Me - conomics

If a tree falls in the woods, but nobody’s there to hear it, does it still make a noise?

Likewise, if a recession is going on all around you, but you still feel secure in your job, earning a comfortable household income, and you’ve kept your car payment, mortgage and credit card debt at manageable levels: Are you still having a recession?

Within every trend, there are counter trends. And just as there are folks out there who are feeling the economic pinch right now, there are folks who are doing just fine, thank you. In fact, they might be somewhat better than fine, because of the “sale” signs on the door of almost every retailer, car dealer or housing development. If you’ve got a little extra cash and less debt than most, it’s a great time to be you!

We try to measure economics in regional terms, national terms, or even global terms. But if you’re in business, the economy can change from one prospect to the next, depending on their needs, level of interest, and whether or not they’ve been conservative about their spending over the past five or ten years.

A recent quip in the Iconoculture newsletter put it this way: “A recession is when your neighbor loses their job. A depression is when you lose yours.” When people think about “the economy,” they consider it from the perspective of their own personal balance sheet. With that in mind, consider the number of people who are not in foreclosure, not unemployed, and not afraid to spend.

Implications: If you sell vehicles, housing, appliances or other big-ticket items, it is particularly important for you to realize that the person you’re selling to today might not be the same target consumer you had five years ago (or last year, or last month). Further, the people who buy from you today might buy for different reasons than they did five years ago (or last year, or last month).

Mike Anderson