Excellent article by Judith Hurowitz describing the top ten reasons some software companies will fail during the recession. To me, the list also applies when there is not a recession - these are sound business practices.
The software companies that succeed during a recession will have strong value propositions (not just fluff - but hard dollar value props), market effectively to the market segments where the value can be quickly delivered, and solve critical customer-centric problems.
This also happens to be what we're working on with our clients. Coincidence?