Is A Recession A Good Time To Start A Business?

It is during the recession that everyone values or wishes he had a business built around a niche product or market. We explained in a previous article that general practices feel the negative effect of the recession significantly more than businesses that have a niche. The idea for writing about starting a business during a recession came after I received an email from a friend who read my recent post about niche products. He also pointed to a video from Patrick Bet-David discussing “10 Reasons To Start A Business During A Recession“. Without looking at each of the ten reasons he lists, from Patrick’s point of view, the environment becomes favorable to start a new business as a result of what happened during the market crash or the recession: bad companies go out of business creating room for new companies to enter the market, a decade of growth starts, overpriced talents disappear, and access to talents that weren’t available before becomes possible. No doubt Patrick has a straight-to-point argument in this regard but what we both certainly agree on is an opportunity should always be translated into a business and every moment is a good moment to start a business even during recessions.

All ten reasons Patrick explained in the video are absolutely great reasons you want to become encouraged to start a business during a recession and unless you don’t want to make the list to eleven we can stop here. However, I would love to add one quality reason and that is very important if not the most important in building your niche strategy and the marketing around it. The eleventh reason if I can call it is during the recession, starting your own niche business will have a unique and authentic story that everyone will remember. The debut American single by the British-Australian pop group the Bee Gees, “New York Mining Disaster 1941” released on 14 April 1967, was inspired by the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster in Wales. The song recounts the story of a miner sharing a photo of his wife with a colleague (“Mr. Jones”) trapped together in a cave-in while they hopelessly wait to be rescued. According to the Bee Gees band members, there actually had been a mining disaster in New York in 1939 and not in 1941, but they thought “New York” sounded more “glamorous”. 

Your business story tells a lot about your purpose and why you are doing what you are doing. When you have a compelling brand story you become open to people connecting with, remembering, and trusting you. You won’t become one in the pack but you will navigate your path to success out of the pack.