A down economy has created a lot of negativity among small businesses across the U.S. and for good reason. Slow sales, increased competition and shrinking customer bases have caused many local insurance agencies to panic and either shutdown completely or allow themselves to be bought out. Bad times have brought about bad and counterproductive agency culture, but there’s no reason to give up your goals now.

A negative work environment is a catalyst that can lead company morale to plummet. Just because things have been difficult for the past few years doesn’t mean it’s time to pack up. If you sit back and accept defeat, you’re simply succumbing to outside influences that are out of your control. Right now, other local insurance agencies are plotting how they are going to rise up and challenge the bigger companies, and all of them are starting to do this by believing in themselves, their employees and their agency as a whole. To help your agency and employees believe in your mission and goal, here are some tips to consider:

• Get an attitude makeover: The worst thing an agency can do is submit itself to this lackluster attitude that a local insurance agency can only do so much. Not true! Any business—large or small—has the potential to achieve greatness, but the business must have an attitude in which everyone is striving to be the best they can be.

• Rally your employees: When things morale gets down in the dumps… don’t think your employees won’t notice. Rallying your employees to buy in to believing in your agency will make sure everyone is on the same wavelength when it comes to working together towards the common goal.

• Believe in your business: Many agencies have decided to either throw in the towel or limit themselves as a result of the economy making it difficult for them to thrive. However, while it may seem like things are bleak, now is actually the time to take the initiative to expand your business. Whether it’s being more aggressive in sales, insurance marketing or advertising, you and your agency need to believe in your brand and get in the mindset that you will be successful. If you succumb to thinking the opposite, then that is exactly what you will do: not reach expectations and continue to regress to the mean.

Just because you’re having trouble meeting sales and profit expectations doesn’t mean your agency should consume itself with worrying about the future. Instead, let the future—and other local agencies—worry about you and the agency you run. The first step towards building a better future is believing in yourself, your employees and your insurance agency, so make that your number one priority going forward.