The poll question on CNN.com last week was this: “It hasn’t been officially called, but do you think we are in a recession?”
Back in the day, you didn’t need a vote to tell you if you were in a recession.
But in today’s global economy it is difficult to apply what happens on Wall Street to Main Street in America’s Vancouver.
These are difficult times, so what is a small business person to do? Especially when credit is tight or non-existent, real estate is depreciating or flat, the cost of raw materials continues to climb and there seem to be few skilled workers when positions open up.
Is the best course of action to close ranks or to ride out the storm and let the dust settle before getting after the business again?
We’re hearing from businesses that they are mostly waiting. They are hanging on to cash, postponing recruitment efforts and letting positions lie dormant. Not wanting to make the wrong decision, some are making no decision.
Following are a few of the concerns we’ve heard and our take on what could be done instead.
“The stock market needs to recover first.”
Clearly the wrong measure for local business. With only a handful of publicly traded companies in Clark County, the value of the market on a particular day has only indirect influence on our business community.
We should strengthen our relationships with our business vendors and partners, working with them to negate the challenges created by the focus on the market’s volatility.
“Employment needs to rebound.”
Clark County’s unemployment was less than 7 percent in September. That’s 3 percent or 4 percent lower than the highest rates of unemployment in the last 25 years. Ninety-three percent of the workforce is still working!
Are we really willing to let others tell us that the last 7 percent of workers is what makes our businesses strong? Our large population growth in the last few decades means that more people are working here than ever before and that is a powerful force for the local economy.
Let’s focus on the 93 percent and what we can bring to them.
“I’ll wait until next quarter.”
The belief that next quarter will be better than this one is likely built on the self-fulfilling prophecy model. If you are trying to simply survive this quarter by reducing expenses, then survival is what you’ll likely get.
Forecasting that the following quarter is going to somehow magically be better will likely put your survival at risk. Success next quarter will come from the action you take now to make it that way, begging the question, why not start to make it that way now?
“I just can’t afford to do that now.”
Really? Can you afford not to? Researchers have found repeatedly that those companies that maintain a normal course of action and continue with marketing and advertising programs to be successful during downturns and come out of the down cycle with more market share than when the cycle began.
Can you afford not to keep the pressure on the market?
Each of these describes a real market situation, but in some business settings they’d be labeled excuses. As a business community we can choose not to placate the down cycle, but rather to strengthen our business relationships, recognize the size of the market still out there and get after the business.
Then, when the dust settles, ours will be the businesses with the greater market share.
