Does the possibility of a recession have you skeered stiff? Here's a tip: You can be the deer...or you can be the headlights. Seriously, I don't know if we'll actually see two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, but regardless of whether we officially have a recession or not there are a few things that you should be thinking about.
One thing in particular to consider is hiring talent. For those of you that have a need or have been considering hiring some staffers, now may be a good time. In down periods, the big corporate monsters tend to downsize to control costs in a ridiculous effort to create shareholder value (the "ridiculous" comment was my subjective opinion...actually this entire blog is my subjective opinion now that I think about it). This may present an opportunity for you to pick-up some talent that may not have been so readily available in recent past. This talent may be in the form of a new employee or it may be a new partner.
Here's an example: We were recently working with an entrepreneur who had started a fitness club. He had built a nice business and was ready to expand and open a second location. He needed some additional capital and had updated his business plan to approach a bank for an SBA loan. During this time he was contacted by a friend and former colleague to have lunch. While at lunch his friend told him that he was recently laid-off due to a slowing economy and he was taking some time to re-evaluate his career. To make a long story short, the two ended up discussing the fitness club expansion and wound up partnering on location number two. The friend had cash and loved the idea of ending his tenure working for the "man." (Oddly enough, the fitness industry is generally sheltered from mild recessions)
Another example came to us a few weeks ago when a client told me he was just able to lure a top web-designer from her corporate position. She made the leap even though the pay was less because the idea caught her attention and her current company was in trouble.
My point: Use the current state of the economy as leverage in any way that you can. During recessionary times it's increasingly important to keep an open mind and utilize that entrepreneurial creativity to its max!
By the way, on our next Cafe Cast, we will be interviewing David Hansen with Plummer and Hansen. He is an expert on small business HR practices and we'll be discussing "People as an Asset."
What else can an entrepreneur do to capitalize on the doom and gloom of a recession?
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