How San Francisco Service Entrepreneurs Are Surviving The Recession

There are 740,000 adults in San Francisco. I'm guessing you need to connect to about 400 of them in 2009. Now honestly, are there 400 adults in San Francisco who need your services? I think the answer is yes, and the reason you don't have their business right now is because you haven't called them yet.

Your success isn't about easy times or hard times. Like Woody Allen said, "80% of success is showing up." Success depends on your ability to get the word out and follow through. Think back to 2007. Nobody was pounding on your door back then either, you still had to bring it to them and close the sale. Before, they had to choose between you and a weekend in Vegas, now people are distressed about their 401(k) being down. Nothing has really changed for you as an entrepreneur.

Consider rising unemployment, creeping from about 4% at the end of 2007 to about 6% at the end of 2008. That means you can cut about 15,000 calls from your To-Do list, as they will be busy hustling for new work. Fine. That leaves 735,000 leads for you to call. Now obviously your target market is narrower than the employed population of San Francisco, but your gumption is the limiting factor, not outside forces. There is a sea of business out there.

How We Got Into This Mess Of A Recession

I am a fiscally (and socially) liberal entrepreneur from San Francisco with an MBA. That means I believe in socialized medicine AND the right to make money. I've never called myself a Centrist either, though Obama might be just that.

I've tended to blame the current crisis on Republicans because they're in charge and I dislike their social policies anyway. When pressed, I blame George Bush because he blew all the money on the war.

There's more to it, though, and I'm beginning to see both sides. Democrats & republicans both, are responsible for the current economic crisis. Michael Porter discussed the issue in Business Week:

"Republicans keep repeating simplistic free-market thinking, even though the absence of all regulation makes no sense. Self-reliance is preached as if no transitional safety net is needed. Some Republicans even argue passionately that the country should have no strategy [snip] Democrats, meanwhile, keep talking as if they want to penalize investment and economic success. They defend unions obstructing change in areas like education [snip] [and] equivocate on trade in an irreversibly global economy. They seem to think social progress can be achieved only at the expense of business."

Our education system really has been starved by Republican policies, but it wasn't healthy before that because of the know-nothing, tenure entrenched, teacher's unions and school administrations. Those people vote blue every time. Democratic party line insists that forcing businesses to only buy and sell US products will help our economy, ignoring the right and the advantage of doing business globally. These restrictions are a form of trade regulation but regulation has different facets, some of them quite useful, as we look into it.

Business regulation is any legal restriction that limits buying and selling. One form of regulation could be making fireworks illegal because they are dangerous. The idea is that that legally regulating these transactions will serve the interests of customers and improve our society.

Strong regulation has another byproduct, it creates a more competitive business environment, it makes companies comparatively stronger when they become international players. For example, the auto industry in Japan is heavily regulated, and while other forces are also in play, the quality regulations result in competitive advantage against Detroit's Big Three. We drive Hondas because they last longer, and they got that way, in part, because Japanese law requires high quality products.

There are banks in the US that are doing quite well because they voluntarily steered away from poor investments. If there had been a legal standard for all US financial firms, the rest of the World markets would be turning to US firms for support, rather than the other way around.

Supporting free markets and strong regulation, we see, isn't a contradiction at all. The regulation improves quality and competition, global trade creates more choices and competition. Quality - Choice - Competition. These turn out to be good for markets and the people that use them, and if supporting that makes me a Centrist then so be it.

The Recession Proof Entrepreneur

I was with a client last Friday, and the recession came up. When I mentioned how lucky we are to be entrepreneurs he looked startled. " You and I, " I continued, "we have the opportunity to make choices, to adjust to our environment. All those folks in cubicle-land are just waiting for the ax to fall, or not, depending on somebody else's ability to adapt to hard times."

I'm focusing my attention on San Francisco based businesses, I'm offering cost savings tools and I'm addressing client's financial concerns head on. People are feeling cautious, even when they take on a new project or go solo. Planning and rigorous assessment are important steps that I include in my offering. I'm adapting to the new market's terrain, and that's the opportunity of being an entrepreneur in a recession.

An economic downturn is like a crucible. It burns off fat and distraction, leaving our strongest values and commitments. What we gain is structure and stability once the fires have died down. We have been adding new projects: Web 2.0, the green movement and faith-based politics for the last 8 years. We will see what's truly sticky, and what just constituted big talk, after the ashes cool.

I especially appreciate the recession's effect on my fellow entrepreneurs. Relentless optimism is pretty easy in easy times, but character is revealed through adversity - it sure is true that relentless optimism is the best tool available to us now.