Posted by Mark in Is this really the right time to start a business? This is the number one question going through many entrepreneurs’ minds as they watch the economy take a slump. Although it may appear that a recession is the worst time to begin a new venture, it is the perfect time to utilize the economic downturn to spiral the growth of a new business.
Today we present to you five businesses that are household names. What do they have in common? They were all started during a recession.
Burger King
Founded : 1954
Employees : approx. 41,000
Customers : approx. 11.4 million per day
Period : Recession of 1953
Burger King was founded in 1954 by James McLamore and David Edgerton during the recession of the early 1950s. Today the company has become a household name and there is barely any town where we can’t find a Burger King. The introduction of BK’s signature Whopper came around during 1957, a time of high unemployment rates and failing businesses. Burger King is one of the recession start ups that has grown tremendously over the years.
Microsoft
Founded : 1975
Employees : approx. 95,000
Revenue : approx. $60 Billion per year
Period : The 1974-1975 Recession
Who would have thought a company founded by a college dropout would rake in $60 billion dollars a year in revenue, especially when it was started during a recession. Microsoft founder Bill Gates founded the company in 1975 which known to most as a time of “The 1974-1975 recession.” Bill Gates wanted to fill a void with his products and his vision was to “a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software” which to some extent has come true.
Hewlett Packard
Founded : 1939
Employees : approx. 321,000
Revenue : $104 billion in 2007
Period : The Great Depression
Commonly referred as HP, Hewlett Packard is the largest technology company in the world which reported $104 billion revenue in 2007. The worldwide leader in sales of personal computers, HP was founded by William (Bill) Hewlett and David (Dave) Packard at the end of The Great Depression. Although the company was unfocused in the beginning and worked on a wide range of electronic products, they later focused on high-quality electronic test and measurement equipment. HP is also known as the symbolic founder of the Silicon Valley. HP launched its operation from a garage in the beginning with an investment of $538.
CNN
Founded : 1980
Employees : approx. 5,000
Parent Company : Time Warner
Period : Early 1980s Recession
Mostly referred to as CNN, Cable Network News was founded on June 1, 1980 by Ted Turner during the Recession of 1980-1982. CNN stood out by being the first network to provide news around the clock. The first newscast was anchored by a husband wife team, David Walker and Lois Hart. What began during the peak of the 80s recession, CNN is now rated as the number two cable news network in United States.
IHOP
Founded : 1958
Employees : approx. 25,000
locations : All 50 States
Period : Recession of 1958
International House Of Pancakes, the name itself sounds like a business waiting to boom and that is exactly what happened to IHOP. The first IHOP restaurant opened in 1958 during the 50s recession. Today there is an IHOP restaurant in all 50 states and IHOP just happens to be another one of those big businesses that was able to take recession as a time to start and launch a successful business.
If these businesses can survive some of the toughest recessions, with effort and dedication start ups in todays economy can survive as well.
What do you think? Is recession the right time to launch a new business?
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Wow i did not know that about any of those businesses it just goes to show that anything is possible no matter the time.
That is true, it is also why they are still in business, they learned hard lessons and never forgot those lessons.
[...] Is Recession a Good Time To Start a Business? | Applicant – Job … Leave a comment | Trackback Related PostsChattanooga Times Free Press | Entrepreneurs thrive [...]
Inspiring news. Didn’t realize that these companies started during a recession.
@Josten Exactly
@Hilary Yup! During recession business owners create good habits and become frugal to cut cost, etc. They are also compelled to make better products to stay in business and be competitive.
@Jason It certainly is inspiring. FedEx, MTV, Sports Illustrated are few other ones that started during recession
Maybe I should start a restaurant with Burgers and pancakes that play’s cnn on the tv and that has free access to hp computers with windows operating systems for this recession huh?
Well David, if that’s what you are planning on let us know how it goes.
Interesting. It doesn’t highlight how many thousands went under but I don’t want to pour water on the fire!
