Anyone who runs their own business may be extremely concerned given the shenanigans that happened in Washington on Monday.  Whether you run a home based business or a small business or even if you’re not in business at all, you may have some grave concerns about the failure of the US bailout plan.  Even if you’re not located in the US, you could potentially be affected by the failure of Republicans and Democrats to reach an agreement on the bailout plan.

I’ll admit, I spent my afternoon glued to CNN, starting with Rick Sanchez (http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn) and I stayed there until long after the closing bell.  At one point, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) was down over 900 points and the New York Stock Exchange recorded it biggest single day drop in the history of the market – around 777 points.

In case you missed the coverage, here’s what happened: The House voted against the bailout, with the bill falling short by a dozen votes.  Both parties spent the afternoon blaming each other for the failure rather than spending time talking about how to find a solution and discussing what happens next.  The markets started to tank long before the final count came through and continued their downward spiral until the closing bell.

On Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook, the reaction was anger, disappointment, outrage and even panic and fear.  I’ll admit, I spent the afternoon watching a few key stocks looking to pick up some additions to my stock portfolio.  Now is not the time for fear.  Now is not the time for fingerpointing and blame.  Now is the time for coming together and working on real solutions together.  You can join a fantastic discourse on Robert Scoble’s blog (or link through to his FriendFeed profile to join the discussion).  Now is the time to invest and buy if you can afford it, trying to avoid credit if you can.  Economic growth and stimulus will only happen if we do not succumb to panic and fear.

I’m not the only one who is advocating calm, cool thinking.  Don’t panic sell all your investments.  First of all, that will most likely hurt your long-term investment goals.  Secondly, even though it was the largest point drop in history, it was not the largest percentage drop.  If you know your market history, you’ll recognize that we’ve been here before and we’ve bounced back.  We survived.  Today was not financial armageddon.  It may feel like it, but it wasn’t.

So while panic may be everyone’s gut reaction, a better reaction would be to start investing.  Talk to your broker or investment professional today.  Don’t panic – we will recover.  It’s just a matter of time.