This may be a brave start to for my first hub page but here goes.

This article looks at five good things that I think can come out of a recession. Some of you may think, after reading this article, that I’m some ‘fat cat’ with a wedge of cash stashed away in the bank. Not the case let me assure you; I’m in the architecture industry, and specialise in residential development. Needless to say, I was made redundant late last year. Although life since then has been stressful there are some good things that have and continue to come out of it:

1. Well managed companies will weather the recession and continue to grow.

Well managed companies are good for the consumer or client – depending on the industry – and good for employees of that company. I have worked for two very different companies - one was exceptionally well managed and their turnover grew every year - and continues to do so - it had happy staff and was a pleasure to work at. The second company was poorly managed, clients complained, staff were unhappy and needless to say it was not a pleasure work at. They took a hard hit at the beginning of the recession.

2. You may be put in the situation where you can have a difficult decision made for you.

For many years I had debated working for myself, but having the security of a fulltime job made it very difficult to make that leap in to self-employedness. As it turned out I had the decision made for me and I’m sure many other people have to.

3. It’s a good time to work freelance.

Companies don’t want to take on fulltime staff, but there is work that still needs doing whatever your industry. You have advantage as a freelancer to charge yourself out at a competitive rate.

4. As an employer, if you’re in the position to employee, you’ve got a lot of good people to choose from.

If you’re in the fortunate position to be looking for employees, now couldn’t be a better time. There are many highly skilled people out there that know they’re going to have to take a job regardless of the salary. It also gives you the opportunity to pick from a good range of freelancers. I personally think (as a freelancer I would) that this method of employing people is an excellent alternative to full time employees. Freelancers are motivated by money and know that to get it they must excel in their chosen field and beat the competition. Your full-time employees know that they’re going to get X amount in the bank at the end of the month regardless of how hard they work.

5. It forces you to seek other methods of income.

I can’t make enough money at the moment doing what I do, so I’ve been forced to look at other (legitimate) ways of making money. You may ask why I see this as a good thing. Well, when things pick up (and if you’re feeling miserably, they will pick up let me assure you) I’ll be able to make a living doing what I love to do and I’ll have the other income streams that I have developed. Long-term it will give me more security. However Long-term is the keyword here.

If you are in the same situation as me, I wouldn’t recommend wasting your time looking for get rich quick schemes.

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”

I’m not sure who said that, but it’s good advice.

If I can think of any more good that can come out of a recession I’ll let you know. In the meantime if you can think of any good that’s come out of the recession let me know, in fact let everyone know. I think we need a bit of positivity.