Strategies To Cope With Adverse Economic Conditions

ADVERSE economic condition is a situation in which the economy of a country experiences a sudden downturn brought on by a financial crisis. An economy facing an economic crisis will most likely experience a falling GDP, a drying up of liquidity and rising/falling prices due to inflation/deflation. Below are tips and Strategies To Cope With harsh Economic conditions:

1. Unemployed people should accept a low paying job as a short term solution pending when a better job offer is available...

2. Part time job, business or small scale farming ; an option available for dependent members of the family is to take a part time job, operate a small scale business that requires little capital, and engaging in farming of crops that are of short harvest period, as well as rearing farm animals on a small scale.

3. Change of plans; individuals and families would need to make changes in their plans, such changes may include relocating to affordable accommodation and switching of children's school to affordable ones.

4. Making changes in financial spending ; people should understand the difference between needs and wants during a recession. Areas of priority spending should be housing, food, affordable health care, transportation, clothing and education.

5. Life style changes; people involved in a lifestyle that leads to wastage of money need to make changes, examples are excessive smoking and alcohol consumption, excessive clubbing, womanizing, unnecessary and irrelevant travels, buying new household gadgets and appliances when old ones are still in good condition, as well as buying new phones several times in a year. Another lifestyle to be changed is the buying of new clothes for every social functions and events.

6. Business opportunities; in an economic recession, as people's spending power deprecate, spending of money is focused on areas of essential needs. For those planning to go into business, they should consider the following areas (a) sales of food items (b) operating a low cost canteen (c) low cost transportation business (d) health care business (e) small scale crops and animals farm.

7. Keeping a positive attitude; as the economic recession lingers people should have a positive attitude both at work and home, and while in company of friends and strangers . Having a positive attitude generally makes it easy to deal with tough times. On the other hand; anger, bitterness, hopelessness, frustration and persistent complaining makes it difficult for people to deal with tough times.

An economic recession is not a permanent situation but rather a temporal one, the Nigerian economy will surely bounce back, while we wait for the economy to recover, we should be prepared to face it.