@Jonathan : Sure, there are thousands that must have gone under but the same is true when the economy is booming as well. The key is to look at the positive side and sometimes just go with your instincts rather than always follow the numbers
It’s always riskier to start up in a down economy but it’s encouraging to see there are success stories. Some of the biggest gains are made during the worst economic times. I was caught in a situation that I started a website before the economy was down and now it’s coming to market in a down time… the good news is that it is an employment social network. It spiders the internet for relevent job matches and sends them to your dashboard. Hopefully my business endevor will make this list on the next economic downturn.
Vin McCauley
CEO/Founder
http://www.WorkingLife.com
Thanks very much for taking your time to create this very useful infos .
Excellent. Supply/Demand always exist.
I am very confident that it is a mere coincidence that all of these companies were created during recessions.
Is a recession the best time to start a business? I don’t think so.
i am hoping that the global economy would recover from this economic recession. life has been very hard with these massive job cuts.
frankly this article is BullShit… I mean, great that some companies made it out of those recessions but think about the thousands that did fail.
If you think this article justifies starting your own business, whether there is a recession or not, you should just not start that business in the first place. Safe yourself the time and just go work at BK (or one of the other companies if you’re qualified)….
Not trying to be a pessimist… just realistic yo.
I truly agree but with unemployment
on the rise, and the competition for jobs at a astounding level.
Resume skills are very important, to me, and most definitely
studying online may level the playing field.
Economic recession created huge unemployment rates around the world. I think the world economy is already on the road to recovery.
the economic recession made a lot of workers jobless. my best friend and me lost our jobs because of job cuts. i hope that our economy would recover soon
the Economic recession made a lot of jobless people in my own country. We could only hope that our economy becomes strong again.
Our country was also hit hard by the Economic Recession. At least we are seeing some signs of economic recovery now. I hope that we could recover soon from this recession.
…
Our country had been so much affected by this Economic Recession. there are lots of job cuts and company shutdowns. We are seeing some signs of economic recovery right now and we hope that it would continue.
:
[...] you think the current situation is a roadblock on the path to success, consider this: Each of the following businesses was started during a recession: Burger King Microsoft Hewlett Packard CNN [...]
during the height of the economic recession, our online and offline business in the US have suffered some major drop in sales. now our sales are getting slowly back to normal.
Our home business was really affected by the Economic recession, we have to cut jobs just to cover up our losses. fortunately, we have already recovered. :
Hilarious!!!! Sandwiced in with all the legitamate companies is CNN! May this recession finally bury what is left of this network!!!
GOD,
Sounds like you have been knocked down and kicked a few times. Have you gotten up yet?
The funny thing is that during those economic recessions we did not have the PROBLEM of universial health care. I am in the franchising business and it is basically going to do all short of kill my profits when I have to start paying for the health care of part time employees. Therefore I will not have part time employees anymore. This will become a trend in the US as franchisees feel the pain. We will no longer be able to employ high-school students as we have in the past unless they have the ability to work full time. Just some food for thought. This will be the same for all franchises out there. Thanks OBAMA! Vote out representatives that do not listen to you this November!!!
Economic Recession come and go…doing business regardless of the circumstances depends on how creative and innovative you are in coping with the situation.
Thanks for the tips. I get so confused over these things. Reading other points of views seem to help.
the economic recession is actually very bad and it is great to know that we are recovering now`~~
economic recession is always a bad part of history, we must avoid it at all cost`::
ecomonic recessions could really mess up great economies~.”
Sweet post, thanks. I’ve been planning on submitting a post along these kinds of lines for some time, would you mind if I estimate you? I’ll website link back to you obviously.
“The worldwide leader in sales of personal computers, HP was founded by William (Bill) Hewlett and David (Dave) Packard at the end of The Great Depression. Although the company was unfocused in the beginning and worked on a wide range of electronic products, they later focused on high-quality electronic test and measurement equipment. HP is also known as the symbolic founder of the Silicon Valley. HP launched its operation from a garage in the beginning with an investment of $538.”
You can see more?
frankly im looking forward to more faux moral big ben outrage or fan-misguided steelers hate until the super bowl. bring it
People this is fantastic long time I haven’t read something like this.
My business partner and I have been selling refurbished TV’s and doing a layaway plan. It has been very good for us because people are starting to look for deals and save money.