Mama said there'd be days like these. And boy, have we had days and days of them. With an unstable economy, a nation on the brink of war, an impending sense of "waiting for the other shoe to drop" following 9/11, and for many of us either no second income spouse at home or a diminishing second income from the spouse at home; it is becoming imperative that our small and home-based businesses not just survive but begin to show a healthy profit.

How is small business, and more specifically, your small business going to survive in the new economy? There was a time not long ago when many of us were successful in our small and home-based businesses almost in spite of ourselves. Those days are long gone. Growing and competing locally and online is going to require new plans of survival.

According to the Business Journal of Houston, "The recession has been especially harsh on women-owned companies, which comprised 40 percent of all small businesses two years ago but now command only 32 percent of the pie. Home-based businesses have been clobbered, too, comprising just 19 percent of the small-business universe compared to 26 percent in 2000. "

What if we are giving our businesses all we've got and we still aren't giving them enough? For low cost, far reaching marketing options, we need to fully tap into the internet as a global marketplace.

"Although more small businesses are experimenting with Web promotion of their products and services, the market is far from saturated and there is still plenty of room to grow," said Raymond Boggs, IDC vice president of small business research. Now is the time to cultivate strong online relationships and delve into both business to business sales and business to consumer sales. If you aren't doing this, your small or home-based business may be a 2003 obituary.

According to current statistis, "Of those small businesses buying over the Web, 30 percent have made a purchase within the past week, and 64 percent have done so within the past month. Of the 1,500 small business owners and top-level executives interviewed, 600 respondents, or 39 percent, said they had access to the Internet, up from 32 percent who said they had access in a similar survey sponsored by the two companies in 1997. More than half (55 percent) of respondents with Internet access said they've made a business-related purchase via the World Wide Web in the past year, more than twice the number who said they did in 1997." Its time to take a long, hard look at your business and make plans to market to small businesses as well as consumers for enduring success. Networking is again, the name of the game for survival. If you cannot market to small businesses, then put into place plans to cooperatively market with them.

Perhaps all you've got hasn't been enough to sustain your business. But if you can combine all you've got with all everybody has to offer as well, you can live long and prosper online with your small or home-based business.