How to thrive during tough times?

Depressing news is hitting business headlines more often nowadays. Nikko Electronics which is listed on Bursa Main board is closing down its factory, retrenching thousands of Penangnites. US is becoming Bear Country now with Dow Jones heading south for more than 20 % from the peak. During the 97 Asian Financial Crisis, I am still an undergrad without much wealth accumulated. Although I started some small business since 1996, my business was not too badly affected as my business is dealing mainly with cost savings. Volatile times can be melanchonic, but can be trivial too. How you can thrive during tough time?

Property Shopping Spree
On and off, I like to check on the latest property market price from Thestar Classifieds or iproperty.com.my, not really to purchase any property when I found one that is a steal but to checked out how many "steals" are available in the market. Lately, I found quite a few and it's getting more and more. A 20 x 70 double storey link house in USJ 3D normally cost about RM300-310K , but someone is letting go at RM270K. If you are planning to buy a property, hold on, you will be surprised with what you can get with just RM250K.

Blue Chips Shopping Spree
If you are feeling sad because you missed the 2006 Super Bull run for KLSE, this is a good time to shop for good blue chip counters. Down from peak of RM13.20, Maybank is now RM7 per share. The price can be much lower during a recession. General rule of thumb, when the blue chip counter cost only 30 % of it's peak price, it is normally a steal. (disclaimer, this is a personal view and I am not liable for any damages or losses of anyone taking the above advice)

Garage Sale
Huge amounts of expats vacated areas like Damansara Heights and Sri Hartamas during the 97 crisis. If you have spare cash, yes, you can purchase the properties in hose areas. However, for most of us who can't fork out 500K and above at any one time, forget about it, as banks will be very stringent on housing loans as well during bad times. What might be appealing to the general public would be the garage sales held by those expats. At times, you can get very good quality stuff at dirt cheap price in a garage sale. Check out classifieds for garage sales!

Business acquisition/Starting your own business
Are you nuts? Some people might say that. Why start or acquire a business during a recession? Plenty of reasons, among those, because your employer will freeze your pay anyway during a recession and you need extra income(even during 2001, many companies still freezes pay), because many businesses will collapse and you will have less competitors, because you might be able to acquire a business probably halved the price it use to be, because many people will choose to migrate and sell their business, because it cost lesser to operate during a recession, because .... . No matter what reason it is, starting a part time business during a recession gives you some flexibility to learn from failures. Freelancer are especially sought after as well during bad times to cut fixed operation cost.

Economic cycle is getting shorter. We will be experiencing longer stagnant economic conditions sandwiched by short boom times. So , grab your opportunity during this coming cycle and get the best out of it!