There is always a upside to everything, you know. Whatever is going bad, there is always a bright side of it, going good. And there’s plenty of “bad” to discuss… So what is good?
The number of people ready to start a business!
The business I am in, commercial real estate and business sales, has been on a steady increase for a year. Meaning, it’s getting better and better. People are buying and starting their own businesses. And believe it or not, the less than ideal economy has a lot to do with it.
When things get bad, and jobs get scarce, people naturally start doing things they would not have done before. When you have 100+ people vying for one job, 99 are going to be sent home looking for another. Some of those 99 will apply for the next best job. But there is a certain percentage of those people who are going to start to think about what they really have always wanted to do. And to many of those, buying a business is the answer; they will start to look for a business for sale, and find there are many for sale, and they will make inquiries and prepare to buy a business.
Further, there just isn’t the commitment from companies to their long-term employees like there used to be. Once upon a time, businesses honored decades of consistent work with some return devotion. But not so much anymore. Nowadays, people are terminated from their jobs (no matter how long they’ve been there) at the whim of a manager.
Well, some of those employees have answered back to their ex-employers with, “Ok. So you won’t keep me around. Fine. I will become your new competition.”
And many of those people have learned to start a business.
Difficult times bring out the best and the worst in people. Difficult times push them to the edge, and make them do things they wouldn’t have done when things were easier. The people with a sense of purpose and drive will produce lemonade from the lemons, and not bemoan the sour flavor of the lemons. They will see the decreased opportunities to be taken care of in a secure job as an opportunity to take care of others…and that can mean buying a business.
To me this illustrates the beauty of the American economy perfectly. Of course, it’s not flawless, but capitalism has a way of balancing things out that other economic systems do not. When jobs disappear, capitalists create jobs. Real jobs! Because there is always a need for products and services. That will never change. The core issue is what is in the mind and heart of the people behind the system, and what they are willing to do about it.
Unemployment can appear hopeless, but there’s an alternative spelling for it, known only to the courageous: OPPORTUNITY.