My Release Agent Chemical business was thriving in 1973 when a huge international crisis struck the world economy.
A coalition of Arab countries led by Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Coincidentally it happened to be during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, so the surprise was complete.
To keep this story short I will fast forward to the OIL CRISIS OF 1973, brought about by a decision by Arab oil exporting nations to impose an oil embargo on Western nations deemed to have supported Israel. The result was a worldwide economic disaster, much of it a result of PANIC.
Manufacturing businesses shut down in many Western countries as though there was no tomorrow. In Australia my business screeched to a halt because the products I supplied to manufacturers were aids to manufacture. I had been basking in the pleasure of having constant repeat orders flowing in for the simple reason that if my customers did not have a supply of my products they had no option but to cease production. Now they suddenly stopped production out of fear.
For months I had no sales - no income. If this sounds eerily similar to the situation brought about by COVID 19, it is! There was no sense in what was happening.
Life went on. People were still buying manufactured stuff, but suddenly there were shortages.
I had sufficient funds on hand to easily weather the storm, but was there anything I could do to get out of this hole? Lo and behold, one of my raw material suppliers, a very large American company decided to close down their Australian business. They approached me, telling me how much they had in stock of the raw material I had been buying.
Not phased by the doom and gloom I bought their entire stock. It was a huge purchase, even at the heavily discounted price I paid, but it paid off handsomely when the world woke up one day and realized that life was still going on. Orders began rolling in and I was was like a dog chasing its tail trying to maintain production and deliveries.
The beginning and end of this worldwide crisis were both incredibly sudden. Madness had afflicted business people everywhere. They had never experienced such a situation and were totally unprepared to handle it, so they panicked. Then the sober reality dawned that the world had not ended.
Will the current epidemic end the same way? I think the panic mode will gradually subside this time, but meanwhile opportunities abound. If you have not wasted your earnings, and have looked to the future there are new and old businesses that await your entrepreneurial spirit to start, build, acquire, and grow.
Walter
A coalition of Arab countries led by Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Coincidentally it happened to be during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, so the surprise was complete.
To keep this story short I will fast forward to the OIL CRISIS OF 1973, brought about by a decision by Arab oil exporting nations to impose an oil embargo on Western nations deemed to have supported Israel. The result was a worldwide economic disaster, much of it a result of PANIC.
Manufacturing businesses shut down in many Western countries as though there was no tomorrow. In Australia my business screeched to a halt because the products I supplied to manufacturers were aids to manufacture. I had been basking in the pleasure of having constant repeat orders flowing in for the simple reason that if my customers did not have a supply of my products they had no option but to cease production. Now they suddenly stopped production out of fear.
For months I had no sales - no income. If this sounds eerily similar to the situation brought about by COVID 19, it is! There was no sense in what was happening.
Life went on. People were still buying manufactured stuff, but suddenly there were shortages.
I had sufficient funds on hand to easily weather the storm, but was there anything I could do to get out of this hole? Lo and behold, one of my raw material suppliers, a very large American company decided to close down their Australian business. They approached me, telling me how much they had in stock of the raw material I had been buying.
Not phased by the doom and gloom I bought their entire stock. It was a huge purchase, even at the heavily discounted price I paid, but it paid off handsomely when the world woke up one day and realized that life was still going on. Orders began rolling in and I was was like a dog chasing its tail trying to maintain production and deliveries.
The beginning and end of this worldwide crisis were both incredibly sudden. Madness had afflicted business people everywhere. They had never experienced such a situation and were totally unprepared to handle it, so they panicked. Then the sober reality dawned that the world had not ended.
Will the current epidemic end the same way? I think the panic mode will gradually subside this time, but meanwhile opportunities abound. If you have not wasted your earnings, and have looked to the future there are new and old businesses that await your entrepreneurial spirit to start, build, acquire, and grow.
Walter
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