If you’re a business owner, it’s likely that some of your recent workdays have gone something like this: You bolt awake (probably after a sleepless night!), grab the financial section of the paper and turn on your TV to get the latest worrisome financial news. Then, once you make it to work, you lock yourself in your office to carefully examine your company’s financial projections for the next few months, wringing your hands as you fret over every possible worst case scenario.

Sound familiar? If so, it’s time for the hand-wringing to stop — and the smart thinking to begin.

The word “recession” can send business owners into a panic. Add in all of the economic postulating by the media, and you might find it easy to convince yourself it’s time to start counting down the days until your business’ demise. But you can’t get anything done when you’re in panic mode.

Business owners who use their time to seize every possible opportunity will make it through the economic downturn. Play your cards right and you may come out of these financial hard times with a more prosperous business. Making it through will be no piece of cake, but if you know the best steps to take, you’ll come out of a recession with a sound business.

Here are a few tips to weather an economic storm:

Remember your competitors are suffering too

During an economic downturn, many business owners overlook the fact that their competitors are suffering too — and that there’s still an even playing field. Your competitors face the same struggles as you do. So your strategy for prospering during a slowdown remains the same as in good economic times: Build the strongest business you possibly can, managing in a fiscally responsible manner and providing great service to land and keep important customers. Don’t let the hype surrounding the slowdown distract you from these basic tenets of business success. Stay calm and you’ll emerge from the economic downturn miles ahead of your competition.

Use the bad news to motivate employees

One positive thing about the fear and hype is that it can be a great motivational tool for employees. The slowdown creates what I like to call a “momentary unifying factor” — something that allows employees to set aside individual concerns and rally around a greater cause. Use the economy to drive home that providing quality service and creating greater efficiency are the best ways to help the business through the recession. The challenge for you is to present a vision toward greater prosperity that everyone will rally around.

It may be time to expand

It seems counter-intuitive, but great companies expand during slowdowns; they don’t pull back. Remember, your competitors are dealing with the same challenges. As a result, the weakest of these organizations will be failing, losing critical revenue and cutting operations, and letting go of critical, but expensive assets and people. All of these things open up holes in the market that a clear-thinking company can fill. As these businesses fail, your market may contract, and the death of your competition actually creates opportunities for your company to expand during the slowdown. When this happens, you will want to be there to snatch up the customers of your failed competition. Be prepared to increase your sales, marketing, and advertising efforts to make sure that newly “available” customers reach out to you first.

Focus on your customers’ needs

You aren’t the only one suffering. Your customers are, too. Customers are making tough decisions on where they should spend limited funds. Look at your organization from their perspective and make sure that every person on your staff is treating your customers right. Go the extra mile — even if that means spending extra money — to reach out to your biggest and best customers. Keep the lines of communication open so you’ll find out if they’re planning to break off relations, and do something about it before it’s too late.

Know the difference between profit and revenue

It sounds like something every company owner should understand, but sometimes it’s unclear which products, services or service territories produce the most profit. All companies can produce financial statements of gain and loss, but these do nothing to help managers make difficult decisions about cutting specific unprofitable customers or segments. During a slowdown, you should apply greater scrutiny to profit centers. It’s likely that at some point you will need to cut costs and the first places to cut should be those areas where you are already losing money.

Stay current and creative

Too often during a slowdown, companies cut back on the new products or services that represent the future of their business. Once the slowdown turns around — as it inevitably will — they find that they can’t catch up with market demands and expectations. Too many businesses fail while the market is actually turning around because they are left with outdated products and services. Even during the downturn, keep your creative juices flowing. Think about new ways to satisfy customers and which new products will meet their long-term needs.

The point of all of this is that the words “economic downturn” don’t have to mean only bad news to your business. If you manage business correctly during the downturn — taking care to address the needs of your employees and customers — it is possible to make it through the lean times with a stronger business than the one you had before.

David F. Giannetto is director of Cohn Consulting Group’s Enterprise Performance Manage-ment practice. Giannetto and Anthony Zecca are authors of The Performance Power Grid: The Proven Method to Create and Sustain Superior Organizational Performance (2006, Wiley). For more information, please visit www.performancepowergrid.com.