Although it seems that the united actions of governments are somewhat stabalizing the financial markets, it is time to start thinking about the effects of this crisis to the rest of us. Unless you put your money in an Iceland bank of course or have more than 100.000 Euros in savings, than obviously you had already some concerns...

I am sure that somehow next year will be volatile, with unexpected developments, which can be positive or negative. That one was easy to figure out...
In my other line of business, the travel & hospitality industry, we always look at airline developments to guess what is going on, because when airlines don't bring passengers to your destination you are in trouble.
So: oilprices went down to approx 70 Euro per barrel, 50% lower than a couple of weeks ago. Good for the airline industry. They need that, as according to Travel Agent Central, the carriers will lose a total sum of 5 billion dollars in 2008.
The Spanish low cost carrier LTE went already under. No government will save them. Ryan air is battling: voted "least favorite airline" in a TripAdvisor poll and is fighting Expedia in court.

According to the Uptake blog " Ryanair offered Expedia the unique opportunity to exclusively access its 58 million passengers through Europe’s largest travel website, Ryanair.com. Regrettably, Expedia has failed to honour key obligations under this agreement, in particular its payment terms, and our attempts in recent months to get Expedia to resolve these breaches, have failed so we now have no alternative but to give them notice.”

When the money is "down", cooperation is always under pressure and lawsuits become common practise. Not alwyas a wise approach: time and money consuming, where both are better used in a positive way to generate new business....

A survey of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), which surveyed 131 members on how their corporations will fund business travel in 2009; clearly indicate “less spending” and “less frequent travel.”
So, people are travelling, however they are price consious and become more selective and may be looking for proven-reliable partners. An opportunity right there, even in a downgoing market!

What does it mean for your business? General market segmentation is out. In every segment there are opportunities and threats, there are over- and under performancers. Look for the "positive signs" of companies you may be doing business with. How? Check them out on the internet! Check Google. Or Google Alert for starters. Check Technorati to see "what the blogs say" about people and companies and what is the latest "twitter?" news...

In the meantime, what will potential clients find about you when they check you out? Do you have a (corporate) story "on-line?" Think about that for a moment ( or Google yourselve). A famous Dutch song by Henk Westbroek states:" I dance so I excist "( ik dans dus ik besta). If the web shows no or little results of you, new business will never reach you.

So, work on your personal branding! Free Mindz.com workshops will help you to boost your career and business opportunities.