“I love a Bad Economy.”

I heard this statement from a very astute entrepreneur whom I respect a lot. When he made this statement I asked him to explain what he meant.

In a simple sentence he said, “Say Goodbye to former competitors.”

A bad economy causes a lot of pain. A lot of people and industries are suffering as never before, and there is nothing positive about that. However, I see a silver lining in the economic slowdown we are experiencing today.

When you get over the worry and fear, you will discover that there are areas of opportunity and growth. In fact there are actually more opportunities than ever before.

In a bad economy, you can surpass your competition. You can win very easily in this economy, if you know how to benefit from bad times.

Others are dropping out of the race and looking backwards. They are terrified, and you are prospering. Not only because you apply the lessons from my Marketing Tip of The Week and from this blog, but because you are seeing opportunities and overlooked markets that they are not seeing.

As a business owner or professional, you should be anything but fearful in a bad economy. In a bad economy, other business owners become paralyzed. They don’t know what to do. They retreat and stagnate.

A small handful of businesses actually become strategic during hard times. By taking on a growth-minded frame of mind, they capture the vast majority of new clients in the market. But even more important, positive thinking companies will capture, “steal” in an ethical manner, 15-20% of the best customers from all of their competitors.

You can have your best years while those around you are facing disaster. You will come out of this down turn stronger, more prosperous, and ready to grow faster than you ever imagined.

What is your biggest challenge in this downturn? And if you have no challenges, why do you think that is? What did you do to eliminate challenges? What’s working for you?

I’d really like to hear from you on this. Getting a discussion going on this topic might be very helpful for all the readers of this blog, so let’s hear from you in the comments below.

And if you would like to get more people in on the discussion, go ahead and tweet this to your twitter list.

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