Finding the Opportunity in a Troubled Industry

I interviewed Jim Blasingame about the "emotional recession" that can be more dangerous for small-business owners than an actual recession in the economy. I think this article in the Frederick News Post, a local paper in Maryland, illustrates what Blasingame was talking about:

Greenwood owns the Isuzu division of Grimes Truck Center in Frederick. The business sells Isuzus and services all makes of commercial trucks. The company boasts a half-million parts inventory.

Operating a trucking business amid high fuel prices is challenging, Greenwood said.

"We survive by offering superior customer service, by getting on the road and talking to more people, and by advertising," Greenwood said. "We have a good reputation and we do what we have to do to keep it. When people call you, you got to call them back. You and your staff have to have enthusiasm, and I'm an easy guy to work for."

The conventional wisdom is that one should not expand a business during a possible recession. So expanding a trucking business at a time of high gas prices might seem especially foolhardy. But the guy in the story, Greenwood, seems to have incorporated those concerns into his business and is trying to figure out the new environment. For instance, he's putting more emphasis on going after customers who have been pushed out of the ailing construction industry into other pursuits that use his products, such as landscaping. If Greenwood succeeds, it will be because he was able to find those hidden opportunities in a "recession," rather than simply being paralyzed.