The downturn is hammering a lot of people and businesses. Spending and donations are down. Layoffs and foreclosures are ravaging communities. Industries across the board are suffering. Yes, things are bad and will continue to be for a while. I get it, I’m affected just like the next person or business.
I can’t help but see, though, that the recession has become a convenient excuse for everything that’s going wrong.
True, a lot of what goes in your personal or business life results from events beyond your control. You can do nothing about some things and you accept that. Yet the recession is a result of a myriad of individual actions, not some intangible macro forces. Accepting responsibility is hard, so it becomes tempting to blame the recession for everything.
The line between experiencing a diminished sense of self-efficacy and resigning yourself to it is thin. If you doubt your abilities to affect change, you’ll avoid taking difficult action; if you think you can’t do it, you won’t even try.
The same goes for business. Take graphic designers. My copywriter friend Mike Russell went to a graphic designers’ Meetup group recently to find it a depressing affair, with freshly laid-off young souls commiserating over microbrews. Earlier this week I heard Josh Nusbaum, the graphic designer in my networking group Bridges, say he was close to being unable to accept new business. The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Another example: The Atlantic reports Americans are “pulling consumption into the home” and “feathering their nests”: products/services, which enable people to consume leisure in the comfort of their homes, still sell. Netflix, home/personal electronics, prime food, quality cookware, and other “affordable luxuries” are registering relatively good sales.
Businesses doing a good job of satisfying needs – and I mean real human needs, not manufactured wants – do well. Some products do that in boom times, others in busts. Just as every company experiences seasonality, every company experiences the economic cycle differently. The Netflixes of the world do well in booms and in busts. The number and popularity of food carts in Portland, Oregon are exploding. Try to get the new Prius without a waiting list.
More generally, if the recession has hit you hard and you don’t have a solid, people-focused marketing strategy, well, it’s not just the recession that’s at fault.
Sustainable businesses have a tremendous opportunity these days. Social responsibility is their middle name. Let’s get to work.
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Comment from Facebook:
Aman Bloom said: “Anything’s an excuse to the greedy…”
A lot of people developed their business during the boom, they simply do not have a strategy for these kinds of times. Yes, its ultimately your own fault, there are always businesses doing great or booming, however, we do not have many people who really know how to make one work.
Most of the gurus were made in the last few years. It’s hard to get to the guys who have been around for 25= years and seen this before