When things get hairy—particularly when it comes to the economy—it's pretty much a given that it'll kick off a whirlwind of hysterical speculation in the press. A DEPRESSION in coming! In five years, we'll all be speaking Chinese! In ten years, the only entrepreneurs left standing will be those who cashed out their bank accounts and bought gold!

While a healthy respect for the admittedly scary stuff that's going on right now is totally legitimate, completely freaking out and making rampant speculation about what might happen isn't. That's because most of the guessing that's going on right now in the press is just that—guessing. But that hasn't stopped talking heads, many of whom have made a career out of wild speculation, from making grandiose claims about what they say they know is going to happen and dishing advice (ahem, Jim Cramer, we're talking to you).

That said, there are economists, analysts, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs out there offering good, solid advice about how to tackle this decidedly grim economy. So how's a smart entrepreneur to differentiate between that good information and the rampant fear-mongering ("SELL EVERYTHING!!") that seems to have taken hold of news pundits?

We've got a secret: don't trust anyone who tells you they know what's going to happen in two months, let alone two years from now. No one knows what's going to happen, and if they did, they wouldn't be on TV blabbing about how bad things are because naturally they'd have it all figured out. Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't consider a worst case scenario happening down the road. You should know what the worst could be, and make sure you have a strategy in your business plan to deal with it—no question. But what you shouldn't do is act on the speculation of experts who say they think another dust bowl or rush on the bank is coming in the coming months.

The advice you should take is from entrepreneurs and other small business owners who've weathered such storms before (yes, there have been major dips in the past), and who are offering up commentary that not only sounds sane now, but would have sounded sane before this whole mess began. That sort of advice—like cutting back on superfluous costs and watching your expenditures—isn't predicated on what might happen. It's good advice no matter what goes down. Solid businesses practices are solid business practices because they get a business through good times and bad. But, it can be easy to forget that when the economy is in shambles and Jim Cramer gets in your head.