aaaaaaand, we’re back!

What an unbelievable turn around in September!  Almost all of my portfolio companies experienced an incredible uptick in sales in the last three weeks of the quarter.  Are we finally in the recovery period?  Has the bleeding finally stopped?

I believe there is an overall sentiment of optimism on the rise that is somewhat supported by recent announcements of mild increases in economic indicators in both the United States and Canada.  However, recently I saw a Gartner presentation, IT in the Aftermath: How Organizations will Rebuild and Reinvest in 2010, that I think says it all.  I’d love to reproduce it here (and have been painfully trying to figure out how to upload a .jpg to no avail).  The graph showed real GDP growth rates of select regions between 2001 and 2015 as supplied by Global Insight in July 2009.  The visual was an incredibly deep V in the graph during 2009.  If I can figure this out I will certainly upload it because it is a powerful image.  But in the meantime, if you are a real stats geek, check out Mary Meeker’s (Morgan Stanley) presentation here for economic and internet trends.

Most people thought the recession would be deep and relatively quick (e.g. 18 months) with early indications of a recovery occurring in the back half of 2009 (e.g. October/November) which is being supported by the published economic indicators but as I mentioned I’ve seen it first hand at the companies I advise. 

So, does this mean we are back to normal now? 

NO!  The recovery will occur slowly and many companies will remain cautious.  But, atleast we are in a recovery.  As well, lately there has been debate about what is “normal”?  What will we return to?  I believe cautious optimism will probably prevail in the next 6-8 months as events unfold.

Personally, I know we had to ignore the site for a while because the phone was ringing off the hook with companies looking to restart projects, get funding, look at new strategies, etc. 

Oh, ya, and we moved!  But we’re back and excited to get caught up in the next wave.

So, let’s get back to it - let’s get your Business Ready!