503-785-3485
bill@conerlyconsulting.com
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
Conerly Consulting Conerly Consulting
  • Consulting
    • Approach/Philosophy
    • Sounding Board
    • Economics and Business Strategy
    • Assessment
    • Case Studies
    • Testimonials
  • Speaking
    • The Package
    • Topics
    • Testimonials
  • Writing
    • Businomics Newsletter
    • Businomics
    • The Flexible Stance
    • Blog
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finance
    • Manufacturing
    • Other Industries
  • Video
    • Speaking
    • Event Promotion
    • Business Planning
  • About
    • News Coverage
  • Contact
  • Consulting
    • Approach/Philosophy
    • Sounding Board
    • Economics and Business Strategy
    • Assessment
    • Case Studies
    • Testimonials
  • Speaking
    • The Package
    • Topics
    • Testimonials
  • Writing
    • Businomics Newsletter
    • Businomics
    • The Flexible Stance
    • Blog
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finance
    • Manufacturing
    • Other Industries
  • Video
    • Speaking
    • Event Promotion
    • Business Planning
  • About
    • News Coverage
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Business Strategy
  • Four Mistakes Businesses Make in a Recession

Business Strategy

23 Mar 2008

Four Mistakes Businesses Make in a Recession

  • By Bill Conerly
  • In Business Strategy, Economy
  • 1 comment

The Small Business Trends blog has an interesting article, Four Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in a Recession (the title of which I’ve modified for the title of this post, for SEO reasons).

I’m going to add another mistake, but first let’s review Scott Shane’s four mistakes:

1.  Failing to take advantage of decreasing costs.  [good point; I made this in Businomics]
2.  Thinking the only way to increase demand is to cut price [also a good point]
3.  Failing to recognize increased competition.  [sometimes true, especially across normal industry lines; for instance, residential contractors may move into non-residential work when their sector weakens.]
4.  Forgetting that some products, or even whole businesses are counter-cyclical.  [Bad point; I’d challenge Scott to show hard data on any industry being counter cyclical; however it’s certainly true that some industries are pretty much immune to recession ( health care) and other have cycles of their own not correlated with the economic cycle (agriculture) ]

Now let me add my own candidate for top four mistakes: discouragement.    Sales people don’t have success with their calls. The sales staff is cut back, so the remaining reps become order takers.  Nobody’s making cold calls or following up with past clients.  When the economy turns around, the sales people are still discouraged, waiting around for the phone to ring.  But it rings in the offices of the people who kept hustling through the recession.  My hunch: the biggest swings in market share occur at economic turning points.

(For more on this topic, see my comment on Seth Godin’s comments.)

  • Share:
Bill Conerly

    Comments

  1. Robert Bradford
    April 1, 2008

    One example of a couter-cyclical business: security products. The property crime rate goes up when the economy gets bad…leading to more purchases of, say, padlocks to protect property. A client of mine in this industry inevitably saw increased sales during recessions. Another (not as good) example would be nursing homes, which don’t grow more during recessions (getting old, it appears, happens steadily despite the economy), but do make more money as their labor costs decrease.

Comments are closed.

Search

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

View Latest Issue

RSS Bill’s Forbes Articles

  • Trade Shows Will Regain Importance After The Covid-19 Pandemic March 1, 2021
    The benefits of exhibiting will help trade shows and conventions to resume, though with some changes.

Testimonials

Bill did a great job. We look forward to a continuing relationship.
John Hamburger, Franchise Times
On multiple occasions we have engaged Dr. Conerly to facilitate, and more importantly, stimulate strategic planning sessions. He artfully brings the complexity of economic consequences to light, and is also is a veteran voice of objectivity. And his ability to inject humor keeps the energy and teamwork a priority!
Greg Newton, CFO, Cascade Bancorp
You are a master at your craft and a favorite of our audience.
Jim Parker, UBS Financial Services
Bill was a great resource in helping us develop our business model and has continued to be a great advisor as we have refined it and successfully entered the marketplace.
John Courtney, CEO, NextJob, Inc.
Seems no matter where I go, I hear you talking – and always doing a great job with different material well tailored to the audience. Very impressive!
Alan Shiffer, World Vision
Dr. Bill Conerly opened our Ace Hardware Platinum Retailer Conference by helping our independent small business owners understand the current state of the economy in a straight forward and humorous manner that connected very well with the retailers I spoke with. Dr. Conerly provided information our retailers can use to lead their businesses. He connected with the audience and made a complicated topic understandable.
Mike Berschauer, Ace Hardware Corp
You made a complicated global picture understandable. I have received many favorable comments from those in attendance. I frequently heard comments like ‘Now I understand’ or ‘Wow, now I get it’ and ‘He was great to listen to. Thanks for bringing Bill to our meeting.’
Pete Van Sickle, Idaho Department of Lands
Bill did a great job! There were many in the audience who liked him and many in the audience who loved him! Bill shared pertinent and timely information with our audience of commercial real estate professionals and added interesting stories and a funny sense of humor twist.
Jana Knoll, BOMA Boise
The ratings you received from our banker evaluations were among the highest I’ve seen, which matched my impressions exactly. Your presentation style is quite engaging, you bring interesting and valuable content, and our ability to interact in a stimulating way during “Q&A” sessions makes you a valuable addition to any meeting agenda. As a bonus, you are a genuinely enjoyable participant in conference activities beyond your presentation.
Steve Yeakel, Montana Independent Bankers
Thank you for a wonderful presentation. Everyone who heard your presentation was impressed with your analysis, and strong command of facts and theory. More importantly, your ability to weave together substance with humor, in a very dynamic way, meant our attendees learned and retained more information than we would have typically expected. You made economics fun and you left our members with powerful insights on trends and issues to consider as they prepare for the future.
John Aguirre, Oregon Association of Nurseries

Get in touch

(503) 785-3485

bill@conerlyconsulting.com

PO Box 2188
Lake Oswego, OR 97035

Useful Links

  • Consulting
  • Speaking
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • Press
  • Contact

Social Links

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Newsletters

Copyright 2020 Conerly Consulting LLC