There’s a terrible thing happening around me. That thing is being known as The Economic Crisis. Friends are descending into downward spirals of clinical depression. One is in foreclosure proceedings for a modest house that they’ve owned for nearly a decade. Others are losing their jobs and understandably terrified about their personal finances at a time when nobody seems to be hiring. Marriages are breaking up over financial strain. Clients are closing their doors or slashing their budgets. And I simply can’t even bring myself to read The Wall Street Journal anymore, and I find that listening to “Morning Edition” on NPR just sets a bad tone for my day.
Belt-Tightening
All of this has caused a terribly weird level of unfounded paranoia. What if all of my clients fall off the face of the earth? What if I have no income for 2009? This is the sort of paranoia that sets in when you work from home and have a lot of time alone with your thoughts.
I don’t live an expensive lifestyle. I have no debt beyond my mortgage. I rarely shop for anything more than groceries. My last purchase for myself, something completely unnecessary, was a $16.99 sweater from Target in January, so you can see the sorts of wild, extravagant spending that I engage in. But this doom and gloom over the Economic Crisis has led me to weird behaviors, like deciding not to buy a new $6 nail color for spring because it’s a frivolous, unnecessary purchase.
Booming Business
But on Friday, I had cause to go out and see the economy firsthand. I was scouting locations for an IABC event, and visited more than half a dozen restaurants at the later end of the lunch hour. I was shocked by what I saw. The restaurants were packed. The last one I visited, at nearly 2:00 PM, was still two-thirds full. And the coffee shop that I visited afterward had a line out the door.
But… wait. This can’t be the case. What if the fear that we all feel is making things worse? Is it possible that a lack of confidence could completely undermine stimulus packages and bailouts? Everywhere I turn I hear stories that make me believe that everyone is destined for food stamps and the repo man is waiting at the door. That it’s only a matter of time before the next Great Depression hits and leaves us all homeless and destitute. Is it possible that things are not as bad as I’ve been led to believe?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive enough to think that things are going well. But maybe, just maybe, it’s possible that for most people, living a conscientious, fiscally prudent life is still an acceptable thing to do.
A New Approach
While I can’t control the financial fortunes of my clients, and it’s likely that I will see a downturn in business as each goes through their own belt-tightening exercises, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It forces me to be more creative. It forces me to network. It forces me to meet new people, learn new product lines and develop new areas of expertise. In short, it reinforces my existing belief that I need to diversify.
There are opportunities in this market. It’s my job to find them.