Launching a business? You must be joking!
August 26th, 2009 by Matt_BSo when is the best time to start your business? Many would say that you’d have to be mad to do it in the middle of a recession. In the past 18 months we’ve seen some of the biggest banks, businesses and insurers make massive losses or go out of business. This sharp retraction in growth means many employees now live in fear of redundancy while small businesses simply don’t have access to the credit they could get in the boom years.Anybody even considering launching a business now would have to be nuts, surely?
Well last night at the British Library an audience of 100 budding entrepreneurs turned out to meet three people who started their businesses in the middle of a recession. And the message? Seize the day of course!
Cynics will always tell you not to follow your passions – that’s just what they do (and by hell there’s a lot of them out there). But there are reasons to be cheerful. Here are just a few of them:
1. While big business struggles in a recession, SMEs can thrive. They can spot markets and respond quickly to demand- people haven’t stopped spending, they’re just doing so in different ways. Tap into this and your business will be a success.
2. Business is about people. Get the best minds in marketing, and your marketing campaign will be awesome. Go figure. The same goes for finance, branding, logistics etc. etc. etc. And when is talent cheapest, most abundant and keenest to work in new arenas? In the middle of a recession, obviously!
3. As demand retracts, prices tumble on food, holiday and clothes. The same is true for business. Office space, staff and advertising costs have never been lower. Throw into the mix innovations such as virtual PAs and the mass of online resources available to SMEs (Kashflow, Huddle and Remember the Milk to name a few) there has never been a cheaper time to start a business.
So if you’re thinking about starting a business, what’s really stopping you? As our old friend and compere for last night’s event Oli Barrett pointed out: the entrepreneurs we met have a diverse income stream and many clients. Meanwhile even if you’re on a six figure salary, you rely on one pay cheque hitting your account every month. With no job safe, who is really taking taking the bigger the risk?
October 26th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Thank you a lot of useful information, there is much to learn
November 20th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
We started our business just as the credit crunch turned into the recession. The best thing about it is that it’s allowed us to focus on our local clients and expand our reputation organically. Most of our business is won by word of mouth – which is free! There’s only Jo and myself, so we don’t havew a huge wage bill, and we rent our space from a charity who were desperate to have someone in here. We know things can only get better. By the time families have lots more money to spend on portraiture, we’ll have consolidated our reputation and be well placed to take advantage.