the future).

2.)    Figure out what you can change about your situation.

3.)    Improve the things you can control, and don’t sweat the things you can’t control.

4.)    Even though the recession looks to be over, expect it to be tough again in 2010 (no matter what industry you’re in).

5.)    Determine to work harder than ever, and expect to be paid less for that work.

6.)    Stay Positive (no complaining).

7.)    Be content with what you have and be thankful.

8.)    Set reasonable goals for next year.

9.)    Make a plan to reach these goals.

10.)   Don’t forget, this is just a temporary situation.

The people I see that are doing well in this economy are the ones that have taken responsibility for their own success.  We can all make it; it is just going to be a little tougher than it was 3 years ago.

Merry Christmas and God Bless,

John Wheeler