Sweating Bullets over the Auto Industry?

Some interesting news came out today while reading about the auto industry. As you have probably read or heard at some point, the Big Three (Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford) are struggling with Chrysler and General Motors potentially having to file for bankruptcy or receive immediate help from the government just to survive. The Bush administration is thinking about bankruptcy for the two companies as a possible alternative but within an orderly fashion (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bush-considering-orderly-auto-apf-13870003.html). Three major auto suppliers have already filed for bankruptcy. What this then leads to is wondering what will happen if you work in the auto industry or within a related industry which counts on the auto business for parts of your sales. The auto industry has roots in around two million jobs (look at this map CNN has provided: http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/stateautoworkers/).

This just shows you that a recession can affect any job. You may be the most effective person at your job but if there is no demand for your company’s services, you will find yourself laid off.

All of this is used to simply point out that everyone can be vulnerable from any recession. Most people do not have any sort of savings so that if they lose their job, they can not survive without having to declare bankruptcy. Having a home based business can help you in a couple of different ways. It allows you to diversify your income. If you are tied to the auto industry in any way, you may be sweating bullets as you wonder where your next paycheck will come from.

A home based business could allow you to build that savings cushion so that you could sleep better at night. You can have an income which is not reliant upon one company but rather upon many customers. If you lose a customer here and there, that hurts your income stream but you can attract more clients through your own hard work. This allows you to have less stress during a recession. This completely ties back into the auto industry or any concerns you have about the economy these days.

How is the Economy Affecting You?

It’s a good question to ask these days because of the bailouts of several large banks and the struggles the automakers are having. You may have lost your job, know someone who has lost a job, or have worried about losing your own job. Unemployment is the highest it has been in quite a few years.

There is a great deal of bad news that was mentioned simply in that first paragraph. It is good to come back to the question that started this blog post. How is the economy affecting you? You can take this question in stride or you can then turn it around from there: how will you let another bad economy affect you? If you ask the question in that sort of tone, you are being much more proactive. Let’s think through this a bit. If you are worried about your job and are concerned about your company, you need to find some way to recession proof your income. One of the best ways to do that is through starting your own business.

Your own business is something that you should look into. If you build a good business and take care of your customers, a recession will not affect you as strongly as someone with a job at a struggling company. You will lose some customers potentially because people may buy less but you have many streams of income because of many customers as opposed to one stream of income which would be your job. A recession could be a great opportunity as well because this is when many other businesses stop marketing and advertising. You could pick up more customers or prospects because of their decision so that you could actually increase your business’s revenues and your income.

Think about that when you are looking into how the economy is affecting you. Do you want to have more sleepless nights the next time something like this happens or wouldn’t it be better if you could simply avoid the whole question by having your own business?

Here is an idea for a business you may want to start from home.