Take the long view

Customers canceled all of our orders in Nov-90

Here’s a lesson from 1 of 5 recessions

In Nov-88, we bought a troubled tier 1 auto supplier in Michigan

500 employees
4 facilities
$45M Rev

The first year of operation was tough because we were losing money. So we re-engineered operations, repriced jobs, and closed a money-losing division. It cut revenues from $45M to $30M, but we became profitable. It allowed us to focus on the powertrain machining division: good product margins, single-source supplier, and a customer that relied heavily on us.

Just as we were experiencing stability, the recession hit in the Summer of 1990, immediately followed by Gulf War I thus slowing down the economy. In Nov, our customers called to inform us they were canceling all orders. So we furloughed the entire workforce for 6 weeks, including me. By Q1 1991, the War ended and we went back to normal.

The economy had less volatility and we upgraded many aspects of our business, like engineering systems, an archaic quoting system, hired a Sales Manager and we eventually grew the business to $100M when exited in 1996.

RECESSION LESSON
The pain we are feeling now is most likely temporary
Take the long view
Persist