Are we really facing an economic downturn? Is it just hype that we’re heading into a recession? Or is this reality we need to face?

Whether or not you believe that we're facing recession, you can choose how to handle it. You can either believe it and blame all problems your business is facing on economy. Or you can strengthen yourself and your business, regardless of what's happening in outside world.

When you listen to all doom and gloom on television and read about it in papers, it’s easy to buy into that way of thinking. To get caught up in how bad things could be. One of successful ways through this tough time is to take a more positive attitude. Remember, only best discover a way to not only survive, but to become stronger as a result. You can work through this recession and emerge with a stronger and more streamlined business.

This positive attitude is definitely one of keys but I would suggest that it’s not enough. There's one more key to add to this - action! You need to take action. You need to do something about your situation that’s going to move you forward. Don’t sit back and hope things will get better - get going today.

Instead of just monitoring how economy is doing, I suggest you look to yourself and your business, and discover how you can improve your effectiveness. When times are tough, it’s easy to sit back and feel a victim of it all. I encourage you to stop playing martyr and to start taking responsibility for your own success.

Mind your Inventory By keeping sufficient inventory on hand, you'll avoid high expenses associated with making a second mailing to cover back-ordered items. Your customers will be happier, too.

Select a Shipping Carrier Before choosing a shipping carrier, do a price and feature comparison. Remember to check out your postal service as well as courier companies. Different shipping companies have different pricing schemes. It might be to your benefit to use more than one service, depending on nature of shipments.

Pricing options can be confusing. The physical characteristics of your products will influence shipping costs. When doing your comparisons, consider issues such as minimum and maximum weights, package dimensions and package density.

Be sure to ask about refund policies for late deliveries, setup fees and discounts for frequent shippers or for memberships in various organizations.

Shipping Documentation You will need a good system in place to keep track of shipping documentation. Ask your shipping service what documents and forms they can provide.

If you're doing shipping in-house, be sure your shipping management software can be integrated into your database. If you're planning to out-source your shipping, you might look for a service company that allows you to download your information into its database. You'll have strength of a corporate database but without cost.

Know your True Costs Be very familiar with true costs of shipping and handling. Analyze weight, size and dollar amounts of an average size order. Add in costs for packaging, labor and shipping carriers or couriers. When you have a picture of costs associated with an average order, create a chart of costs of orders of various sizes. Finally, build a buffer into your estimate. Be mindful of what your customers will be willing to pay, however. Higher than average S&H rates will result in customers taking their business elsewhere.