This is a posting about not taking the recession lying down. There are opportunities out there. I’ll tell you about one unique and emerging business opportunity – the reverse auction. If you want to see it now, go to www.imarketinggenius.com. And you can see a bunch of successful internet marketers I’ve interviewed at www.realmoneyshow.com. Otherwise, read on and let me explain what’s happening with our new economy.

There’s a great story about Ronald Reagan during the 1980 campaign – a time of another recession.

 

Jimmy Carter was President and was unable to jump-start the economy. Reagan was trying to jump-start his campaign. So, he told a crowd, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”

 

Academically, it was wrong. Politically, it was brilliant.

 

Ronald Reagan knew the American people wanted action. More importantly, Ronald Reagan touched an attitude of the American people that said I’m not going to take this lying down.

 

We need to start thinking that way today. We need to stop playing the victim. We need to thrive, not just survive.

 

Understand that this recession, as horrible as it might seem, is also a time of opportunity for many.

 

Sure, jobs will be lost for good. Our economy is changing drastically. We’re in the final throes of a manufacturing economy that began in the late 1800s. We’re now in a service economy buffeted by the Information Age. Companies are either evolving or going under.

 

The economic term, espoused by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, is creative destruction. Schumpeter introduced the theory in the 1950s, but it seems more relevant today. Many businesses can’t compete in this new age without a merger, bankruptcy, or bailout.  Even management guru Peter Drucker saw this coming. He said, “The corporation as we know it is unlikely to survive in the next 25 years.”

 

My recent conversations with many corporate executives – off the record – confirm this trend. One banking executive said the recent layoffs “are an excuse to trim the fat.” An IT manager told me, after he laid-off ten percent of his work force, “I could have kept them, but my orders were to cut back.”

 

Not very reassuring to folks depending on a job. So, how do you make sure you don’t lose your job?

 

You work for yourself. You become an entrepreneur. And now is the time to be an entrepreneur on the internet.

 

Look what’s happening. Retail sales are down overall, but online sales are up. Granted, the percentage of internet sales is down year to year, but compared to sales at brick and mortar stores, internet sales are doing fine.

 

The next crash in the real estate market is on the commercial side. Analysts are predicting a massive downturn and stores going out of business. It only makes sense.

 

Read Christopher Anderson’s book, The Long Tail, which tracks the phenomenon of the growth of internet sales. Products can reach more people at a much less expensive cost.

 

Ann Seig, a well-known internet marketer, says, “The time is ripe.” She recently noted that the first commercial during the 2009 Super Bowl was for Avon. “The key phrases were: ‘I can’t get fired. I can’t get laid off. It’s my business.’ If a network marketing company is willing to pay $3 million for 30 seconds of air time, this should tell you something.”

 

Let me offer some ways you can, to quote President Obama, “turn this crisis into an opportunity.”

 

Over the past couple of years, there have been numerous internet marketers who have found ways of making money on the web while still working from home. You can see interviews I’ve conducted with them at www.realmoneyshow.com.

 

Another ground-breaking idea I recently discovered is called a reverse blind auction. Go to www.johndalyauction.com to see what it’s all about. In short, it’s an auction where the price of the product goes down. That’s right, it goes down. Unlike places like Amazon, the price goes up with every competing bid.

 

How does the price go down? You, as the consumer, buy credits for 80-cents a piece. Each time you use the credit, the price drops 25-cents.

 

There are three types of auctions. Again, go to www.johndalyauction.com to see a more in-depth look at these auctions.

 

One is the Express Auction where you can buy the product immediately if it hits the price you want. You lose the chance to buy the product, though, if someone else buys it first at a higher price.

 

The second auction is a Zero Auction. The person who is holding the bid at the lowest price gets to buy the product.

 

The third auction is a Unique Auction. After a specified time, the person with the lowest unique bid – the only one with that lowest bid – gets the product. It could be as low as 90% off the retail price.

 

A word about the products: if you look at the auctions, you will see the products are all brand names. You won’t be seeing someone selling their old, stinky sneakers. And those products are delivered to you.

 

Do I make money on this? Yes. Remember the credits. People buy those credits from me for 80-cents with 25-cents going to reduce the price of the product in the auction. The remainder — 55-cents – stays with me.

 

If you want to look at one of these franchises go to: www.imarketinggenius.com.  If you have any other suggestions to avoid being a recession weenie, let me know.

 

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