Contestant's Case to Win
This is based on the number of votes received and does not reflect the quality of the business.My business is selling custom-printed promotional advertising products to a wide range of business, industry, government, and organizational buyers, all across the United States. Working from my home-based office, or traveling across my service area, I work with my clients and referrals to assist them in meeting a number of business needs, ranging from recruiting customers and employees to reducing on-the-job accidents, introducing new products and services, trade show handouts, commemorative gifts for grand opening and milestone achievements, branding, creating public awareness, thank you gifts, and more.
I just completed twenty-one years as a full-time, self-employed entrepreneur, avoiding all the headaches that come with being an employee, while also eliminating any possibility of any layoff or work reduction due to management decisions, corporate mergers, any other unpredictable crises of 21st Century employees.
I can only be fired by one customer at a time, while I'm adding one or more new customers almost every month during the past 5 years.
To insulate my business against the many economic downturns and cycles that occur, I have spread my business geographically from SW Louisiana to Houston, TX as far as the clients I call on face-to-face. Many economic downturns are regional in nature, so spreading my sales area across two states helps to eliminate the possibility of every customer cutting back at the same time.
In addition, I expanded my business online over a decade ago, expanding my regular sales out to the US limits, including servicing government entities overseas.
Another way that I have built in a hedge against future recessions is to spread my customer base across several industries. While health care, financial, and communication fields are my top three business categories, I serve many other clients in other fields, lessening the impact of one industry or another facing slowdowns and cutbacks.
My chosen career field of promotional advertising is inherently shielded from the impact of a recession as the nature of advertising is that it actually increase during troubled markets. Those companies in the number one, two, and three ranks of their field, need to invest even more in keeping and acquiring new customers during economic troubles. Those who reduce advertising expenditures during hard times, may suffer greater loses than those who spent more keeping business flowing through their doors.
The least obvious reasons for my business being recession proof are more obscure. Many people won't accept the risk of commission-only sales, which dominates the industry. So, professional sales people often choose other fields for a guaranteed monthly income, over the merit-based pay of compensation matched to performance, i.e., the more you sell, the greater your income.
Secondly, the nearly invisible nature of my chosen industry means no university or school counselor is preparing people for careers in this field. The less competition that exists, the more business that is left for me.
And, when many in the industry are sitting in the office waiting for the last economic news, those of us to continue to go out hitting the bricks, calling on customers and prospects, the greater our rewards.
"Good things may come to him who waits, but only those things left by those who went out and hustled!" Abraham Lincoln (Or words to that effect)
Finally, I continually introduce my business to others, supporting and training them in the industry, and am rewarded with a percentage of the new profits generated by their sales. Having sponsored a hundred plus salespeople from coast to coast over the past 15 years, I have added a second stream of income that is independent of my personal sales efforts. The national spread of their sales adds just one more layer of recession-proofing to my stabilized income.
And, I also reap the reward of assisting others in moving from employee, retiree, or unemployed status into self-employment as an entrepreneur participating in our great society of free capitalism.
Can I interest you in some 1GB USB memory sticks with the Startupnation logo and URL printed or laser engraved on them?
