6 Reasons To Start Your Startup Now!

Start your startup, Guest Post, YEC,Startup Tips

You don’t have to have a Harvard MBA to know that the economy hasn’t climbed out of its slump entirely just yet. Household debt has grown, unemployment remains relatively high, and Americans aren’t spending the way they once did. With all these obstacles, you’d think it would be the worst time to start your own business. But a struggling economy presents opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs — you just have to know where to find them.

1. Real Estate Is Cheap
With so many businesses failing in recent years, commercial real estate is widely available. Do your research — find a space that’s conveniently located and reasonably priced. Once you narrow the field to a few candidates, play hardball with your prospective landlord. If you can’t get a reduced monthly rent, try to get other concessions, such as paid utilities, free renovations, or lease termination flexibility.

2. Staffing Will Be a Breeze
With the national unemployment rate hovering just under 8 percent, there are a lot of qualified workers out there looking for a good opportunity. Dig deep during the interview process to find folks who share your vision and passion. You should get a lot of resume submissions, so be discerning. When you interview candidates, try to get a sense of who’s in it for the long haul. Overqualified applicants may intend to coast through a job until the one they really want comes along.

3. You Have Protection Against Unemployment
When layoffs and cutbacks are rampant, the best way to avoid being fired is to be your own boss. You may not be able to control how successful your business is, but you can control every decision, work every hour of every day, and if your business fails, it won’t be because some faraway board decided to cut 10,000 jobs. Success or failure lie primarily in your hands when you run the show.

4. The Economy Doesn’t Matter
When Steve Jobs dropped out of college to found Apple Computer in 1976, the United States was coming out one of its worst recessions in recent memory. Do you think his parents thought that was a good idea? Ambition, intelligence, and drive are three entrepreneurial essentials that cannot be stopped, even by the weakest economy. If you surround yourself with the right people, create a work-friendly environment, and keep customer service at a high level, you can succeed in any economic climate.

5. History Is on Your Side
Not only Apple, but CNN, Microsoft, and Burger King were all launched during recessions. Add to that MTV, Hyatt, FedEx, and General Electric and you’ve got an all-star roster of American success stories. The founders of these companies didn’t let a challenging economy stop them from pursuing their dreams. If the entrepreneurial bug has bitten you, waiting around for three years won’t increase your chances of success. Work hard, market yourself aggressively, and don’t take no for an answer.

Final Thoughts
When you do pull the trigger on that startup, make sure you save on costs wherever you can. Market your business for free through social media, hire free labor from students looking to bolster their resume with internships, and negotiate with every contractor and vendor. Remember, they’re more likely to give you a discount in today’s economy. Success is out there waiting for you, so don’t let it wait any longer.

If you have a business idea in mind, what are you waiting for?

Andrew Schrage is co-owner of the MoneyCrashers.com Personal Finance website. The site strives to educate readers on a wide variety of topics, including how to budget for retirement, tips to increase your income, and the best small business credit cards. Schrage hopes to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives as they work to gain and maintain financial freedom.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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2 Comments

  1. 1

    These are some good points, but I think I might take a different approach… I was on Wall St during the recession. I was not laid off, but any corner of the building you looked, good people were getting cut, even if they had nothing at all to do with the mess.

    To me, more than anything, the best reason to start a business isn’t because you might turn it into an Apple or a CNN. History may be on your side, but the data certainly aren’t. Rather, the best reason to start a business today is because it’s the safest thing you’ll ever do. That exchange we all used to make with our employers – I’ll trade a large portion my life doing your work in exchange for a fraction of what your earn and protection from the big, scary outside world of having to earn a living on my own – was a false promise to the very core. Textile and manufacturing industries found that out first. Then IT folks and lawyers or, with the recession, pretty much everybody worldwide.

    Starting your own business is Scary, with a capital S. But I don’t know that it’s actually any more risky than working for someone else, just more honest about the risks. Most Americans are one layoff and one month away from being bankrupt, or just counting down days before debtors can come after them. If you start your own company, yeah, you’ll make mistakes, and yeah, it’s scary.

    But it’s also a lot of fun too. And in the very least you learn to adapt, and quickly. We’re awfully interconnected these days and somebody’s decision on the other side of the planet might really land on your head too, even if you’re your own boss. But you’ll have a lot more room to adapt, and a lot more experience doing it, if you start practicing that now.

    I guess in this regard I’d say one reason is enough… start your business today because tomorrow will be different. You can either learn to work with that fact. Or you can cross your fingers and hope different is never bad. Between the two, and with as many changes as we’ve seen in the past five years, let alone 20 or 30, I’d bet every time that learning to adapt is the safest thing you can ever do.

  2. 2

    #1 I think works for the online world as well. The internet has unlimited shelf space for products and services. The numbers of places (groups, blogs, social communities, forums, etc.) you have to build brand awareness for the cost of sweat equity is amazing. #4 is also a good reminder that success doesn’t revolve around what happens in the white house, but what happens in your house (mind).

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