How Is The European Debt Crisis Affecting Your Business?

Main Street can feel pretty far away from, say, the piazzas of Rome and the platias of Athens. But the recent political and economic turmoil in Italy, Greece and elsewhere across Europe has shaken global markets -- and the aftershocks are eventually felt right back here at home.

For better or worse -- and there are cases to be made for both -- the world is indeed becoming flatter and more interconnected. Which is great during boom times, providing a huge potential market that simply wasn't possible to reach just a generation ago. Problem is, in the financial markets and beyond, trouble can spread much more quickly as a result.

Entrepreneurs in general are wise to keep a close eye on global news and trends, even if they still do all of their business in the good ol' US of A, because the reality is that at least something in your supply chain inevitably comes from somewhere else these days. And for entrepreneurs that already do direct business overseas in some capacity, you're probably already feeling it.

From revised investment strategies to a drop in customer demand, the members of our Board of Directors are doing just that. So we asked them to weigh in the unfolding crises in Europe -- and what it means for their businesses.

Clint Greenleaf

Founder and CEO, Greenleaf Book Group
"The Cowboy"

"The crisis is a big threat -- don't mistake the damage this can do. Greece's economy is tiny, and Italy is small, but leverage makes default incredibly dangerous. A hiccup in Europe can create havoc here, so it causes great concern. As with any crisis, there is both threat an opportunity. Right now, we should all protect ourselves in case the storm is strong."

Danielle and Jodie Snyder

Co-Founders, DANNIJO
"The Sniper And Lil' Snipes"

"Within the last year and a half, we've significantly grown our European presence. The European economic crisis is definitely concerning, as we're in a global market, and the crisis has weakened confidence in spending abroad. Fashion in particular is an international business and Italy is one of the most influential countries in the game."

Tate Chalk

Founder and CEO, Nfinity
"The Matador"

"The economic crisis in Italy and Europe in general doesn't affect us at directly at Nfinity, but like all other Americans in our global economy, we do feel the sting."

Phil Town

Investor and Author of Rule #1 And Payback Time
"Rebelman"

"I'm an investor with long-term positions in U.S. and European companies. I've tried to structure my investment choices to be those businesses that will do OK even if southern Europe falls apart, even if Europe itself goes into a depression. That means I am not funding businesses that are exposed to European consumers or European debt. If others are like me, that can't be good for those businesses. Also, the failure of Italy to be able to roll over its debt is like a roadmap of our future. We can borrow now but can we borrow in five years? Will our politicians keep spending money we have to borrow from China and drive us into a depression when the Chinese stop funding us? Italy is a huge red flag warning us that we are on the path to a full-blown depression unless we stop spending money we don't have."

Rob Adams

Director, Texas Venture Labs at the University of Texas
"The Validator"

"Most of my overseas business is in Asia, so not a big business impact beyond the ripple affect all of this will have on global markets. To reinforce this, China just announced 10 percent GDP growth for the year. The real question is how much more of this bad news is out there, and when will China tire of bailing out the Western World? Like the housing debt crisis in the United States and the pending student loan debt crisis, the question is how long does it take to get to the bottom of the cesspool?"

Comments

[MyResponsibility]

10:26 PM on 01/07/2012

The weak Euro has made it very difficult for me to export (poultry, pork, beef, seafood) into the Eurozone. However, it's created great opportunity to import into the US European foodstuffs. Unfortunately one does not compensate for the other.

[DrJoni]

10:56 PM on 11/11/2011

The reality is that we are all interdependently co-arising. Europe is no longer "somewhere else" just like we now know that there is no "away" to throw things into. New paradigm CEO's understand that they will never get balance sheets right if they aren't quantifying and consciously developing their own internal cultures.

As small businesses gradually get used to what it takes to do business in a foreign culture, they need to be mining their processes for insight on how to avoid creating the kinds of cultures that produce the financial meltdowns that are bringing countries to their proverbial knees.

[straveler222]

01:05 PM on 11/11/2011

The title of this article should be, "how we would like you to think The European Debt Crisis Affecting Your Business? " The truth is, the only way it can affect anything is if you let it, cut them off, leave them alone, take care of our own problems, lord knows we have enough of them, The only ones in this country that worry about this is Wall Street and the Greedy bankers, and we all know how we feel about them.

[agdathome]

12:04 PM on 11/11/2011

Who really cares about Europe's problems? Since I can't change their problems then I will just ignore their problems. Hows that????

[americawasgreatonce]

07:35 AM on 11/11/2011

The terrorists that we should fear most... Goldman Sachs... and they are now running our government.

[dtmfman]

07:27 AM on 11/11/2011

REPOST:

My friends...­if you've ever paid attention to ANYTHING I've ever written here...I beseech you to pay attention to this...

You will sit and watch this and be so dumbfounde­d....so depressed.­..and so pissed off at the same time. Here is the actual proof that the system is rigged...a­nd has been rigged for over 200 yrs...once you see this..you will understand ....that we will NEVER be free of the net of slavery big banking and the fed has pushed upon us.

I implore you to take the 1 hr and 56 minutes required to watch this...FRO­M BEGINNING TO END...THEN WATCH IT AGAIN!!!..­.

THEN....I ask that when you're finished..­.you stop and count to 10..hell..­..count to 100..becau­se if you don't...TH­EY WILL ARREST YOU TOMORROW FOR BURNING DOWN EVERY MAJOR BANKING INSTITUTIO­N.....TO THE GROUND....­and buıssıd on it's remains...­.

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=swkq2E8ms­wI

[dtmfman]

07:35 AM on 11/11/2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI

[dtmfman]

07:39 AM on 11/11/2011

for some reason the above link doesnt seem to work HP somehow trunkated it.....this one will

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI

[v eyepete]

03:56 AM on 11/11/2011

Isn't this article a little like the kid at school who does a bad deed and then tries to convince the world all his friends were in on it too. This is the story according to the corporate press trying to make us believe this is joe and jane america's problem. It is not. We work. We pay our bills, we deal with life simply and honestly. It is the unscrupulous rich and the greedy the world over who caused this problem and they are now trying to load it on the back of the middle class. I am not going for it. I did not cause this problem and I do not want to pay for it. TAX THE RICH!

[jteschke]

02:55 AM on 11/11/2011

The neo-liberal bankers model of finance capitalism has demonstrated its failure.