It isn’t often these days that I find a parallel between business and the sports world, but shock of all shocks, it happened this week. And right in my own backyard here in Kansas City with my hometown Kansas City Chiefs football team.

For those of you unfamiliar with Kansas City, we are a huge sports town. We had a major love affair with our baseball Royals as they provided some of the most memorable playoff battles against those reviled New York Yankees back in the late 1970′s.

Now the Royals consider it an excellent season if they DON’T lose 100 games… and the Chiefs last year were 2 – 14. Being the proud sports city we are, this was rapidly becoming an intolerable situation for the loyal fans.

The Chiefs did finally wise up and fire their general manager as well as their head coach. Todd Haley (who?) was named the Chiefs new head coach. He had been the offensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals and was handed the prestigious job of turning around our losing football team.

Todd started out just as we all expected… LOSING! The Chiefs in the preseason are 0-3, and have scored just 2 offensive touchdowns over the past two weeks… IN PRE-SEASON… when you play against the also-ran third stringers much of the game.

And then the unthinkable happened. After the third loss, Haley abruptly fired his offensive coordinator and assumed the position himself. WHY???

First, the firing was due to non-performance. Haley reasoned it doesn’t do much good to keep an offensive coordinator who can’t produce offense. WOW! There’s a novel idea.

Second, “the buck stops here” mentality. Todd knows HE is ultimately responsible for the Chiefs record, and by golly, he decided to do something about it. He stepped in and said “I will assume full responsibility and authority for the results this team achieves moving forward.

HOW REFRESHING! Who is this guy again?

I found it refreshing to actually see someone step up to the plate for a change… admit a mistake had been made… take full and unabashed responsibility for that mistake… and assume the accountability for all future results.

What about you? As a small business owner, you ARE the business, and yet how often do I hear small business owners tell me how the economy is bad… no one is buying anything. Oh woe is me.

Unfortunately for these business owners, the statistics don’t bear out the whining. There are more millionaires made during recessions than during the boom times. Businesses who aggressively spend more money on marketing their business during a recession enjoy a 275% growth pattern over the next 5 years compared to the 19% growth pattern for those that don’t.

Below are some businesses started during a recession. Where are these companies now?

• Burger King Corp.
• IHOP Corp.
• The Jim Henson Company (Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and Elmo)
• LexisNexis
• FedEx Corp.
• Microsoft Corp.
• CNN
• MTV Networks
• Trader Joe’s
• Wikipedia Foundation Inc.
• Sports Illustrated magazine
• GE (General Electric Co.)
• HP (Hewlett-Packard Development Company LP)

Are you “waiting out” the recession… or tackling it head on?

Are you cutting back your marketing budget… or increasing it so you can pick up unprecedented market share?

Are you seeking out professional help from experts that can assist you in growing your business?

If not… why not? Todd Haley had the guts to admit his mistake as a head coach and stand behind it. As the owner of your business, are you willing to do the same when it applies?

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