Overcome Four Obstacles to Growth in 2012

Bloomberg Businessweek: Business strategists--including Karl Schamotta, Senior Market Strategist for Western Union Business Solutions in Calgary--pinpoint impending challenges and offer advice to help entrepreneurs overcome them.

Bloomberg Businessweek:

Late in 2011, the U.S. economy began crackling with signs of increasing confidence, putting American entrepreneurs in a better position than they’ve been in for years, says Karl Schamotta, a senior market strategist for Western Union Business Solutions (WU) in Calgary. “The U.S. economy took its licks very hard during the financial crisis and its aftermath, but it’s still one of the world’s most flexible economies—and that gives it a huge advantage in recovery,” Schamotta says.

The upbeat forecasts could get lost in the doom-and-gloom pronouncements that typically accompany a Presidential election year, says John Krubski, a futurist and research adviser for the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. He suggests that small companies use the uptick as an excuse to adjust their business models and seek new markets.

In this Smart Answers column, Schamotta and Krubski pinpoint four challenges they foresee facing entrepreneurs in 2012 and offer advice to business owners on how to meet these obstacles to growth, head-on.

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