I recently ran into a question on one of my social networks about which industries were doing well in the current (read depressed) economic down turn. It brought to mind, a lesson I learned at the outset of my business career about how your mindset can control your performance during difficult times.
We started our company at a time of both economic and political upheaval. Everyone said we were crazy but the reality was we didn’t have a choice. Besides, I was too young and naive to listen. I still thought I was made out of Nerf. That was probably a very good thing.
What got me through was a piece of advice I’ll never forget. I have hung on to it through 30 years of independent business and it has never failed to prove its value.
Economic downturns and changes in a marketplace impact start-ups, small businesses and mature businesses alike. They are as inevitable as the sunrise. Those impacts however, can be positive as well as negative depending on your mindset. There are many examples of successful start-ups which were founded during downturns and they tend to have one thing in common. The saw opportunity in crisis and had the mindset to act on it.
When times are good, many potential clients tend to close their doors to potential vendors and new ideas. They’re too busy making money to rock the boat by making changes. Economic downturns tend to open these closed doors because everyone is looking for ways to improve performance and their bottom line.
Equally as important, when times are good most small businesses are fully occupied meeting ongoing demand and frequently do not have the time to engage in new business development (either in the form of new products or new clients) or improvements to operational performance (getting lean and mean). Down markets open the door to get involved in both.
There is no question that many business models are under pressure at the present time but if you are going to be in business for an extended period, you can expect that eventually, your business model will come under pressure from changes in the marketplace regardless of economic conditions. This is a basic fact of business life. The only remedy is to stay in tune with your market. Stay on the lookout for new concepts and ideas. Be prepared to reinvent your business model on a continuing basis and before evolving market conditions put you in crisis mode.
Perhaps most importantly, finding and maintaining the right mindset keeps you productive and in the game. Economic downturns always result in a shakeout of the competition. Competitors that disappear have usually done so because they have resigned themselves to a bad marketplace. They have given up and gone home. Eventually every down market turns around. When that happens, the survivors find themselves on a much less crowded playing field. Get the right mindset, stay in the game and you might find that you’ve become the only game in town.
Maintaining the right mindset is one of the key factors in surviving and growing (at least in terms of market share) during any negative economic period. I know that this may sound like wishful thinking to many but I’m sure that it is possible to find winners in almost any industry sector, even under the present circumstances.
What separates the winners from their competition? The winners have a mindset that allows them to see the opportunities that are a direct result of our current economic situation and to take advantage of them while the competition goes home to take a nap.
