James Siminoff

Looking back at 2009, what a great year…

Sometime in 2011-2013 I think that we will all look back at 2009 and realize that we did not know how good we had it.*  Here are the reasons why:

1.  It has never been easier to hire great loyal employees.  Without a job market existing not only can you hire people at a lower cost but you do not have the old worry that they will just leave when they get a better offer.

2.  Most big companies have never been as f’d up as they are today.  Forget about how much sales are down, the world is still buying and big companies are doing billions in revenue.  Go after any of their markets, they are bloated, depressed and prime for the pickings.  Best of all if you go after a billion dollar business, all you need is a few million for success.  Start a disruptive bank, phone company, investment bank, real estate company, supermarket, etc.

3.  Capital is still out there.  While I would agree that capital locked up for a period of time it appears that it is back.  And for the smart entrepreneurs you just need so much less now.  We are launching Grid.com with a tenth of the money that it would have cost us 2 years ago.

4.  “Where’s the competition?”  Once we had some success with PhoneTag we watched new competitors come out, fully funded, constantly.  Well I have not seen a new guy in a while and a lot of those fast followers are now running on fumes or dead.  Fewer businesses being started means overall less competition.

I really believe that when looking back many will regret that they had not taken advantage of the opportunities that 2009 offered.

*A few points of clarity.  I am an entrepreneur and I am looking at the positive side of a very negative situation.  There are many people that have lost houses, jobs and their life savings, to those people my heart goes out to you and please read the above with an open mind and realize that we are only going to get out of this if people get positive and start building again.