Thriving during recession.

Have you noticed that there are people who are unaffected by recession? Each day, as I go around, I see places where business goes on as usual or even better these days. That started me thinking. Why? How is that possible?

No matter what you are, your needs have to be fulfilled regardless of your situation. Right? You have to eat and drink. You need a means of transport. You need basic things to survive.

Someone has to supply these basic things and needs. It could be just anybody who thinks herein lies an opportunity to start anew.

Let’s take water. Everybody working outside the home needs liquids to replenish that which has been lost throughout the day. Poorer people take in cheaper fluids while richer ones take more expensive fluids.

During recession, money is scarce, so people tend to be more careful and spend less. So. There are generally more who buy cheaper fluids to drink.

With that understanding, would not it be reasonable to presume, more people would go to places where drinks are sold at a lower price? During recession in Malaysia, where roadside stalls are allowed to operate, ice-water stalls do better business than coffee-shops or restaurants. I notice that this is happening. Of course, there are the exceptional coffee-shop or restaurant doing brisk business at all times, in spite of recession. Their secret? Well, that would be another posting.

Then, we come to food. No food, no energy. So, no matter what, everyone of us has to fill our stomachs with food. There’re numerous places to get food; there are big restaurants in hotels, small restaurants in town, coffee-shops, road-side stalls and stalls in compounds of houses.

Of course, the last two places are the cheapest places to get food. And I can see that some of them have just as delicious or nutritious food, if not better, than those big expensive restaurants.

I have seen a husband and wife team doing non-stop business at their small make-shift stall each morning. There are father and son or daughter partnerships enjoying improved business at such stalls.

What factors determine their popularity? Well, having tasted some of the food, I would say that it has to be fairly tasty to have customers return daily for their food. However, with knowledge to cooking easily available through books, clubs or associations and the internet, almost every stall can produce fairly good taste. With that in mind, there is the price factor. Is your food cheaper than the others around? Is it clean and hygienic? If you can fulfill these factors, there can be no doubt, you can have a successful food business during the recession.

You want good food? Then, you say, ”Cheap!” How can that be? All I can say is that it is perfectly possible, especially during the recession.

Well, some weeks back, I read how a lady wanted to sell one of her beautiful photographs for six hundred dollars. She put it in a traditional shop hoping to get six hundred a month if she could get a sale in one month. After three months, the photograph did not attract even a single buyer at that price. Her profit after three months was zero dollar.

She had earlier heard of an offer to sell her photographs at a dollar each. In her calculation, that dollar could not even pay for her time and travelling to get such a photo snapped. Only after her failure to sell it for six hundred, di d she reconsidered the offer and found that many buyers were attracted to the same photo, earning her a sum that was quite satisfactory.

Now, perhaps you have the picture. Similarly, although each packet of food sold cheaply gives a very small profit; if we multiply that small profit by the huge number of packets sold to the numerous customers turning up for the food, you will find that it could be more than what you would get should you try to gain more per packet selling to much lesser customers.

As for governments, they should relax some of their regulations concerning such sales as the move would help some of the citizens to overcome their temporary difficult financial situation.

For those looking for opportunities and ways to overcome retrenchment, I just hope this helps.