Election election

What to do on Tuesday... that seems to be a perplexing thought for many of us. And while the obvious thing for me to do is blog about what seems to be a never-ending campaign of change, mavericks and mudslinging (I live in THE swing state, PA) I think that I'd rather try to uncover nuggets of truths that can help you improve your business.

In order to do this, however, we need to take the opposite approach of each candidate - who seem to be promising immediate change on everything without really planning for long-term issues.

As business people, we need to step away from our personal feelings for a few minutes in order to plan. Set our emotions aside, our personal ideologies aside and really plan for "what if" scenarios. What if Senator Obama is elected? What happens if McCain is elected? What if... you get my point.

With that said, the best advice I can give you is to begin proper planning NOW based upon either scenario. In fact, this should have been done as soon as it became evident who each party's nominee would be. It's not too late, though.

Set up a network consisting of a financial planner, accountant, attorney, local politician, marketing guru, real estate expert, college administrator, teacher, advertising person and restauranteer. Add more if you would like, but this is my mix and it seems to give me ten different angles on any certain issue.

Then ask your experts to give you "what if" scenarios based upon both candidates. You will now have 20 different insights to the same problem.

NOW you can begin to plan accordingly for the next four years based upon something other than our your own personal subjectivity. In fact, you may gain insight into multiple political views, economic arguments, educational debates and taxing issues as they relate to YOUR business.

Does it sound like you have just improved your bottom line? You betcha.

Ask each of your sources to do a SWOT analysis on your business based upon their what-if scenarios. A SWOT analysis, in case you don't know, stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats as they relate to any item; most notably your business. Again, with ten or more experts at your disposal, you will get many answers to your questions and their personal analysis of your business. That's powerful stuff.

The other indirect benefit of doing this is that you've just included yourself in a very exclusive club compromised of various professionals in multiple industries rather than surround yourself with folks just like you. And while it might be uncomfortable for a short-time, the long-term benefits of obtaining differing views will yield results you cannot even imagine. In fact, these views will likely lead you to new markets, products and business ventures you might not have ever imagined.

Get out and vote with your conscience, but use your brain when it comes to business planning.

Drop me a comment below and let me know what you think.