Ignore the voices of doom

Josh Mehlman
19 November 2008

The last month hasn't been a great time to watch the news. Most of the time, it has been nothing but banks collapsing, stocks plunging, pundits predicting doom and politicians floundering to come up with adequate responses. It was even more depressing than being forced to watch America’s Next Top Model.

Commentators were also making it hard to maintain a cheery disposition. Old-school socialists such as Bob Ellis on the ABC’s Unleashed blog external link (and more here) triumphantly celebrated the resurgence of the planned and regulated economy. Unfettered capitalism doesn’t work, we told you so!

Conservatives such as Gerard Henderson in the Sydney Morning Herald external link decided this was the ultimate proof that the Rudd Government should abandon, sorry, postpone its plans for a carbon emissions trading scheme, given it might cost jobs and those are likely to get harder to come by in the coming years. We told you that greenhouse nonsense was a bunch of lefty crap!

Of course, these writers and their mates were saying exactly the same things the week before and the year before that. The position doesn’t change; they just take the latest evidence and warp it to justify their existing worldview.

There’s no question we’re in for tougher economic times. The real question is, what are you going to do about it?

There’s always the option of giving in to the gloomy atmosphere and waiting for business to get worse. If you think things will go badly, chances are you’ll be right. In that case, you might want to check out our guide to bankruptcy and insolvency.

I’m not being flippant; some businesses will inevitably fail and others will come close. If things are going badly, it’s important to know the warning signs and steps you can take to turn your company around before it’s too late. You should also remember that insolvency doesn’t have to be the end. Plenty of Australian entrepreneurs have gone down that path and fought their way back to success.

But even in a recession, there’s still room for optimism. Some of the world’s leading companies were started during tough economic times, as you’ll find out in our major feature - 15 businesses to start in a recession. McKinsey management consultant Matthew Brown puts it well: “It’s easy to buy into all the doom and gloom but smart people simply refuse to participate in recessions.”

Online businesses may not be the fast track to riches. But if you have a great business idea and are willing to put in a lot of hard work, there is no better time to make it a reality.