It's hard to do something that will most likely have a long term positive result when the short-term outlook seems bleak. For example, when the stock market is at very low levels and has recently dropped like an anchor, it's tough to muster up the courage to throw in money although the likelihood of it going up is probably greater than under normal conditions when it is overvalued. However, when the stock market was skyrocketing through the 90s people were looking under their couch cushions for every penny to invest. Human nature can be as detrimental and debilitating as it can be beneficial and empowering.
So can any right minded individual even think about starting a company now, especially a construction company when the market for construction work is quickly approaching never before seen levels of absolute zero? Regardless of whether you're measuring in Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin, absolute zero is as low as you can possibly go. Well, perhaps.
There are several advantages to starting a company in a very bad economy and we have to remember that work still goes on despite all the doom and gloom we read in the news (or blogs). As a start-up company your price is probably very low because of low overhead and a willingness to put in long hours. This could be very attractive to someone who is looking to build because they are most likely on a very low budget themselves. An owner may be willing to take a risk on a lesser known company in the interest of saving a dime or two.
If you are lucky enough to get work as a start-up and look into hiring employees now is probably the best time in the past seventy years to be hiring. You have the pick of the cream of the crop employees and they certainly won't be naming the price. If a small company can latch on to some good people now and grow with them, they will be in a fantastic position to be fighting with the big dogs for big projects when things improve.
The architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects which was recently employing about 800 people was started during the height of the recession in the 1976. Eugene Kohn discusses the start-up of his firm below.
I think it's interesting that Kohn notes that there was very little work going around but the good news was that there were plenty of people available to do no work. He seems like a pretty optimistic guy in the least.
A recent Inc. Magazine article titled "Is now a good time to start-up" cites a preliminary study by the Kauffman Foundation and though the research is still very scattered and ambiguous there is some evidence that companies started during a recession could be more likely to become successful. The author of the study also notes that this could be a time when the most innovative and successful companies of the next ten years are formed.
It just takes a little courage I guess.
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