Motorola, Intel, Texas Instruments are all reporting positive fourth quarter earnings for 2008. The mass media reports public perception is the economy is ‘in the toilet’.

The correct perception depends on who’s speaking. A business owner who buys into the slow economy talk chooses to miss opportunities, plain and simple. The business people; men and women of talent and skill, focus their enterprises on what’s next, not on what was.

Business is great for most of the business people I know. It’s OK for the others, mostly because they haven’t taken the initiative to market their unique selling positions, and they’re working on it.

What makes these business people different than the business owner’s who are emulating Chicken Little?

First and foremost these business people have all the systems and structures in place necessary for a smooth running enterprise. These include daily and weekly activity reports, strong, authorative relationships with employees and tight controls over inventories and supply chains.

Second, these business people have mastered the arts of Customer Relationship Management. They use their clients and customers as Research & Development tools. Customers vote daily. Perceptions are quick to form, slow to change. Response time and quality of service along with product delivery are the sources of these perceptions.

The most important source is quality of service otherwise known as attitude. Human beings have attitude antennae that picks up on how they’re being thought of and treated. Smart business people take care of their employees so they can take care of the customers and it shows their loyalty.

Third is taking business initiatives. These initiatives are more than putting on a sale. That’s an external tactic. Internal initiatives include setting aggressive weekly and monthly milestones, guaranteeing sufficient resources to sustain the initiative and customer service, prioritize efforts based on speed of delivery and projected market impact and finally doing complete work.

We may be in the West but that does’nt mean we shoot from the hip. Business people know what to expect because they planned on it. Business people can also handle a breakdown or crisis because they have the resources in employee talent, strategic alliances and reserves to respond to it.

Business is a race. Business is action. A business person is someone who manages the action of responding to the competitive pressures and customer demands that populate the landscape of the business environment.