It's time to look at the bright side of the recession:  there is no wait for a table at your favorite chain restaurant, parking at the mall is a breeze and—according to Tim Draper—it may be the perfect time to start a business.  Draper is the founder and managing director of VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.  At a recent speaking engagement, Draper told an audience of Seattle entrepreneurs and investors that right now is the "best time ever" to start a new business.

Draper's evidence?  General Electric, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Skype, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak and Adobe Systems.  (If you are wondering why Skype is counted among these giants, Draper was an investor).  All of these companies were founded during depressions or recessions.  Draper argued that "each of these companies had done something to drastically change the way others in that industry were doing business, or that they had created completely new and different categories that solved real-world problems." http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10250521-2.html

At InsideCRM.com, an article sharing Mr. Draper's point of view provides an overlapping list of recession start-ups, including Burger King, The Jim Henson Company and Federal Express.  Their analysis is that each of the companies on their list saw a market need and filled it; identifying the "need" in the market is the key to success, "regardless of the economic climate."  http://www.insidecrm.com/features/businesses-started-slump-111108/

If you have been sitting on the next-best-thing-since-sliced-bread, you shouldn't use the current economic woes as an excuse not to start your own business.