Economy Got You Running Scared?

Dump the Fear and Get On With Your Dream

uring frightening economic times, many entrepreneurs come out of the woodwork to make their mark on the world. Others decide to wait out the economy and run back to their starting line instead of moving forward. My childhood dog, Tora, was great example of becoming overwhelmed with fear.

       

One time my dad and Tora were out for a jog in Perlaucher Forest on a particularly frightening night; a cold dark winter night and the woods were dark and creepy. Deep in the forest my dad could hear some animal howling. As he jogged further into the forest he noticed that Tora was missing.

He worried that the howling creature had snatched Tora, so he followed his trail back through the forest calling for him the entire way. We lived just outside the forest and when my dad reached the outer edge of the forest he decided to come get help. Instead he found Tora shaking with terror on the front porch of our house begging to get inside. Tora was so overwhelmed with fear that he ran back to the starting line. He feared the unknown, unseen creature that was howling in the heavily wooded forest and ran home.

Today’s economy is frightening for even the most stoic. Moving in a forward direction is most important during scary times and not becoming paralyzed with fear or running back to the starting line takes great effort. Many companies have faced unsure starts and seemingly disastrous down turns, but they have continued the march towards their goals and succeeded.

A great modern day success story is of Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan who started Method just before the dot com bust soured the economy. They did not let the hard times allow them to lose focus. They cut costs by bootstrapping and did whatever needed to be done, including making their product in a bathtub, doing their own bottling, selling the product and acting as their own delivery service. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Almost like I am telling your story?

With all their effort they found themselves $300,000 in debt with just $16 in the bank. Instead of giving up they went out and found funding. They were set to sign a $1 million contract for funding on September 11, 2001. The deal was obviously postponed. Later the deal was signed and by 2006 Method had $71 million in sales. For more on the Method story and other success under trial stories read the Inc.com story Starting Up in a Down Economy.

It is your choice. Do you want the Method success story or do you want to allow fear of the unknown to send you running like Tora? Last month, at the 2008 Conference of Handcrafted Soapmakers, I sat at the awards dinner with a customer who needed to start getting quotes to buy essential oils in larger quantities than what we have online. I asked her when she got started in her business and was surprised to learn that she had only been in business since November.

In the six months that she has been in business she has taken it very seriously and her growth rate proves it. She said she has a mortgage to pay and she isn’t here to play around. She certainly isn’t taking the Tora approach to her crisis. You decide, run backwards like Tora or run forwards like Method and other successful companies?