Until there is a terrorist attack or the DOW recovers at least half of it’s 6,000 point losses there will be a deluge of two kinds of articles available online:

1. Articles that start with something like: “In a down economy…” or “During a recession…”, followed by something gloomy, and

2. Articles about “the best thing a business can do to survive/thrive in a resession/down economy.”

How many, “stay lean”, “talk to your customers”, “differentiate from your competition”, and “repurpose your marketing dollars” articles can one read? There are so many of these kinds of articles that it’s a challenge not to just say “oh brother” when I come across yet another one. But every now and then there is one that really says something different. I will try to point those out periodically either here or via Twitter.

Small Business Labs has a mixed bag. Most of their articles are insightful small business trends analysis. Sometimes, though, I wonder what sking was thinking (sorry sking).

Take this one that cites a list of “Top 10″-type posts from Small Business Trends. Most of those posts are rehashes or just old news. One of them, however, a post about franchise trends, was pretty good and seems to be on the money. Check it out.

What I like about the franchise trends article is that it is opportunitistic; something you’re going to need to be to “survive in this economy”.