Thousands Open New Businesses Amid Economic Turmoil – Are They Nuts Or Visionaries?

Over 600,000 new businesses opened all over the country last year. Excited young and old entrepreneurs, doing exactly what we all have done–planning, plotting, borrowing, investing and then opening, expanding, building, reaping the benefits and absorbing the losses. It’s all in a day’s effort by any one of thousands of new entrepreneurs. And many are winning, doing well, making a profit and living the life of an entrepreneur.

What do they know that you don’t? Why are they so upbeat, investing at a time when the business sector is in shambles and when the market is changing? Credit is scarce, unemployment is at a record-breaking high, and young entrepreneurs both male and female are opening up new businesses as if nothing is wrong with our economy.

That’s exactly the point. Nothing is wrong with our economy, it is simply changing. It is different than yesterday’s business world. It’s not wrong but it is what it is today and these are the environmental factors a new business must deal with–just as existing business must.

The difference is in our memory. Those already in business and suffering from the downturn remember how it used to be and how they used to do business. With one foot in history, lamenting the pain of diminished revenue, and one foot in the new economy, figuring out what works now, many are stuck in the middle not knowing whether to buy or sell, hire or fire. Many typically adjust the old plan a little, downsize a bit then hunker down and endure the pain for as long as they can before closing up, defeated and broke.

New entrepreneurs simply look at the economy and figure out how to best take advantage of the opportunity that exists, just as we did in our time. The new entrepreneurs are not blinded by their old ways, the way it used to work. The old business organizations are still designed to handle yesterday’s business, not today’s, so they limp through this recession being neither as they were nor as they must become, being a bit of both. This doesn’t fly. The new entrepreneurs simply line up the facts and create a business plan that works today given where we are and what is happening.

Today, not yesterday. That is the magic. Forget yesterday and redesign your business based on today’s conditions. This works. Shake away everything you think you know about your business and start with a blank slate. Redesign from the bottom up and create a winning business. That is the challenge. It is not about merely changing a little, it is about reinventing yourself to be profitable today.

Do this and succeed, do anything else and fail.