Guess which city in the province of Ontario, Canada has the best record of entrepreneurial start ups over the recent period? Toronto? Wrong! Waterloo. Off the mark! Give up? Well its Oshawa, the city that has been hard hit by auto sector layoffs [hat tip to Andrew Maxwell for the stats]
Unemployed workers now face a critical life decision. Do I continue to look for a job in a shrinking economy for jobs, or do I take the plunge and start the business that I've always been dreaming of? Armed with startup cash from severence or retirement packages, hopeful entrepreneurs are bootstrappng new business ventures.
So the key question to ask now -- Is the recesion / depression a good time to start at business? It appears so, according to many academic studies.
The current issue of Business Week (Jan 19th 2009) states: “History has shown that crisis breeds opportunity…[…]…”in times of turmoil, opportunities abound. But taking advantage of them will require [a new mindset], fast reflexes, an aggressive attitude, and serious changes [challenges] to the status quo….bold moves in bad times can pay off big.” Wharton Business School professor Mauro Guillen observes: “a recession creates winners and losers just like a boom.”
Most entrepreneurs intuitively recognize this however, they do not have a rigorous and systematic process for spotting or designing opportunities. Many technology entrepreneurs also tend to be more technology savvy then business savvy. They are overly enamored by their own technology and consequently pay less attention to or ignore equally important business and strategic issues, which are critical to business survival, especially in a recession.
Walter Derzko, Smart Economy, Toronto
Author of the soon-to-be-released book: Hard Times Golden Opportunities.. about opportunity recognition in a recession/ depression featuring 45 opportunity scenarios.
Related posts in this series:
The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business (& surviving and thriving) in a Recession Part 1of 28
Related Recession Posts
When will the recession end? Part 15 Year-end predictions for 2009 starting to come true
When will the recession end? Part 14 Four options for America's race to the bottom
When will the recession end? Part 13 Thirteen economic questions that economists can't answer
When will the recession end? Part 12 Bad times are good times for startups
When will the recession end? Part 11 Bank of Canada optimism
When will the recession end? Part 9 Humor will signal recession /depression bottom
When will the recession end? Part 7 False signals of recovery
When will this recession end? Part 6 The USA Paradox; Cheer vs Fear vs Transformation
When will the recession end? Part 5 Stop Auto Industry Bailouts, start buying Electric
When will the recession end? Part 4 The double dip housing crash in the USA
When will this recession end ? Part 2 Do you listen to the Optimists or the Pessimists in 2009?
82 Signposts to the current Recession Depression Summary from 2008
Related Smart Economy blog Posts over that past year:
- Opportunity Recognition in Difficult Times
- Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn
- Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn – June 25, 2008, Ontario College of Art Design, Toronto, ON
- Recession-Proofing your Business-Strategies and Tactics for smoother sailing in turbulent seas
- Master Class in Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs> May 30th 2008> University of Toronto
- Turning Misery into Opportunity
- Vacuum leaves pullout opportunities;
- How will baby boomers handle the recession? Zoomers, Doomers, Gloomers, Opportuneurs
- Recession, Depression and Shortages as Opportunities
- Restructuring of American Business-A New Business Model?
- Using New Yorker Cartoons for Opportunity Recognition /Sense-making & Pattern Recognition
- Text Mining for S&T Scouting, Foresight and Opportunity Recognition
- The Opportunity Clinic-swapping opportunity scenarios 08-002
- Do you know how to spot or design new business opportunities? 07-053
Example of an OpportunityClinic Workshop Outline
Do you know how to spot or design new business opportunities? 07-053
© 2005-2009
Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©
Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "
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- ".....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"-old Japanese proverb
- ".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." -- H. Mumford Jones
- ".......Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought." --A. Einstein
- ".......Change is difficult, but complacency and stagnation are surefire showstoppers..." --Walter Derzko
- ".......Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
- ".......Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Great minds discuss ideas; --Anon
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