September 10, 2013
The August 26, 2013 Wall Street Journal had a page 3 article titled, “Seattle a Leader in Job Growth” and it discussed why we have a turbocharged economy that has dropped the unemployment rate to 5.9%.
Seattle has always been (at least in my life) a contrarian economy. We tend to go up when other places are stagnant and our dips never seem to coincide with the national trends. One big reason is Boeing. There’s such a long lead-time on plane orders that is skews the overall picture.
Technology is strong in the area and we have some leaders in high-end retail, like Nordstrom and Starbucks. But the main point of the article was that it’s good old manufacturing, planes, boats and more (including a picture and description of former client Orion Industries).
So what does this mean in my world, small business growth and buy-sell? I’m seeing a lot of optimism. People can sense that the economy looks like it will continue to improve, less peaks and valleys we hope, and that it’s a better time to take some risk (of course, often it’s riskier to do nothing).
There are more and better business buyers in the market, a lot more sellers of good businesses, and financing has not been an issue (as long as the profits support the price). Let’s hope it continues.
“Be the first to not do what nobody has ever thought of not doing before.” Brian Eno
