Thursday, December 25, 2008

Surviving an Economic Recession

By Jan Shimano

There is no doubt about the fact that an economic recession is upon us. The question we are all now asking ourselves is how best to get through this.

The way I see it, there are only three possible outcomes. Things could stay the same for us and we would see little change, we could be adversely affected or we could even prosper. If you are like me, then this latter scenario is what we would like to see happen to us. The question is, how can we make that happen?

If we look back in time, we will see that the economy is constantly fluctuating. Right now we find ourselves in a recession, but it wasn't too long ago that we were riding high and there was immense economic growth. We have also experienced periods of time where the economy was fairly stable.

There are many books on the market that discuss the causes of recessions and how we can cope with them. There is one particular book that I highly recommend. It is by William Bonner and is called "Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century". Your local library would be happy to order in a copy if they don't already have one on their shelves. Doing some research can give you the confidence that you can survive and even thrive during times such as these.

One obvious thing we should do is curtail our spending, and even though we might find it hard to do, we should attempt to save money for the times ahead that might even be more difficult that now. We should only be spending our money on necessities. Two that come to mind are food and gasoline for our vehicles. We still have to nourish ourselves and most of us need to drive our cars back and fore to work.

In the same vein, we would not want to take on any new debt during a recession, even if we think we can afford it. In these unpredicatable times, we cannot foresee if we will still be able to afford that shiny new car sitting out there in our driveway.

Do a little brainstorming and think of ways to earn extra income. Do you have a few rooms in your basement that you could fix up and rent out? There is a huge demand for inexpensive accommodation right now with so many people losing their homes.

There is a wonderful opportunity during an economic recession to start your own home based business. You might think that is a crazy idea but let me tell you about a study that McGraw-Hill Research did. They found that those companies who maintained or even increased their marketing during the recession in 1981-82 saw a huge increase in sales growth to the tune of 275%. Can you imagine! So how do you think companies made out that didn't do that? Well, those companies who cut their marketing saw an increase of only 19% during the same five year period. Folks, this is the best time in 70 years to start that home based business.

This is actually great news!

Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki have both gone on record to praise home based businesses, particularly utilizing the Internet. The experts are saying that more millionaires are going to be made doing business this way than any other way at all. I don't know about you, but if that's the truth, then I for one want to learn as much as I can about this internet marketing way of doing business. If it's good enough for "The Donald", then I'm sure it's good enough for the rest of us!

It is my recommendation to you that you take this economic recession that we have found ourselves in and use it to your advantage. I wish you every success. - 15485

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