Second, offer lower prices. Wait, hear me out! With business down you may be thinking, "How can I lower prices if I don't have any business?" Well, maybe those lower prices are just what you need to bring in some customers. Use those flyers you bartered for to advertise a 20% off recession special, and you may find your phone ringing again. Someone who couldn't spend $100 can maybe spend $80, and cheaper business is better than no business, right?

Third, use your downtime to improve your operation. When we're busy, it's really easy to let day to day things fall by wayside. Little maintenance projects may be sitting on your desk, half-finished, buried under invoices and trade papers. Dig them out. Clean house and have your employees (if any) do same. Go through your desk and get rid of anything that isn't pertinent. Catch up on customer correspondence. Write an article or two to submit to business journals about your business. Basically, make sure that your business is running at maximum efficiency for that time when customers start calling again.

So you see, without spending much money, we can really start to improve things. With a little faith and a little creativity, we can make it through these troubled times.

Another pitfall of home business world is lack of patience. Too many people expect success overnight, and throw in towel when, if they'd just stuck it out, they could have really made it big. Anything that is truly worth while takes hard work and patience. A great home business can take up to a year to really get going. The first Wendy's store turned a profit almost immediately, true, but it was a tiny profit, and it actually took Dave Thomas years to build Wendy's into empire it is today. My own first home business took months to get off ground, but I saw it building little by little and I held on.

I guess if I had to sum up what Dave was all about, I'd say that he was an advocate of old fashioned business values, of hard work and humility, and of not cutting corners. He was also an advocate of inherent truth in American Dream. He believed that anyone could succeed against any odds, and he proved it himself. For what he had to offer I am truly grateful. Thanks, Dave.