By David Boddy, Partner & Lead on Future of Work:

At the end of an advice session with a young entrepreneur, who had ploughed his life savings into his business, he asked me a stunner of a question:

“How can we effectively plan ahead when market conditions are so dire?”

He then proposed putting the business into mothballs, getting paid employment, waiting for the storm to pass, and perhaps starting again. To say he was deflated is an understatement.

It’s at times like this you can’t help but feel somewhat inadequate. I hope what I said in response helped him – time will tell…

“Storms in business never really pass; they just take on different guises.” I said. “So when you are looking to raise capital (he had come to Prime Advantage Capital Partners to discuss that), you have to go right back to the foundations of your idea and the business itself. Are you clear on purpose? Are you clear in who or what you are in business to serve? Is what you are offering really meeting a need?”

“If so, build your business own sand and it will be blown away; if you build your business on solid foundations it won’t be. You will have to adapt and bend a bit to meet the political and economic weather. But if your foundations are solid you will get through, and having survived you can then start to grow.”

I pointed out to him that many of our leading businesses today started at times of adversity: Marks and Spencer started during a 19th century depression; Tesco started with its founder selling groceries from a stall immediately after World War I; Richard Branson started Virgin in the midst of the 1970s oil crisis and trades union strikes; James Dyson had years of standing still in the 1990s until conditions changed which allowed him to commercialise his stunning inventions.

After years of experience it is clear that the most successful entrepreneurs have GRIT. Plenty of it. And a passionate belief in the value of what they are offering.

The quality which magnifies personal grit is HOPE.

The constant barrage of negative economic news is taking its toll on today’s start-up and early stage entrepreneurs.

I don’t know whether the entrepreneur who came for advice heard the stories I told him about how some of our great companies started off in the most difficult times. But I hope he did.

But we need more voices also trumpeting the sound of hope. Not piously or pray-fully. But practically.

It may look dark out there, but the light has to be within the mind and heart of the entrepreneur, who has to believe in their own abilities and powers to adapt, to pivot, to look at problems from the other side. And never give up.

Because the dark times don’t last forever. They never have and they never will.

Times change.

You may have to strap in for the roller coaster of taking a business from the chaos of start-ups to the control and order of a growth machine.

The power of hope is an essential ingredient.