Business Diversity in Retail and Related Industries in an Economic Downturn

In 2008 America's economy made a turn for the worst, since then climbing out of the rut has been excruciatingly difficult. For American citizens this downfall proved to be a massive recession; for American businesses it posed an even bigger problem. For some American businesses this meant their eminent downfall. Other, smarter businesses stayed ahead of the curve. How exactly does a business do this? When an economy is experiencing a heavy recession the only hope for staying alive in business rests in globalizing and diversifying your markets.

Instead of appealing to one group of people, a business should appeal to everyone. By only selling to a certain type of people you limit yourself and the profit you could make. When you limit yourself during an economic downfall you are setting yourself up for failure. Without diversity there is only one set of people buying your product, and when their economy fails, your profits fail, which leads to your business failing. It is better for a business, especially during an economic downfall, to have diversity because a company can make up for their decrease in profits by gaining profits from the new customers they obtain. When you appeal not only Americans, but also other countries and continents you open up chance for profit growth; if one economy were to fail you would have the rest of countries to rely on. When a business doesn't diversify their market they are more open to failure because if the set group of people they are attracting suddenly loses money they have no more customers to keep their business alive. They then have to start up again, make new products to sale, find a different set group of people to sale to, and make new advertisement in an area that the group would most likely be the majority; a business would basically have to start from the bottom and work their way up again. However this can be avoided if there is diversity from the start of the business, by appealing to more than just one or two set groups of people, appeal to everyone you, globalize and diversify your business.

Starting when a business is fresh is the best way to stay afloat in the business world. When the economy fails in one place, you have the rest of your customers to make up for the failure in that one economy. By a company staying ahead with diversity can also lead to the elimination of competition; if two businesses compete for customers and the economy suddenly fails the business who had diversity among their customers doesn't have to worry as much as the business who relied solely on that one economy. The business who strives even after the failure of the economy can later buy out the other business, which leads to more money and customers. Having diversity in your market is smart regardless of the economy, but it's the best idea when the economy is falling because you aren't prone to failure.