It is very easy to get swallowed up and carried away with the news of national and international economic strife. It matters not whether you support the government’s bailouts (I do not), the cold hard fact is that the vast majority of entrepreneurial managers and their companies are under increasing pressure and they know they will not be bailed out.

So, short of running out and changing your company’s name to either Bears, Stearns or AIG what can you do?

Perhaps the most important thing to realize is that which is most obvious. While Wall Street roils, Main Street keeps chugging along. Only this time the chugging is harder and a bit slower.

The facts are that accumulated wealth in the forms of IRA, 401(k) or SEP accounts have taken a major hit, one that will require some time to regain their former positions. But the good news is that of all the wage earners in the United States, entrepreneurs have perhaps the single best ability to positively impact their earnings.

While the job security and earnings of employees are always controlled by the quality of the decisions of the people they work for, entrepreneurs are not so shackled.

Entrepreneurs know that they can directly and quickly impact their earnings. Whether it is through more disciplined and more effective selling or tighter, more rigorous expense control or pursuing entirely new business models, their fate is a direct result of their competency. People who work for someone else can never say this.

But entrepreneurs also know that their competency is a direct result of good ideas supported by good execution of the idea.

Their customer-driven requirement for good execution allows them to separate themselves from less competent competitors and ensures the survivability of their companies.

I am reminded of a cartoon by UTC professor Richard Rice. An executive is on all fours on the floor, his nose strategically positioned behind an envelope. The crowd behind comments about there goes Charlie again, pushing the envelope.

Envelope pushing is exactly what it will take for entrepreneurial managers to succeed in what Alan Greenspan has recently described as a “once in a century occurrence.”

Creativity, or the more popular term innovation, is all about looking at the space you inhabit and then figuring out some way or some form or some method of enhancing your value to the customer.

It can also be viewing your product or service with some minor tweaks as a major value contributor to an entirely new set of customers. But the catalyst for all of this has to be an idea and the probability of a good idea is directly associated with the ability to generate a quantity of ideas. The more people involved in idea generation, the greater the quantity of ideas. This is a major problem for start-ups.

Here is a potential solution. Consider organizing a weekly meeting with entrepreneurs of similar size. Have each one prepare a one page executive summary of their value proposition and their customer profile. Circulate these before the meeting and then challenge each meeting participant to come prepared with an idea for someone else’s business. Try to set it up so that this exchange is a weekly event where everyone accepts the obligation to contribute. Just remember, it only takes one good idea and your whole outlook could change.

John F. Riddell Jr., director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth-Hamilton County, writes each Tuesday about entrepreneurs and their impact on companies and the marketplace. Submit comments to his attention by writing to Business Editor John Vass Jr., Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by e-mailing him at business@timesfreepress.com

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