And this means taking steps to rethink your business strategy. In other words, it's time to think about growth.

Let's take a look:

Marketing: Ramp it up. Interestingly enough, ad rates have fallen across the board. So, you should get more bang for the buck. Plus, your competition has likely pulled back on things.

Make some long-term investments: This may mean increasing inventory. Or, it could be purchasing new software. In fact, new technologies are fairly inexpensive right now, especially for things like customer relationship management and payroll management. Some offerings to look at include NetSuite (enterprise resource planning), VerticalResponse (for e-mail marketing), Intuit (for payroll) and Web.com (for setting up a website).

Hire: OK, this sounds scary. But the fact is that -- with high unemployment -- there is an incredible opportunity to find quality people who want to work hard.

Now, it probably makes sense to be somewhat cautious. For example, you can hire someone based on a probation period, say three months. After this period, you can make a final hiring decision.

Financing: While it's tough to raise money right now, things will start to loosen up. As a result, you should get started now on the process. This means putting together a business plan, as well as getting your legal structure in order (such as cleaning up contracts and so on).

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook.