On this week's edition of the RedPod I talk to entrepreneur Gary Dutton about the gathering gloom in the economy, and what it means for business owners.

He's already seeing a marked effect on his business, and is worried that things will take 10 months or so to get better. He thinks 2008 will be a tough year.

My concern is that the impact is going to be harder, and longer. In previous booms the financiers haven't been quite so clever/crafty/criminal (delete according to your viewpoint). There had been at least some kind of moral code, some kind of idea of standards. But this time they have let their egos run away with them, and created a really really big hole that they're now falling into.

Of course, the individuals concerned have millions stashed away in offshore accounts, so the impact will mainly be felt by their staff, shareholders, and the wider economy.

Meanwhile there's little the authorities can do because despite a number of rate cuts by the Bank of England the banks aren't passing these on to their customers. They are once again being greedy, and that'll make the situation even worse.

And they have gone from one extreme to another on lending - from throwing credit at high risk borrowers, to refusing it to even very creditworthy individuals and companies.

I expect we'll see large numbers of job losses in the headlines this year, an increase in company failures and much more doom and gloom.

So the first thing is to make sure that you have created a solid foundation at your company. Make sure you're not frittering away money, that you have a good sales pipeline, that your systems are efficient, that you are saving an emergency fund in the bank, and so on. Plan your cash flow forecast even more carefully than normal, and even more pessimistically.

But remember also: entrepreneurs are oysters. They take the grit and make beautiful pearls from it. They craft success out of adversity.

So where are the opportunities you could seize in this recession? There'll be great people coming onto the jobs market, potential clients looking for better deals or time-saving ideas, and many more ways to make the best of a tough time.

In the meantime, listen to the RedPod by clicking here: http://www.podexec.com/programme/redpod-28