Forming a Company In a Recession

Though the media is saturated with stories of economic decline and the word ‘depression’ continues to rear its ugly head, many business analysts are still confident that now is the perfect time to start the company formation process. Stating reasons such as increased share of voice, competitors in decline and bargain basement advertising rates, entrepreneurs such as Dragon Den’s James Khan think that now is the perfect time for the company formation and SME sector.

Matthew Williams, CEO of corporate events company ‘Your Events’, established his company at the start of the last recession and believes that this was the key to his businesses growth and ultimately success.

“I was employed by a large corporate events company right out of university and when the last recession struck, the business suffered and I was offered voluntary redundancy. The package I received allowed me the financial freedom to begin concentrating on what I had always wanted to do – form my own company.”

“I started small, acquiring just two clients initially and worked from home. As I had no overheads I was able to be extremely competitive on price, and as a result I began to attract a number of large clients who had been hit by the recession and could no longer justify the expense of large agency fees. My company began to grow, I took on a couple of staff and as a result of the low advertising rates available, I began to take not only a share of voice but also of the events market as a whole.”

“Because I formed my company at the start of the recession, I learnt to assess areas which were key to business growth and which areas weren’t. Therefore, my company emerged from the recession streamlined and profitable and when times were better I was able to apply the lessons I learnt during the recession to the boom years.”

Williams’s recessionary success story is not unique and fundamentally the message seems clear; if you have the right proposition, product at the right price point recession should not hold back.

In tomorrow’s post we give you our top tips on how to grow your business in a recession.