For small businesses, the gap between simply surviving and actually thriving can be difficult to negotiate even when the economic climate is good, let alone when it’s bad. In a faltering economy, the threat of being painted into a corner makes it all the more daunting.

Sheer persistence still remains a key for pulling through hard times, but it alone is seldom enough. Strategy has become the real watchword for the contemporary small business. It must use its limited resources wisely, with an eye always cast toward improving the relationship between costs and benefits.