Description

Everyone’s Business Plan for 2009:
“Surviving a Tough Economy”

As we roll ahead in 2009, South Bay businesses are still shell-shocked from last year’s unprecedented financial crisis that is expected to make things difficult for some time. I originally slotted the “Surviving a Tough Economy” issue into the editorial calendar about a year ago. I figured the economic downturn would start affecting more people and businesses by this time, and boy did I get that right. We decided to interview some longtime South Bay businesspeople who have been through several recessions before. They tell their stories of survival, and the details provide a perspective of what suffers and what doesn’t when the economy gets challenging. Also, clever people can capitalize on opportunities created by an economic downturn. But that said, surviving this downturn will be a challenge for everyone. Having been hit disproportionately compared to the rest of the country 15 years ago, business veterans in this area don’t panic at the first sign of an economic downturn. However, the current situation is one that no intelligent person is going to take with a shrug. If anything, businesses in this area are feeling the effects of fearful consumers who for now are keeping their money in their own pockets. We have columns in this issue with helpful tips for running your business more effectively and ways to avoid legal problems that tend to increase whenever the economy gets challenging. This year for our “Tax Time” feature, I decided to write an overview on the outrageous proposal from Sacramento to issue IOUs instead of our state income tax refunds. And to give everyone the big picture view of what’s causing the business cycles to get more ferocious as the global economy gets increasingly unstable, I penned an in-depth perspective piece on key economic factors that create these crazy business cycles and what’s ahead if we don’t fix the system from the ground up. Yes, these are challenging times indeed and Business Insider Magazine will be focusing on the most important issues for the duration.

David Whitehead,
Publisher