Worst recession ever. Banks not lending money. Ireland is all sorts of fucked. Nobody is spending a penny. Stealth redundancies en masse. House prices are plummeting.
And with it…
Office space is dirt cheap.
Every price can be negotiated.
Deals are much easier to do if you are someone with cash.
There are oceans of talented graduates looking for work and who’ll work damned hard to retain their position.
Colleges are throwing interns at companies.
People have more free time (unfortunately for some) to beta test your products or services.
The media want good news stories.
It’s cheaper to fail now.
Some great companies started in a recession, Google wasn’t one.
Very true, though I’m not so sure about the talented graduates thing – our last attempt to hire staff was not exactly successful – loads of people didn’t even bother turning up for interviews!
D’ye know what I’m loving about this day and age? For so many people and businesses mediocrity is no longer an option, complacency has a far greater cost to it and every day people see something to inspire them and propel them into doing something bigger, smarter, more creatively.
Getting out there and doing it for yourself must be awesome. Helping a company do it isn’t half bad either.
Good man – the glass is half full. There is lots of opportunity out there for people, the trick is knowing where to look and what to look for. We’ve some really great people with spare time who have offered to do some beta testing ‘n stuff for us. What goes around….
I have worked on events where graduates working on an intership basis took up key roles in the organisation and proved invaluable. The shear level of graduates looking for work at the moment means that, for them, having something on their cv which gives the edge over their peers is incentive enough to work for free inorder to obtain a good reference And hands on experience.
Have this up on my cubicle wall, sums it up nicely I think: http://www.toddle.com/stuff/category/feck-the-recession/
This is a recession that had to happen. People are talking to each other more, coming up with ideas, and getting out there to make a go of it.
THANK GOD someone else is saying this. Saw your tweet. This is EXACTLY the message Ireland needs.
Additional point is technology costs
Adrian Weckler did a great piece in the SBP a while back covering the best offers available on pc’s laptops printers etc.
Cost of fitting out an office v cheap
“Nobody is spending a penny”
Not great for any business model really is it now Damien? Of course, it might force people to actually plan and do more than straight line forecasting…
I’m thinking we could get the country sponsored by Dr. Pepper though…
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
TUG, people are spending elsewhere though. You can be in Ireland and sell to the world. Slogan suggestion: “We’re sure nothing worse can fucking happen. In this current climate.”
Just waiting for the day TUG and Damien hug. So much manly love there.
+1 for the message of starting. 2010 will be a year of change for many people.
TUG would drop the hand.
Good lord…
Irrespective of all that, if you’re selling outside Ireland then why would you base yourself here exactly?
Lots of places that would offer a big differential advantage on many levels…
@TUG We joined the Common Market for reasons including it would be easier to do business with Europe, no? If the world is your market via the web, why would you need to move?
There are inherent diseconomies living on an island at the periphery of Europe not to mention the technical issues (mobile broadband, etc.), of which you are even more aware of then myself.
“Office space is dirt cheap.
Every price can be negotiated.
Deals are much easier to do if you are someone with cash.
There are oceans of talented graduates looking for work and who’ll work damned hard to retain their position.
Colleges are throwing interns at companies.
People have more free time (unfortunately for some) to beta test your products or services.
The media want good news stories.
It’s cheaper to fail now.”
There’s no reason why all of these things aren’t true of almost every other continental member state!
Plus the price of shelter is alot cheaper on the continent, good public transport, hospitals… Seems like a no brainer really… Move Ireland to the Czech Republic and we’d be getting somewhere…
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