This just in: Consumer Confidence is at the highest level since September of 2008—Almost 60% in March of 2010.

Take a deep breath. You are making it. You are cut back on expenses. You are moving forward with the retail environment that was thrust onto you. You are surviving a business climate that many could not.

Retail is recovering. Ms. Jones is beginning to buy something. Your operating procedures, pricing, marketing strategy, and business have changed. What do you do with it now?

It is a big moment in your retail life and in the furniture industry. Furniture has picked up its boot straps and done the dirty deeds necessary to outlast this recession. Surviving can no longer be the case. It has to be the exception. Let’s begin thriving.Before we figure out how we are going to thrive there has to be some pre-determined thoughts to ditch.

1. It will never be what it was. The consumer marketplace has changed. The way Ms. Jones shops for anything has become a 24-7 affair. She does not expect your brick and mortar location to be open every hour but she does expect information about you to be accessible at all times.

2. Just because it’s better—image doesn’t go away. The image you have promoted for yourself in these two years was not unnoticed–although it may have felt like it. Ms. Jones may not have been there but she did not stop listening, watching and sharing. In her world you became who you are. To shake that image is going to take time, money and effort.

3. Let’s redefine great. Great is going to be better than it was two years ago. Those who have made to this point will get a better share of the market they sell in right now. However, great will not be defined by 2% return on your direct mail or a huge weekend from your newspaper ad. Great will be defined when you own the front page of Google for your store name. Great will be when Ms. Jones writes a great review about your store and shares it with all of their friends on Facebook. Great will be successfully transferring your store into a digital age that allows for sales higher than you could of ever imagined in a traditional world.

In a three part series we will show you ways to prepare for the new economy we are all going to have to work in. Saddle up for this great new adventure we are all about ready to take on head first.