Here's a horrible pattern we've been observing over the years: in good times, small business feels confident enough to expand their marketing efforts, but when the market slows, the first budget to be cut is the marketing budget. How counter-intuitive is that? That's like watering your grass when it's raining, but when drought hits, turning off the spigot. Now more than ever you need to step up the marketing of you small business.

We call it the "death spiral." When sales begin to slow, rather than step up their marketing to compensate, small businesses pull back. The more they pull back, the slower their sales. So they pull back some more. Don't let your small business fall in to the trap. Remember: nothing happens in business -- any business -- until something get's sold. But how can you sell something if people don't know what you are doing? That's marketing: letting your potential customers know who you are, what you're doing, and that you have something to sell. In a down economy, you need to do that more than ever.

Keep in mind that marketing is a campaign. Anything you can do to get your message out is a part of marketing. So often, we think of marketing as advertising, when in fact, advertising is just a tool of marketing. Perhaps advertising isn't a good tool for you at the moment. So focus on what is. Perhaps an e-newsletter campaign would be a better fit for you. Regardless of the tool you use, step it up, don't pull it back! Be crafty. Get clever. A down-turn isn't like a thunderstorm that you hunker down and ride out. It won't be over by morning. It's more like a winter, and not only to we need to live through it, we need to thrive in it. And we can. Let's not shrink in front of the challenge: let's rise to it.