I was talking to my friend Butch Zemar this week and we got to talking about a problem that I'm seeing with small businesses.

I know that the #1 problem right now, is that business owners are starting to pull back on their marketing. They are trying to reserve cash, and what they should be doing is doubling down on the amount of marketing they are doing.

In 1990, I was in a room with Zig Ziglar in Chicago, and he told the room that he was not participating in the current recession and that he never intended to participate in one again.

I was stunned because I wasn't aware that we had a choice. I vowed that day, that I also would not participate in another recession. And I haven't for the past 33 years.

Zig said the businesses that can stay in business during a recession would be the most successful business at the end of the recession.

So what does it look like to not participate? It means you keep marketing, you keep selling, you "shift" your business, and do whatever it takes to stay in business. You get a plan, you don't get up every day, and just "do something."

If you can outlast your competitors until the economy turns around, you will be ok on the other end when everyone else is basically starting over.

When you continue your marketing you will find:

1. There are still customers out there that need you
2. You will stand out even more
3. It's an opportunity to nurture your customers and turn them into loyal and raving fans
4. You don't have to worry about "coming back"

Listen, when I bought my first bankrupt business, I didn't have any marketing money to "hold back" on. I had just enough money to buy a cash-hemorrhaging business.

Nor did I have an email marketing list. No one did! It was 2002.

I created no-cost and low-cost marketing strategies to turn that business around in 12 months and added $100,000 to the bottom line.

There are great opportunities in a down economy if you look. Find out what the market needs and fill that void. That is what Venmo, Uber, Slack, Groupon, and Airbnb did in the 2008-2010 recession.

Cut your employee's hours before you cut your marketing, because you will be able to bring them back faster if you have a thriving business.

Oh, we are going there? I have spent a lot of money trying to forget the origin of what is now a kick-ass business. Just kidding. Buckle-Up!

I am a serial entrepreneur who became self-employed on April 29, 1985, at 8:52 pm, when the nurse put that first baby in my arms, and I immediately knew I wasn’t going back to a job I hated.

I spent the next 17 years trying to figure out how to make money. It took me 8 years to get my first client. I never gave up on creating the business I wanted. And BOOM, 28 years later I was an overnight success.

I have had big failures and big successes in the last 38 years, and I share all of the stories so other business owners don't make the same costly mistakes I did.

Truth be told, I'm really happy for all the crap I have endured it the past 38 years, I don't want to forget that it made me who I am today!