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In case you haven't noticed it the world is in the grip of some serious economic woes. Of course our leaders and bankers are doing their best Baghdad Bob impressions and assuring us that everything is fine and good times are just over the horizon but when the Government has got to start propping up banks all the assurances are worth very little.

Things are tough and likely to get even tougher for all sorts of businesses. Even our industry is seeing a downturn and the adult industry off line is doing no better. Our commission checks are getting smaller and those of us who live overseas are beginning to see checks that are worth less than their face value now that the value of the US dollar is falling.

So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to just sit back and take whatever these tough economic times throw at you? Are you going to complain and whine like girl about how hard things are and what a struggle it is to survive and maybe even rant about how your sponsors are shaving your sales?

Lots of people wouldn't blame you if you did any or all of those things. It's understandable that when the going gets tough you want to spend some time griping about it and there's no doubt that misery loves company so you'll have lots of other people join you in your misery.

But let me tell you that misery is a totally wasted emotion. Whining and griping about the hard times you and your small business are facing is totally wasted too. In hard economic times it's all about survival not crying like a girl about how the big bad world has screwed you yet again.

At times like this, when it's all about survival, you need to be positive ... you need to think clearly and not let misery cloud your judgment and you need to get out of the crowd and get on with making things happen so that you and your business does survive.

At times like this being small is an advantage that you can use to survive and grow, not a disadvantage that will inevitably lead to the failure of your business. Seth Godin put it in clear and unequivocal language when he said in a recent blog post that “Small is a weapon, not an excuse” so use your size to your advantage.

Because you are a small business ... and don't kid yourself that you're not, every self-employed webmaster who makes a living from selling memberships in online adult sites is a small business ... you have some advantages that big businesses and those who are employees of others simply do not have.

You have control of your business so use that control to respond to these tough times. Sure you may be reliant on those commission payments but you can pick and choose who you promote. You can choose which niches to push and how best to promote them. You can choose where to list your sites and galleries and where to buy traffic ... and where not to. Hell you can even step outside of the adult industry and try your luck in mainstream if you want to. Just don't stay connected to those who spend all their time complaining about how tough it is to make a buck.

As a small business you can be much more responsive to economic changes than other businesses and other people can be. You can start to change your focus in just a matter of an hour or so while other businesses can take weeks or months to even make a simple decision.

You can cut or increase your expenditure in certain areas to take advantage of special offers or to stop losing money in a matter of minutes if you have to. That's something that no big business could ever hope to be able to achieve. GM has been pouring money into black holes for years and it's taken them that long to wake up to the fact that they needed to start making vehicles people wanted to buy.

Being in small business ... even one like ours ... is not a negative in hard economic times and it's not an excuse either. Being in small business at times like this is an amazing positive if only you'll wake up to the fact and leave all those whining wankers behind. Don't even look back to try and help them because they'll only drag you back into their misery yet again.

Sure that's hard to do ... I'm not pretending that it isn't. When the bills are mounting up and the income streams are drying up it's very hard to stay positive let alone become positive but if you want to succeed then that's exactly what you have to do.

Have you got the courage and the ability to do that?

I certainly hope so because if you don't your business may not be around for much longer. If you do have the ability to be positive then these difficult economic times are going to be a time of growth so stop whining and get on with growing your business.