Wednesday, March 26, 2008

IS THE END NEAR?

Sounds foreboding, but hopefully the end of this downturn is near. I’m no economist and don’t pretend to be—even on TV—but I think that the governmental aids over the past year are band aids we can do without. Sure, interest rates cuts are nice, but will they
really make any long term difference? I mean, if your bank invested badly in real estate, it is going to take its licks and if you got caught in an adjustable rate mortgage, you had best adjust or refinance—the $300 or $600 “economic stimulus package” the IRS has in store for you isn’t going to save the day.

If the economy goes on and hits rock bottom then we can all say, “Ok the worst is over”. Let us pull ourselves back up and get on with it.

As recruiters, many of our clients have been hit hard by the slowdown, particularly our consumer product clients, but they will survive. They have good business plans, great brands and taking a little credit, super employees. The upside to downturns is bad companies; shaky companies tend to go under, leaving a better playing field for the rest of us. As a search firm owner in 2001, I can assure you over half of my competitors silently went away and few have returned—most are now in Corporate staffing departments.

2008 is going to be a challenging year for most businesses, but in my mind, there is no such thing as “free money” or a government bailout that works—most of the time, working smart and working hard are the only fixes that stick.

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