Conquer Club

So far through this recession the company I work for has managed to survive.
Last year was tough, but we just about managed to make a small profit at the end of the year.
The start of this year (up to April) we were going great guns with some decent sized orders each month.

Then came May. The phone seems to of been cut off. It never rings.
on several days in May we didn't receive a single order.

I've been through a couple of recessions before now , but this one is the weirdest recession I've ever seen, or likely to see.
In previous recessions the banks weren't in any trouble and they would wind up companies who were in trouble to minimise losses. In this one, if a bank winds up a business - they will only be adding to their own losses already sustained through the credit crunch.
We've got the media trying to cover up the shit to avoid panic by the comfortably numb masses.

But I think that after all the bail outs, there is finally a realisation that there is nothing left in the pot to stop the rot. The recession proper is here and it's going to be the recession that we all thought would of happened in 2008 and that it will be worse than 1929.

Orders started to dry up last summer, we struggled through to Christmas, came back to work after the hols on Jan 5th and the company went bust on the 6th. I'd worked there for 16 years......

My business has grown over the last few years. The recession didn't hit Canada as hard as it did the USA, but we did get hit. But my type of business has thrived and seen growth. With more people going back to work in my city I see only more increases.

... Pretty much dried upwhen the bottom fell out in 2008. Several cancelled orders (some quite large).

... The company is surviving, just barely. We've had two major "restructurings" and our work force has gone from 150 to 50 people since it all started. All who survived the restructuring took pretty tough pay cuts.

... There is talk among the execs of moving to a more tax-friendly state, or just packing up and moving the whole show to Mexico (while maintaining a sales staff in the states). There is concern over added taxes "in the new climate". The "new climate" is the way the execs refer to an agressive anti-business stance from government (both federal & state).

... As the child company of a Japanese parent, the final decisions will be made in Japan.

... I may have to move back to Japan... that would suck.

...

The business I work for is a small player in a struggling industry, but we've been seeing steady growth since the branch opened (about 5 years ago). We see seasonal swings (winter isn't very good in the lumber industry), but overall, we're doing very well.

ps. I'm not a lumberjack

I own an Agri business and we weathered it rather well. Sales increased 15% in 2009, with no noticable slow down at all. However everyone still needs to eat, shitty economy or not. My province does not rely on manufacturing either so unlike Ontario we had limited impact.
Now things have slowed down a little, but it's cycles in and out like that. The next three weeks will be crazy, I'm sure.


John Russell
honeyb.ca

school systems are laying off teachers and staff.... i survived this round of cuts.