Starting a Business in These Tough Times?

Doesn’t it seem counterintuitive to think about opening a business in these tough times, considering so many well established large and small businesses are closing at an alarming rate?

Didn’t we just “bail out” Wall Street and aren’t we considering “saving” the Big 3 automotive giants?

And what about all the statistics that state many new businesses fail within the first three years? Doesn’t that discourage you from wanting to start a business?

Actually, it should not. Research shows that during times of deep unemployment, American entrepreneurship rises and more new businesses are born. This is the perfect time to consider starting a business for many reasons.

• You might have just been laid off with 12,000 of your closest friends who are all looking for work in the same area in the same field as you are.


• Or maybe you are suffering from “survivor’s guilt” since you were not downsized but the people in the cubes next to you were.


• Perhaps you are just transitioning from 20 years of service and you are only 40 years old – way too young to retire.

Whatever your reason for thinking about entrepreneurship, there is no better time like the present time. But, as with all things we did while we were in the service, we need to plan.

Here are a few things to do while you prepare to think about starting a business in 2009.

Take inventory of you! I am not just talking about education and experiences in the field you were working in, but what makes you happy.

What is that thing that you always wanted to do? You might have to think back to pre-service days or maybe even childhood. Were you always good with your hands? Did you color people green, trees pink and skies purple? Did you love reading and finding and correcting mistakes in books? Did you solve the Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute or do you see Sudoku solutions as soon as you look at the page? Do you know all there is to know about Barbies, a particular artist, cars or a country? These might all lead you to the perfect business to start. But you won’t know until you inventory yourself.

Start thinking like a boss, not an employee! Begin thinking globally about your situation and what your business can contribute to the broader community. Entrepreneurs are always thinking about how their service adds value to someone or something else. How does what you
do help reach a goal for another entity? You cannot just think about the immediate steps only, but the next three to five steps as well.

What do you want out of life? There is the obvious: pay the bills, eat, and send the kids through school. But those are always there. What about the relationship you have with your family and friends? What about the end of your work life when you are ready to retire? How does what you do now affect those things?

I would argue that the above steps are the most important part of starting a business in these tough times. Understanding these things, knowing what makes you want to live and be what you want to be is going to help you and your potential business be strong and survive through any times—even the tough ones.