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I conducted a pair of “in the field” Duct Tape Marketing podcasts this week with two small business experts digging into the current state of small business.
Rieva Lesonsky is the editor of Entrepreneur magazine and past guest on the show and Jim Blasingame is the small business advocate and creator of the web site AskJim.biz
Some folks have hinted that there is a small business recession in the works. My guests suggest ways to stay ahead of it.
Related Story:
Measuring the Economic Confidence of Small Business Owners The Discover Small Business Watch is a monthly index of the economic confidence of the nation’s 22 million businesses with five or fewer employees.
Key Takeaways from the October Discover Small Business Watch:
Economic confidence among small business owners continued to fall in October as many expressed increased pessimism about both the future of their own businesses and the U.S. economy in general. At 96.8, the Watch dropped more than two points from 99.2 in September and has been on a downward trend since July when it was 107.3.
This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is brought to you by att.com/onwardsmallbiz. Resources for the small business owner.
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This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at Nov 26, 07 | 2:22 pm and is filed under AT&T, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] Are We In a Small Business Recession over at Duct Tape Marketing is a recent podcast that predicts trouble ahead for small businesses, and provides some strategies for staying ahead of the curve. [...]
I don’t know who wrote this; it’s been around for years. But it may apply here.
The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs
There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes so he read no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs. He put up signs on the highway telling people how good the hot dogs were. He stood by the side of the road and cried, “Buy a hot dog mister?” And people bought.
He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He finally got his son home from college to help him out.
But then something happened.
His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio? Haven’t you been reading the newspapers? There’s a big recession. The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse.”
Whereupon the father thought, “Well, my son’s been to college, he reads the newspapers and he listens to the radio. He ought to know.”
So the father cut down on his bun orders, took down his advertising signs and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway selling hot dogs. And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight.
“You’re right, son,” the old man said to his boy. “We’re certainly in the middle of a great recession.”
Ted, I couldn’t agree with you more.
Also, what type of businesses were they really surveying here? Consider the following two quotes
“The Discover Small Business Watch is a monthly index of the economic confidence of the nation’s 22 million businesses with five or fewer employees.”
It then goes on to discuss the research methodology
“The Discover Small Business Watch is compiled each month by Rasmussen Reports, LLC, an independent research firm, based on telephone interviews and survey responses from approximately 1,000 small business owners and 4,000 potential users of small business products and services. ”
So they found 1000 small businesses with 5 or fewer employees that had time to take a survey? Some weeks I can hardly find the time to even talk to people I know, much less take a survey. It sounds to me like these businesses aren’t putting forth the effort to be successful.
Also, the statistic wasn’t there, but I would be curious how many small businesses refused or did not have time to participate in the survey? Was this factored into Discover’s Watch?
Can you explain what a “small business recession” is?
Howe is that different from a normal recession?
Thanks very much.
Rick
No wisdom to share, but I would like to get your opinions. I was planning a start up Fine Art Gallery. I am borrowing no money and own most of my inventory out right (with the rest on consignment). My demographic is high end. Do you think the art collectors will keep buying or hold on tighter to their money in these creepy ecomonmic times? Thanks, Oliver