By now we have all heard the of the pounding Wall Street is taking, huge investment banks are being devoured by larger commercial banks like Bank of America. Now I have a close friend that works for one of these global investment banks as an analyst, a bank that was about to be on the chopping block waiting to be taken over by yet another commercial bank, and I remember him telling me that after The Great Depression a law was passed that basically said that when a bank opens for business it can either be a commercial bank, the kind that we are all used like Citi, and Chase or an investment bank, like Morgan Stanley, this little piece paper signed into law was called the Glass-Steagall Act. I am no economics expert so I have no idea why the government is allowing these purchases to occur, so “why bring this up you ask?” Simple if these behemoths are suffering like this what hope do the rest of us have?
As a typical IT freak I read a lot of literature, some on new products and technologies to keep myself current and others that deal with the way large enterprises handle their enormous data flow, all this got me thinking about ways for small business to cut back on spending. You may say that as small business owners we don’t have the same headaches or the same spending habits these large institutions do, but I beg to differ. True we may not have a large global supply chain to manage, or large work force numbering in the thousands or even large data farms that span states and countries but just like them we still have to pay the bills at the end of the month. We still have to pay for things like heating and cooling, and electricity, and while our balances may not be in the hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions, when trying to keep a business going often on a wing and prayer every little bit counts!