Having worked on both the agency and corporate side of the desk, I can attest that most companies are more comfortable sticking to last year’s budget allocations than changing them. There are a variety reasons for this. One reason is the budget in the previous year was approved so it’s logical to think that this course will help them in the next year. The problem with continuing a budget year-after-year is it makes it difficult to establish and track specific results, and it usually does not bring growth gains that nearly all budgets state as a primary goal.

Consider two companies, each with a different set of brands and strategic initiatives. Company 1 spends most of its budget on direct to market campaigns aimed at a specific customer demographic and adjusts its budget in micro-increments after business results area analyzed, upping or downing mini-campaigns based on results. Sounds pretty smart, right?

Now consider Company 2 who invests in specific business divisions that perform at their highest projections and rewards them for their performance, and makes major changes in their budget allocation as success is achieved based on the division’s earning potentials.

Over a number of years, which one of these companies would you suppose would end up the winner? If you guessed Company 2, you would be right. It’s because as time goes along the more major investment in the strongest brands that is based on performance will outperform weaker brands that have been propped up with incremental budget support.

Over the years I have found companies much more comfortable taking ‘small steps’ because they felt they were taking on less risk. After all, if they guessed wrong they’ve only hurt themselves in a small way. Therein is the major strategy misstep that companies fall prey to in the budgeting process. They train their executive management and therefore their staffs to not look for big opportunities, but rather ‘safe’ ones. So year after year a company can underspend itself out of business particularly if they apply this same strategy to their product development. It’s sad to say, but many companies are in a downward spiral this year because they can’t break out from what they did last year.

Branding is an ongoing process that cannot be produced in an afternoon of decisions regarding your logo, corporate colors and website design. Rather, we all know that a successful brand is built from a multitude of coherent decisions that grow out of one powerful corporate and brand strategy. If owning and managing a leading brand is a goal of yours here are 10 simple rules on how to become, well, a brand leader:

1. Share all of your best ideas with everyone. Don’t hold back! People respond generously to the most generous people so you will be rewarded by your open-sharing policy.

2. Be prepared for heavy competition but lightly change strategy to adjust to a new reality and do it with so much grace everyone will think you planned it that way.

3. Be a better listener than a talker! In fact, be more interested in learning about your customer’s needs than explaining your services. Remember, people are interested in telling their story, not necessarily listening to yours, at least not until they’ve told theirs first.

4. Realize that you need to be a team of one. Be confident and proactive.

5. Use research but trust your instincts, as they will usually be right if you have been in your industry for some time.

6. As a very close friend told me recently, “Be better each day so you can help others do better.” This is a baseline way to conduct your life and it will never let you down professionally or personally, for that matter.

7. Pursue your dreams and big ideas. Don’t let them sit on a shelf year after year. Try them out and see if you can make something of them. You’ll never know if you don’t try.

8. Try and be the industry imaginer. Steve Jobs was always out in front of his competition and customers and offered something new and different. This capacity of coming out with something new serves Apple well today.

9. Be a detail person. Follow through on every single drop of opportunity that comes your way and finish every item you start, regardless of how large or small.

10. Don’t sit by the phone waiting for it to ring with an idea or opportunity. Instead, pick up the phone and make something happen!

According to the SBA, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years, and 1 out of 10 make it to year 10. These same pressures hold true for hundreds of Fortune 1000 corporations who have either declared bankruptcy or filed reorganizations during the past five years. So, what do companies who make it past year 10 have that the others don’t?

Here are four questions they know the answers to that help them stand out and thrive during the most difficult of times:

1. Who do you want to communicate with? Knowing your precise target audience seems like a no-brainer, I’m sure, but it’s amazing how many companies try and communicate with “Everyone” thinking this will increase their chances of success. Instead, focus on the specific target market and audience that will make a difference in your business growth.

2. What do they know about us? Before you put one message into the marketplace you need to determine what your prospects already know about you. This simple exercise can save you months of missteps.

3. What do you want them to know? Trying to get your prospects to know everything about you in the first few moments is the equivalent of meeting someone for the first time and starting to tell them about your early childhood! Start where they are and let them know the things that will make them comfortable in continuing the conversation.

4. What do you want them to do? Of course, your end game is to convert your prospects into customers, but the question is what steps would you like them to take in this decision-making process. Hint: it should meet their needs first and foremost.

Having the answers to these four simple questions – along with your strategic prioritized agenda – will place you on the path of not only surviving a recession but thriving in one.