We are constantly blasted by negative messages today and if you run a business or if you've been laid off or had your salary cut, you're experiencing changes that confirm the talk.

Anxiety is a natural consequence of all this. Is anxiety or fear helpful? If these emotions are on display in your next job interview or for your team at work, they are likely to cause you to stumble badly. Here's a timely reminder from the Career Encouragement Blog:

This video is about the exponencial growth of available information in our society and what might happen in the future (thanks Doug).  The video is a 2008 remastered version of the original 2006 presentation by Karl Fisch:

So what does it mean?

Coincidentally, I also received this today:

We are in a recession - if it hasn't hit you yet, come back and read this later! We started feeling it six months ago and we are taking a beating this month. If you are feeling it now too - here's some good (and politically incorrect) reading for you.

Wednesday, LatPro held its first video conference! We used ooVoo.com's video conferencing application to hold our fourth quarter planning meeting (usually held on site in Fort Lauderdale, Florida).  It was a grand success and a great relief for those used to traveling to Florida, not to mention a significant cost reduction for the company! You will see in the screenshot below that my PC would not do the 3-D effect that you can see on the ooVoo homepage (but still might with a little tweak). Here's what it looked like:

So

I see the effects of this slow-down everywhere.   Recession talk, recession thinking and recession actions... it's driving a lot of change.

Having been through one of these before, it's important to remember a few things:

I have not set foot in the LatPro office for over a year. Living 2,000 miles away in Colorado came as quite a shock considering the perfect nine minute commute I previously enjoyed. Furthermore, LatPro moved to a new office in Plantation, Florida last week which I have not seen at all. And yet, despite the recession and level revenue, I see the company growing stronger.

How is this possible? Telecommuting from 2,000 miles away (for health reasons) is challenging, but it has had its silver lining. Our team has always been far flung geographically with key people in Delaware, Florida and Guatemala. But when I could no longer walk into the office and roam around at will, I felt significantly disadvantaged, disconnected and out of touch... at first.

I love the job board business but could never have imagined the roller coaster ride that it is... sometimes talking to other job board people is just good therapy, because many of these things or some variation on them will happen to everyone sooner or later. This morning, I started this list in frustration after a database server crash.

Competition

Inspired by Sahar's how to ruin your health, here's my advice for how to fail in business on the Internet:

10. Write long e-mails, click more, faster. Most people read carefully and repetitive strain injuries do not happen to entrepreneurs.

9. Think about nothing but your business as long as you are awake. Do that 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, year in and year out. It’s good for your health and relationships too!

8. Stay highly focused. Avoid networking and do not attend events outside your niche. You can get more done at your desk than anywhere else.

In the past, we’ve only hired local sales people but we’re looking at the possibility of hiring remote reps. I know it’s hard to find employees in South Florida and I was wondering if you have any staff that works remotely and if so is there anything you can tell me that would help us?

My answer -- you can't afford not to. We tried for years to grow our sales team by hiring locally. We would hire-train-fire and then repeat. But all the while, I was watching Don Firth (friend and fellow Florida job board entrepreneur) grow his sales team three and four times as fast by hiring virtually from around the country.