The glass isn’t anything like half empty

Doom; gloom; credit crunch; deep recession; economic melt-down. Clearly, if you read the papers or listen to the news, you’ll quite rightly conclude that we’re only minutes away from having to subsist on raw turnips and ditchwater for what’s left of our short, miserable lives.
Clearly this is just arrant nonsense, yet all around us we see companies laying off staff and cutting budgets left, right and centre in preparation for the what the media assure us is the end of the world.
Let’s suppose that all the doom-mongers are correct and that the economy is actually set to shrink by something like 3% in the next year. Instead of wailing and gnashing our teeth, why not concentrate on the remaining 97% (not an insignificant figure, I think you’ll agree)?
The worst you can reasonably say is that business is going to be harder to get in an economic downturn, but it is still there. Those companies who batten down the hatches and look inwards to save costs are reducing their ability to deliver to their existing customers and leaving the way open for others to benefit. Better yet, there is an interestingly surgical aspect to hard times: second-rate companies are more likely to fail than good ones, leaving more business for those of us who are determined not just to prevail, but to thrive.
“Do the math” as they say in America. You turn over a million quid, thanks to 20 customers each spending £50,000 with you. They all come to you and one day they’re halving their budgets, which gives you a shortfall of £500,000. To maintain your turnover and carry on, you need to find another 20 customers: tough, but not impossible. And here’s the best bit, you now have 40 customers (twice your original market share). How good is that going to be when the economy recovers? You now have a potential turnover of £2 million – twice the business you started with, that’s how good. Worth working for, if you ask me.
Basically, there are only two positions you can take in a downturn like this; a positive position, or the foetal position. I know which one we’re going to take.
Paul Rodger
Bull Rodger ltd