By Scott Kreisberg
CEO / Founder, One Step Retail Solutions

I don't know about you but I like to selectively stay current with the world around me. Notice that I qualified my statement with "selectively" which I'll explain.

In the not too long ago past there were three main sources of live news; TV, newspaper and the radio. This older format allowed people to either look at or not look at what was being presented by the media.

Nowadays, there are countless sources of live news, thanks to the Internet. So, with so many sources of news, I select only the subject matter I am interested in and sources that I find to be accurate; hence "selectively".

It is obvious that we are in an economic crisis, which is old news. But it wasn't old news back in September or October of 2008. I knew that the economy was being steered into a storm, like nothing I had ever seen before.

You know when the media jumps on the bandwagon and starts to send out a consistent message to the public, then they start talking about it, and then you know what? It happens!

I'm not saying there aren't hard factual reasons for our current economic situation, because there are. My point here is that people play a big role in what actually happens and how long it lasts.

By staying current with subject matter I found important, I knew there was going to be a big financial melt down and you know what I did? I took corrective actions to help prevent irreparable damage to my company early. And guess what? It worked!

My company has been fighting a good fight and we are not blaming the world for our problems. Instead we are figuring out ways to change who we are and what we do and how we do it so we can emerge from this current economic climate a much more current and relevant business for the next decade.

Has it been easy to adjust and keep the business afloat at the same time? HECK NO! But with good communication and lots of actual confronting of the situation, we have been successful despite all of the doom and gloom.

So, what is the moral of this story? Selectively monitor and read relevant and reliable news about areas which affect you and your business. Take corrective actions ahead of time so you are not in the middle of a bad storm and then wishing you took those extra steps when you had the chance.

Be ahead of the curve and don't wait for the actual problem to hit you, and be able to confront what is really going on around you and, if necessary, make difficult decisions to ensure your continued success.

I wish all of you much prosperity now and into the future.