How A Small Business Thrived In A Recession
Nobody who has been running a small business enjoys having competition in the form of an imitator pop up unexpectedly in a nearby location. It may be annoying or even infuriating, but there’s nothing they can do about it, since nothing illegal has been done. All the business owner can do is try to find a way to deal with the new competition.
Let’s take an hypothetical example and see what happens. Joe is a woodworker. For many years he enjoyed reasonable success working from his home workshop. Most of his clients were architects and interior decorators who needed custom made furniture. Joe also had a small showroom in his living room, but he rarely got any commissions from it.
This modest success lasted for about five years. While Joe wasn’t rolling in money, there was always enough and there was even a little left over. Suddenly, everything changed when the recession forced his two main clients out of work.
Joe’s bad luck didn’t end there. A short time later, a new shopping mall opened up just across the street. There was a furniture showroom in the mall that sold contemporary bar stools and other contemporary furniture.
Joe had set up the lathe in his workshop to produce modern bar stools and these had been the best sellers out of his little showroom. People bought them for their kitchen breakfast bars and now and then he would even get large orders from the owners of bars.
Having been hit from both sides, Joe’s comfortable lifestyle was threatened. Having never even had to think about bankruptcy before, Joe simply wasn’t prepared for the blow.
At the next meeting of his local woodworker’s guild, Joe got up in front of everybody and shared his dilemma with them. He wasn’t alone in his plight. Almost everyone in the room who relied on their woodworking skills for a living was having a similar crisis.
Joe himself came up with the solution. It was obvious that they couldn’t compete with the large companies who bought kitchen bar stools and other wooden furniture in bulk from mass producers. They had to find a niche for their custom made products. Joe’s location next to a new shopping center was perfect for their niche business.
Joe and his friends got together and remodelled his showroom. They advertised it as a fine furniture gallery and displayed their best work in it. It caught the eye of passersby and before long, Joe’s new gallery was getting more traffic than the larger showroom in the shopping center. Now Joe and his friends are all more successful than they were before the recession, thanks to one good idea and a cooperative effort.
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Tags: income, recession, work from home