Will yours be among the small business start-ups that call the bottom to a business slump? During hard economic times the light of the visionary entrepreneur can shine.
Someone once said that the demand for creative thinking increases where capital is limited. Beware, however, for this is not the road for the faint of heart. Small business start-ups during tough economic times will bring out the stuff that separates the doers from the wannabes: audacity, perseverance, problem-solving, and innovation.
In starting your business during an economic downturn there will be those who will question the business start-up as an insane act. This may be a parent, a spouse, or a best friend. Be encouraged, but also be prepared to address their concerns. Their concerns are probably the same ones that sprang up during the development stage of the business idea.
What is the vision for the new business venture? Commit it to paper. This does not have to be as formal as a business plan. This is the brainstorm stage. What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses? What type of support system can help turn the idea into the going concern envisioned? Draw pictures. Make lists. The market research stage will be better served by the vividly defined ideas developed during this initial brainstorming.
Study the markets. Not the stock markets, but those infinite and distinct communities of potential buyers for a given service or product. This could be a local market or a national market. This can even be a global market with the use of the internet being limited only by the imagination.
Write and post this somewhere: "the best leader for supply is demand."
Think about the marketplace and ask if there are visible unfulfilled needs that are unfulfilled? For instance, has someone said out loud: "I wish there was a (insert here) here." A needed business is lurking somewhere in that sentence. Or, better yet, has someone expressed the sentiment: "there has to be a better way of doing this?" Well, there probably is, but no one has come up with that better way.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for tax or legal advice.
Small Business Start-ups in a Bear Market
According to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's "The Economic Future Just Happened" study, half of the 2009 Fortune 500 companies were started during bear markets or recessions. Starting a small business during lean times may be right for those among the scores of corporate talents recently pink-slipped, or for those who envision running their own firm and are finding costs such as commercial leases are now quite favorable.The Business Idea Brainstorm
The first place to venture is among the business ideas that have been floating in your head. This is an intimate act. It is best not to start telling folks what you have in mind at this stage because the best way to kill an idea is to surround it by naysayers during its incubator stage.In starting your business during an economic downturn there will be those who will question the business start-up as an insane act. This may be a parent, a spouse, or a best friend. Be encouraged, but also be prepared to address their concerns. Their concerns are probably the same ones that sprang up during the development stage of the business idea.
Small Business Entrepreneurs
The characteristics of an entrepreneur are "boundless energy, brimming vision and bold determination to push into the unknown," wrote the noted economics teacher Candace Allen in her article "The Entrepreneur as Hero", published in Economic Insights, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.What is the vision for the new business venture? Commit it to paper. This does not have to be as formal as a business plan. This is the brainstorm stage. What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses? What type of support system can help turn the idea into the going concern envisioned? Draw pictures. Make lists. The market research stage will be better served by the vividly defined ideas developed during this initial brainstorming.
Business Market Analysis and Business Funding
What type of start-up is best during an economic downturn? Certainly a business that requires a lot of start-up capital may not be the best course, unless the capital is readily available. Venture capital doesn't come easy during economic downturns.Study the markets. Not the stock markets, but those infinite and distinct communities of potential buyers for a given service or product. This could be a local market or a national market. This can even be a global market with the use of the internet being limited only by the imagination.
Write and post this somewhere: "the best leader for supply is demand."
Think about the marketplace and ask if there are visible unfulfilled needs that are unfulfilled? For instance, has someone said out loud: "I wish there was a (insert here) here." A needed business is lurking somewhere in that sentence. Or, better yet, has someone expressed the sentiment: "there has to be a better way of doing this?" Well, there probably is, but no one has come up with that better way.
Tapping into Small Business Resources
Once the specific small business idea is found, tap into the array of small business resources available at libraries, small business associations, and state and federal agencies. This is the time for industry research, business networking, and developing your business and marketing plan. Just remember, when the U.S. economy comes out of an economic downturn, and it always has, the entrepreneurial trailblazers will be ahead of the game by audaciously starting their businesses now.Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for tax or legal advice.
