When will the recession be over for businesses throughout the United States?

The answer is – I don’t know.

Not only don’t I know when the current recession will be over but if you listen to the experts they don’t know either.

As a matter of fact, recently, the economic geniuses have released findings which reportedly prove we have been in recession since last January.  The economic gurus didn’t really need to study the numbers.  All they needed to do was talk with enough CEOs, company presidents and business owners and these business people could have told them what the business conditions have been over the past year. 

Here are some of my thoughts as to how you will know when the recession is over.

If you just look at these indicators, it will be easy to see if the recession has bottomed out and we are in an upswing with business again.  Just follow the reports that come in from UPS and FedEx.  Are they shipping more packages?  If so, this is a sign the economy is picking up. 

Read the Wall Street Journal or Investors Business Daily and when you read companies have stopped laying people off and the news articles talk about actually hiring employees you will know we are on the upswing with business again.  USA Today is also an excellent publication to pick up on business and economic trends.

You may have other ideas that can be used as key indicators specifically for your business and industry.  And don’t forget the basic indicator of all – when foot traffic starts to pick up in your business, or the phone starts to ring more even if its only with inquiries rather than sales or more visitors are coming to your website.  They may initially only be looking around your website but if your site is designed well for sales, people will buy if not on the first visit then on a future visit. 

Keep customers interested in your products or services as they go through the buying decision process.  So when it’s time to buy, you get the sale.  As we move through the recession, consumers and businesses will reach a point where it becomes essential to buy again and it will start at the “just looking” or “just some information please” stage.  Be aware of what is happening in your marketplace so you are perfectly positioned for the business turnaround.

The one thing you don’t want to do is follow the so called experts who are consistently speculating day by day.  Their job is to speculate and maybe they are right 50% of the time, at best.  So if you just use a little common sense and personal research you’ll know when we begin to transition out of this economic mess and you will be able to make the right decisions for your business based on business conditions as they unfold.