If the downturn is hurting your entrepreneurial spirit, we have good news for you: Recessions are historically ripe with opportunity for innovation. Don’t believe us? Read on.
By Tiffany Meyers   |   Entrepreneur Magazine - February 2009

Change Your Mind-Set
The economy tanks. You have two options: hole up in a bunker and hope it ends before you run out of tinned peas, or innovate and emerge stronger than when the economy took the hit. “During a recession, people tend to say, ‘Let’s stop everything and save money until it’s over,’” says Bernard Meyerson, vice president and CTO of IBM’s systems and technology group. “Well, you’re not going to save your way to greatness.” But you can innovate your way there. So stop moping and heed our experts’ advice. Here are three steps that’ll help you focus on innovation rather than recession woes.

1. Take a Reality Check
   “Love the lows,” the experts proclaim. “Relish the recessions.” Given the national mood, even Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David comes across as more sensitive. In fact, before you relish anything, “make sure your core business is strong,” says Susan Schuman, CEO of innovation and leadership firm SYPartners. “Protect your core, because only then will you have the capacity to innovate.”
2. Don’t Go It Alone
   There’s the romantic notion of innovation: lone genius, devising the idea of the century–from a tool shed. Then there’s reality. “Innovation is actually much more complex,” says Edward Bevan, vice president of innovation and market insight at IBM. “Increasingly, it’s the integration of technology, business models and pro-cesses–all wrapped together. It’s very difficult for any one entity to do that alone.”

   Bevan ought to know. He oversaw IBM’s 2008 “Innovation Jam,” an online gathering of thinkers who generated far-ranging ideas from which IBM will extract solutions that all participants can use. Few entrepreneurs could erect an IBM-size jam, but the guiding principle applies: “We believe that if we pool our wisdom, we’ll end up with better results,” Bevan says.

Read article…

You can’t open a newspaper or watch a news report these days, without hearing how bad the economy is.  The media’s focus is pretty-much exclusively on huge, national and multinational companies, reporting drops in profits and job cuts.

However, whilst many huge corporations really struggle right now, there are countless small businesses out there, doing really well!  Of course, their success is almost invisible, because it’s not carried in the newspapers or reported about on the news.

Marketing success in a recession

I spoke with a man yesterday morning, whose main problem at the moment, is recruiting enough good quality people to cope with the 300% increase in business he has seen since last June.

I spoke today with the owner of a recruitment business (one of the industries hit hardest by the recession), whose business is growing faster right now than ever before.  I also spoke with an accountant earlier, who has seen an amazing 50% increase in the size of his client base in the past 6 months!

All three of these businesses are clients of mine, so their marketing is brilliant! However, their success is only possible, because they are focusing on growing their businesses rather than survival. Their competitors are ‘hunkering down’ and hoping to just stay afloat, so my clients have been able to gain market share and will continue to do so!

Recession thinking

Because of the wall-to-wall negative news coverage, most small business owners right now are focusing on what they might lose.  Their thinking and strategies are all designed around avoiding loss - Rather than developing their business.

Even in a good economy, ignoring the development of a business and focusing on loss, will guarantee that a business fails!

That’s because what we focus on determines the actions we take.  Let’s look at a very simple example, which shows how a business owner’s focus will dramatically influence what he does; based on whether he focuses on survival or growth.

If Bob asks himself; “How can I avoid going broke during the recession?” He might come up with answers like:

• I could cut back on everything.
• I could work harder / longer hours.

However, if Bob asks himself; “How can I double my profits, even during a recession?”  He might come up with answers like:

• I could find a great new service to offer all my existing clients, which is also highly profitable.  Existing clients already trust me, so a high percentage will go for it.
• I could get my website professionally copy written, so we get more sales leads from all those hits we get.
• I could build an Introducer network, people who recommend me to their contacts in return for a commission. This way, unlike advertising, I only have to pay when a new client joins me AND I get an army of salespeople out there telling the world how great my business is.

I am certainly not suggesting that the current economy is a bunch of roses. It definitely isn’t!

What I am suggesting, is that we tend to get what we focus on; so why not focus on what you want - rather than what you fear?