There is a lot of economic ‘bad news’ being reported in the media, both in the USA and Australia.
Examples:
1. Here in Oz, a survey of businesses in the state of Victoria found only 6% expected business conditions to improve over the next 12 months. That indicates quite a bit of pessimism.
2. In the US, a report indicated house prices in California fell 26% in March 2008, driven by foreclosures
3. Crude oil prices reached an all time high to US$119.90 a barrell.
That’s just a small sample of the bad news in the media.
But is it all really bad? Some good news:
Down markets and hard times are also great opportunities for buying. It takes some courage and some work to find the gems but there are likely to be very good buying opportunities in stocks and property, in Australia, the US and elsewhere.
Adversity, like necessessity, can also be the mother of invention. It forces us to get creative. If we always do what we always did, we will always get what we always got. So in hard times, we have to try different things.
I read that one time a car dealership was struggling with slow sales during a down turn. Then they tried something different. They took a few of their up market models and drove them to a few country clubs and other places that wealtier people hang around. And they offered free test drives at those locations. Apparently it really did boost their sales.
In hard times, we have to try different things. Differentiation & alternative ideas will win in the down market.
It would be great to hear about some new things any readers have tried with success (or not) or have heard about.
We need to support each other in these harder economic times.
Cheers
Tom
Tags: economics, US, Australia, ideas, optimism, buying opportunties
