Why It's a Great Time to Start a Business

You've wanted to start your own business, but you're hesitating. What's stopping you: Money, lack of credit or perhaps poor economic times?

With money and credit in short supply, entrepreneurs may believe it's the worst time to start a business, but history tells a different story. Many American giants, including Microsoft, Disney, State Farm Insurance, Chilis and Burger King, launched during hard-impossible economic times. According to a "USA Today" article, "Recessions are typically among the strongest times for new business startups."

A "USA Today" article, "Strategies: It's a good time to start a business," noted that "16 of the 30 companies that make up the Dow industrial average were started during a recession or depression."

Here are three businesses that not only survived tough economic times---but thrived. In business, the principle of "finding a need and filling it" always outweighs whatever is going on in the world.

So, if you're thinking of starting a business, forget the naysayers. Research, do the work, then use these businesses as your inspiration:

State Farm Insurance (1922). George Jacob Mercherle started State Farm with the idea that it was unfair to charge farmers the same premiums as their city neighbors. His battle cry was "an honest insurance company," and he believed that rates should be related to risks. It was the right idea at the right time for the right audience. According to the State Farm website, today the company has 84,000 agents and employees and serves over 80 million policies in the U.S and Canada today.

Ocean Spray (1930). Ocean Spray was formed by three cranberry growers who loved cranberries and had a knack for finding new recipes for an ordinary fruit. In a tough economic climate, coming off the Great Depression, these three growers decided that competing with one another was counterproductive. Instead, they pooled their ideas to form one, solid company. Now the Ocean Spray cooperative includes more than 600 family farms across the United States.

FedEx Corp. (1973). The company incorporated earlier but opened for operation officially in 1973 as Federal Express. That first day, it delivered 186 packages to 25 cities from Rochester, NY, to Miami, FL.

In Dec., 1973, "Time Magazine" published "IMPACT: The Fuel Crisis Begins to Hurt." According to the article: "Shortage-caused layoffs spread into the auto, electronics, rubber and aluminum industries. Traveling was rapidly becoming a nightmare because of gasless Sundays, airline flight cancellations and, most spectacularly, a series of highway blockades in the East, Midwest and South staged by owner-drivers of heavy trailer trucks."

Nonetheless, FedEx launched a fuel-based business because the founder, Frederick W. Smith, knew there was a need for the service.

Marketing a business well is always about putting out a product or service at the exact time the public needs it. So, even if other, outside forces seem to contraindicate starting a business, sometimes an entrepreneur has to simply follow his gut and make the leap.

More from this contributor:

First Person: My Unconventional Emergency Fund
Market Your Small Business with More Surprise and Less Money

Business Owners Can Earn More Money Easily

Business Beat: Negotiation Skills You'll Need to Close the Deal