Is Now Really a Good Time to Start Your Own Business? You Bet, and Here’s Why

Here are just a few reasons why the downturned economy may be working in your favor.

Opportunities are created by changes in the marketplace, which is definitely something we’ve seen the last several years. Disruptions in the status quo create opportunities for the alert entrepreneur. One only has to look to history to see examples of companies that have started and flourished in down economies, including General Electric, McDonald’s and Microsoft. According to the recent study published by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation, The Economic Future Just Happened, more than half of the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during a recession or bear market, along with nearly half of the firms on the 2008 Inc. list of America’s fastest-growing companies.

Customers are different. Loyalty to current vendors often loosens in changing markets as buyers look for better value and less expensive product and service alternatives.

Starting a business takes time. If you’ve lost your job or just retired, time might be the resource you have in great abundance. By using your time to plan, research, develop and test the market, you will be poised to take advantage of economic growth as it occurs. Starting a business in a slower economy provides time for you to learn valuable lessons, gather information and establish a track record that will prepare your business for future growth.

Many business costs will be lower than in a thriving economy. This can be anything from employee costs (talented employees may find themselves out of work and willing to work for less), rent, office equipment and furniture, advertising and the like.

Your opportunity cost may be low. The opportunity cost of a decision is what is given up when you choose one alternative over your next-best alternative. For those who are retired or displaced from their job, the opportunity cost, what they give up by starting their own business, may be their golf hobby or watching Oprah.

These are a few of the many factors that making the timing right for many. Only you can decide if the time is right for you personally. Consider this quote from Mark Twain, in which he comments on how others struggled with similar decisions over 100 years ago.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

More information onstarting your own business in today’s economy can be found inBoomerPreneurs: How Baby Boomers Can Start Their Own Business, Make Money and Enjoy Life, by Mary Beth Izard