I’d like to start off this blog post by just stating that I Love Twitter. Being self-employed and working from home has the potential to create some fairly solitary days, especially for many of us work at home entrepreneurs who used to work in Corporate America and big offices with co-workers and water cooler chatter.

You know the kind of day I am talking about. The kind of day where you sit down in the morning to start your work day and then you look up to finally take a breath and it is 5:00. The kind of day where you realize you forgot to take a lunch break and you’re starving. The kind of day, that at the end, you realize you haven’t spoken to another adult all day.

On one hand, these days make me feel awesome. I know I was totally focused, in a groove, in flow, and making a lot of progress and headway on my open projects.

But on the other hand, these days also remind me of how much I sometimes miss the corporate water cooler and the interruptions of co-workers stopping my my cube or office (depending on the job) to say hello, talk shop, or chat about the weekend!

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I get it, social media is a hot trendy topic these days and all the cool kids are “doing” social networking. Hey, for the past year, I’ve been on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn more than I care to admit and I love it. But as a friend of mine, Andrea Costantine said many people “think ‘social media’ is the end all be all, but nothing beats a good old fashioned relationship.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Andrea, which is why I have put a lot of mileage on my car this past week. My schedule has been completely jam-packed with normal business meetings, several awesome networking events, and a fun family night out (see my hubby, kids, and father-in-law in the picture)! Check out what my week looked like:

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It’s obvious the media thinks we’re stuck in the middle of a bad economy, and maybe we are. It’s on the front of almost every newspaper and at the top of every news station on television. It seems as if it is all doom and gloom.

But I am here to tell you that many entrepreneurs may not agree. In fact several small business owners I know are taking advantage of this economic downturn to grow their businesses, expand into new markets, refine their skills, and systematize their processes. They are taking action now to ensure that when things do pick and up people starting spending money again, they are at the front of the pack leading the way for their industry.

Here are five simple things that you can do right now to build your brand and market your business in any economy:

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