Now that is it here, we have to get through it. As it with all economic downturns, it affects each of us differently. For example:

• Anyone with stock investments is already feeling the affects. We need to learn that owning stock is indeed a long term investment and should only be purchased when we will not need the money for a long time. I think many of us will be rethinking how much of our retirement dollars should be in stocks.
• Anyone unemployed will probably have a very tough time finding a new job. Very few companies are going to be hiring more employees unless it is to replace someone who has left. New positions are going to be few until there is a recovery.
• Those unemployed need to look extra hard for a new position or take something at a lower level than previously held. Any job is better than none in an extended recession and this one looks like it could last a while.
• Those still employed will probably be enjoying some lower prices for many items. For example, look at the price of gasoline. Some food prices are falling. Virtually all the stores have deep discounts in anticipation of a reluctant shopper this Christmas season. It is a buyer's market.
• Anyone wanting to buy a house has a wonderful opportunity right now. If there is a house to sell before buying, that could be a problem but for the home buyer, there are opportunities that most thought would never come around again. Prices could go even lower before they turn around but you need to buy, the time has come.
• Business owners are going to have a tough time. There will be less money circulating and many businesses will fail. It will be a very tough time for those with a lot of debt and very low profit margin. Recessions thin out a lot of companies that have been struggling. For a very large example, look at the car companies. Bailing them out will artificially carry a very inefficient company that needs to be changed to survive. A bailout will only delay it at the taxpayer expense.

Most economies are slow in recovering because of the lack of confidence by the consumer. If we do not spend, invest or otherwise use our money and labor to expand the economy, it will be very slow in returning. Consider how long that Great Depression lasted. The government tired to get people back to work with programs but only when WW II came around did the consumer see the bigger need.

We do not have a lot of confidence in our economy right now. The Obama presidency has been burdened with a lot of expectations to be successful immediately after taking office. If this administration is not successful in reviving the economy, the country may languish for some time. He has a lot of plans for a government stimulus which may provide short term relief in hopes of long term growth.

When a recovery begins, the stock market will be more positive than negative. Of course most of us will be too scared to invest but in hindsight will wish we had. Another early sign will be the cardboard box manufacturer. As orders start to increase, it is a sign of better things to come. Manufacturing inventories will increase as will the use of consulting services and improvements to company technology.

As an average consumer, recognizing these early indicators will be difficult unless we take an active role in understanding what is happening in the business world. In other words, we need to stay informed. There are many good internet sites that provide ongoing economic information such as http://money.cnn.com/ and http://www.marketwatch.com/.

Google has a good index of many business sites at http://www.google.com/Top/News/Current_Events/Business_and_Economy/. There are, of course, many others. The key is to stay with it.

• Executive sponsorship: A senior manager or executive who's willing to go on record to say, “Disaster recovery planning is so important that we need to complete it by this date.” In other words, you need to find someone who's willing to put their money where their mouth is!
• Budget: In the early stages of a DR project, you need money for a project manager, technology experts, process experts, or supplemental help for departments as they divert resources away from their usual business to the DR project. In the later stages of the project, you spend money on technology improvements that you need to support recovery objectives.
• Project manager: You need a strong project manager for a multidisciplinary project that can involve dozens of people or more, such as disaster recovery planning. You can have a part-time or full-time project manager, depending on the number of people and activities involved.
• Subject matter experts: You need experts in the business processes that the organization has in play, particularly those processes that earn revenue or service customers. You also need technology experts who understand the IT applications and infrastructure that support those processes.
• People with writing skills: Later phases of DR projects require people who can write processes and procedures in a way that anyone can understand. You never know who might end up on a disaster response team.

A typical DR project can take anywhere from three months (for the smallest organization) to well over a year to complete. How quickly you get a DR plan in place depends on how high a priority you need to make it and how much extra money you have available for outside help. If you really don't have a good handle on the amount of resources that you may need for your project, here are a couple of suggestions:

• Hire a consultant. Bring in an experienced DR consultant, just for a short term engagement (no more than a few days), to have a look around and give you some thumbnail estimates on project sizing. A consultant who says he or she needs a month to give you these estimates either doesn't understand that you want only rough estimates or just wants the billable hours.
• Develop an interim DR plan. You should develop an interim DR plan, anyway, but by writing this plan, you can get additional exposure on the number of critical processes, systems, suppliers, and so on in your business. That information can help you estimate the size and scope of the real DR plan.

Assuming our memory serves us all that well, we didn't forget that rounds of Internet start-up millionaires had been created by the time the Internet bubble burst, in a way that they crushed the economy, not by it. This time, we certainly had winners too--those who sold big on properties and credits before the bubble was blown too thin and finally popped. And these big sellers can now turn around to represent the resilience of the troubling economy that has bad implications for only the rest of us.

To win the current and upcoming economic battles, get propelled by the hot air from "global warming," or maybe from "global growing." It's time to make another bet, but always be ready to jump off this will-be-overinflated, gigantic, "wheel of the globe" before the air will certainly start leaking out from it again.