Tip 3: Starting a business in a down economy

This is the third blog post and tip number 3 for starting a business in a down economy. In the first tip we discussed how to avoid a common mistake when choosing a business to start. In tip 2, we talked about what industries to look for in a down economy. Today we are going to expand alittle further into starting a business in a down economy and how to succeed with it. So here is tip number 3, recognize that you have a market advantage over other businesses in a down economy. In theory, the longer someone has been in business the more money they should have saved up and the more finanically secure their business should be. However, since most of us don't have functioning crystal balls a common mistake is that businesses over leverage themselves out of impatience to grow quickly. During an economic slow down, these businesses are often crushed by the weight of there own success. It's the same reason during the housing boom so many growing real estate investment companies fell. They grew buy taking out large mortgages to buy cashflow properties but when the economy starting going down hill many of their tenants could no longer afford rent. This created a chain effect, the real estate companies started losing tenants and then started losing rental income. With limited cashflow the real estate companies couldn't afford the notes on their properties and then they started listing properties for sale and when the properties didn't sale they started forclosing. Many of these companies ended up in bankruptcy and are no longer in business today. However, there are always two sides to every coin. During this same time period there were other Real Estate companies that were probably smaller but didn't have nearly as much debt. They also started losing tenants when the economy started crashing but they had a stronger cashflow because they had less debt. This puts the smaller company in a position with loss of cashflow but not getting squeezed by their huge debt payments. These companies have been able to weather the economic storm and are probably buying new properties at discounted prices while their larger competitor has been put out of business.

This was a very simple example of how a more established company could be disadvantaged during economic slow downs. Another example is during the "good times" most companies do not pay attention to their overhead as careful as they should. They often take on alot of employees and expand their overhead. If they do not shrink this overhead fast enough during economic slow downs, and most don't, then their finances will become an anchor weighing them down during economic turmoil. This works in your favor and you want to recognize that. Starting out with low or no overhead in a down economy makes you flexible to changing market conditions and allows you to profit easier than the company with high overhead. This is extremely important to you when starting a business in a down economy.

Thanks for reading,
Jackie O'Quinn
1-888-390-5759

An email I just sent to my database...

Below is a copy of an email I just sent to my database of about 15,000 prospective clients

Subject: Coastal Travel beat Expedia and Hotels.com
Check it out for yourself, we are saving our clients 1000's of dollars per year in travel. We have finally made vacationing affordable for anyone!

video proof >>

The past 7 and a half years working with Coastal Travel, I have earned 100s of 1000s of dollars, so far this month we are almost at $10,000 already. I am often asked, why does your business do so well in this slow economy. I think the video pretty much sums it up. We allow people to continue to create family members, to take well deserved vacations for pennies on the dollar. Now more than ever people are looking to save money when traveling and Coastal Travel meets that need.

Hope you enjoyed the video,

Jackie O'Quinn
International Coastal Director
Since 2004
1-888-309-5759

Tip 2: How to start a business in a down economy

Song of the Day -- Fast Car



Today I am going to discuss how to start a business in a down economy. This is the second tip, the first tip was given in the previous post. So lets just started

Tip #2 Choose the industry you are going to work in carefully. I don't specifically tell you what industry to choose because you have alot of options available to you. I also am not going to tell you what industry not to work in. Instead I am going to give you some guidelines to follow when looking for an industry to start a business during these tough economic times.

I would recommend that first you look at industries that don't just do well in poor economic times but instead look for industries that usually do fairly well in good times and bad times. For example take nutrition and wellness that is a very large industry that is very consistent and has always at least held it's own during good economic cycles and bad economic cycles. It's not a sexy industry, it never makes big news headlines and therefore most people are shocked when they find out that it's a billion dollar industry. It makes since though. During good economic times people want to lose weight and get healthy, during bad economic times, people still need to lose weight and get healthy. So if you wanted to start say a health foods store and that was something you had an interest in. You would have as good of a chance at making that succeed in a good economy and/or a down economy. Meaning the economy would play less of a factor in that type of business compared to other businesses.

If you are learning how to start a business in a down economy, then you want to consider industries that are resilient historically. For example take the industry of travel. It's the largest industry in the world at over 7 trillion dollars world wide. During good times people want to celebrate and take a great vacation. During crappy economic times they want to take a break from it all and take a vacation. It's a perfect contradiction in our human psyche however, it's one that you can profit from. Travel is more of a "sexy" industry but you have to be strategic in the type of business you choose. For example, it may not be a good idea to just go open a travel agency in a world with travelocity and expedia. However, if you have a business that offers a unique marketing strategy and gives you an advantage over expedia then you may have a winner. I know alot about this because our business is in travel and we have a unique strategy where we do not compete with travelocity or expedia or any other traditional travel outlet. In fact this year 2011 in a "down economy" we are having our most profitable year ever.

When choosing an industry to start your business avoid industries that have been part of a bubble. For example real estate, if you are going to start a business in real estate today then you better know what you are doing. Ironically enough prior to this last economic down turn, real estate would have been an industry I would have look upon favorably in past economic cycles. Real estate historically had done well in good and bad economies however, during this last economic cycle a bubble was created in real estate. If you start a business in any industry that has "bubbled and burst" then you are going to be fighting an up hill battle. Sure it could be done, I am just saying the odds are stacked against you.

Stay tuned for Tip #3

All the best,

Jackie O'Quinn

1-888-309-5759



How to start a home business in a down economy

Here are some simple tips for starting a home business in a down economy. First you must realize that your personal economy is not the same as everyone else's bad economy. Therefore, your business economy is not the same as everyone else's business economy. You and your new business venture are a small part of a much larger picture. In that big picture some people are doing worse and some people are doing better. You can be one of those people that are doing better than most.

Some business are doing bad in a down economy and some businesses are doing good. Like our business this year. We are having our very best year EVER in 7 and a half years. Below are a few simple tips to help you succeed in starting a home business in a down economy.

Tip 1: Don't start a business out of a hobby. There is this prevailing wisdom out there that says find something that you love and you will never have to work again. Which I believe is true but most people look at it all wrong. Most people take that to believe let me find my favorite hobby and see how I can make it profitable? That usually has disastrous consequences. First, most hobbies are not able to be turned into a successful business model. Second, if they can become a successful business they become work and are NO fun after a while. "Find something that you love to do and you will never have to work again" obviously doesn't mean that you are going to be able to quit working. It just simply means you will like the work that you are doing. So when you are starting a business in a down economy this is paramount. Wrap your purpose in work around what you love.

You can do this with just about any business model. If you are starting a business on basket weaving and you don't particularly like basket weaving you just happen to be good at it. Then you realize that by building this business using a skill that you have learned you are able to spend more time on the "hobby" that you are passionate about. If you are like me and you like fishing then by making basket weaving successful it gives you more time to go fishing. If you are the type of person that is passion about charity work and you like to donate money or time to feeding the homeless for example. By building your basket weaving business you have more free time and more money to donate to the homeless. When you realize that it's the business that is giving you these options naturally you will create a passion for your basket weaving business. It's important to make these links with whatever you start because just like in a "job" there will be days when you may not want to go in and basket weave, but then you have the reminder what basket weaving will allow you to do that having a "job" never would. It increases your determination to make that new business work even in a down economy.

Stay tuned for the next post for Tip 2: