by Ro Johnson

 With the recent economic news: Not very! If the financial crisis spreads further economists say we could start to see more day-to-day impacts, such as you can’t get a car loan or home equity line of credit, or that your credit card limits are reduced.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
If the crisis continues to spread unchecked, we also could find that our employer isn’t able to borrow the money it needs to buy new equipment or inventory, expand its operations, hire new employees or even pay us. This could lead to higher unemployment and lower consumer spending, and send our already spiraling economy into spinout mode.

Think your job is safe? How much does your company depend on a strong banking system? Who are your customers? How do they pay for your services? How much of your compensation is salaried? Do you own stock in the company, or are you a principal? What about your largest client, is their share of your revenue large? If it’s more than 45% then your firm could be exposed to implosion.

If businesses take a conservative stance on spending the first area of their budget to slash will be marketing expenses. It should be the last, but it isn’t. The company will focus on maintaining its current customer base and cutting operating costs. It will opt for less expensive ways of generating sales by using advertising versus direct-field selling. They will cut layers of management down to a minimum, leaving many executive level sales professionals scrambling to polish off their resumes. This is reflected by the large number of highly qualified and long experienced sales professionals registered with online job searches.

“We are in a credit crunch and it’s starting to crunch America’s businesses, large and small,” said James Wilcox, a professor of financial institutions at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

How safe is your job? Better batten down the hatches because a storm is coming.