I conducted a pair of “in the field” Duct Tape Marketing podcasts this week with two small business experts digging into the current state of small business.

Rieva Lesonsky is the editor of Entrepreneur magazine and past guest on the show and Jim Blasingame is the small business advocate and creator of the website AskJim.biz

Some folks have hinted that there is a small business recession in the works. My guests suggest ways to stay ahead of it.

Related Story:
Measuring the Economic Confidence of Small Business Owners The Discover Small Business Watch is a monthly index of the economic confidence of the nation’s 22 million businesses with five or fewer employees.

Key Takeaways from the October Discover Small Business Watch:

Economic confidence among small business owners continued to fall in October as many expressed increased pessimism about both the future of their own businesses and the U.S. economy in general. At 96.8, the Watch dropped more than two points from 99.2 in September and has been on a downward trend since July when it was 107.3.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is brought to you by att.com/onwardsmallbiz. Resources for the small business owner.