Editor’s Note: I originally had this post published on Internet Astronauts in Oct 2008, at Starting Up in an Economic Downturn.
I’m no economist, but even I can tell that the world’s finances aren’t in their best shape. Tech blogs are writing about layoffs in startups everywhere, investment advisors are urging their clients to knuckle down for a long, economic winter and news analysts are calling doom and gloom at every turn. So it’s probably a bad time to start your web startup right? Wrong. This may very well be the best time.
You remember that line in the old Frank Sinatra song New York New York? “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere” – well it’s kind of the same in business. If you can get a business going now in the midst of the crappiest economic forecast in possibly decades, then you know you have what it takes to keep it going.
Of course if your plan is to get a load of funding, have a lazy business plan or to shoot for a very expensive and distant point of profitability – then this may not be the time for your startup. You see, tough times are the province of the bootstrapper – the guy or gal who builds a business on a shoe string, using only what is available and counts pennies like they’re going out of fashion. Read More
