THE season is changing, the skies are greying, and the cloud of economic gloom is still hovering over our heads.

Yesterday saw the International Monetary Fund slash its growth forecasts for the UK and warn that the global economy is in a “dangerous new phase”.

It’s not so much a case of “the glass is half- empty” as “the glass is lying smashed on the floor”. What with that and the ongoing eurozone debt crisis, it’s tempting to go and hide under a duvet and wait for things to get better.

But that, say many business leaders, is exactly what we should not be doing.

One of the best things about my job is hearing inspiring stories from business leaders. And one recurring theme of late has been that firms have to keep innovating despite the downturn.

When I interviewed Mark Seaborn (Page 3) he told me that when the recession hit he carried out a review of his business, Pennington Choices, to see how it should adapt. All options were on the table – including, he said, “whether we should pack up and go home”. But, instead, the company decided to use the skills it already had to win new business.

So its electricians are project managers who are now installing solar panels across the region.

Several business leaders I’ve profiled recently are trying new things.

At Coulton’s Bread, in Aintree, for example, boss Howard Hunter has overseen the launch of the Bakestone brand to help his firm protect its margins.

At Greenall’s, in Warrington, chief executive Christian Rose is promoting new gin brands Bloom and Berkeley Square, in a bid to win more market share.

And, at Southport insurer Paymentshield, chief executive Tim Johnson has opened a call centre dedicated to winning back lost customers: “We could have just hibernated and waited until the market picked up again,” he told me.

“But you can also say ‘how can we grow out of it and think of things differently?’ We chose to do that.”

SO WHAT else can businesses do? Well, they could start expanding their online offering.

That’s one thing Anil Juneja is hoping to do at TJ Hughes, while most large firms worth their salt are setting ambitious online sales targets.

Many SMEs, however, are not yet online at all. And they’re missing out.

Some firms may protest that they offer products or services that aren’t easily sold online. That may be true, but in my view every company should have an informative online presence.

Every day, I have to look through company websites for information.

Sometimes I’m looking for a company’s history, sometimes for a simple explanation of what it does, and sometimes for the simplest thing of all – a phone number. And it’s surprising how many firms don’t have those details on their sites.

For me, it’s a mild inconvenience – I can always find the information elsewhere.

But a potential customer might not be prepared to jump through those hoops. And if a competitor is more forthcoming than you, then they could win deals that should have been yours.

Web giant Google has some statistics to back that up. Its UK boss, Matt Brittin, told an audience in Liverpool last week that businesses that are online are growing four times faster than those who stay offline.

Google is holding three months of workshops in Liverpool to help firms get online. Let’s hope that, in years to come, some of those firms will be featured in these pages telling their inspiring stories of how they grew despite the downturn.