How do you prepare your small business for economic ups and downs? Is a recession inevitable? And what even is a recession? In this episode, unpack why the economy cycles through periods of boom and bust. I also demonstrate how a similar cycle is at play in the online business space. And I offer some strategies for making sustainable business decisions—no matter what happens with the economy.

Footnotes:

• Gates of the Arctic National Park
• Caribou population cycles
• Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Sea by Bathsheba Demuth
• Beargrass
• Mast fruiting
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• “Are recessions normal?” on Make Me Smart
• Economic cycles on Investopedia
• Spotted lanternfly and tree of heaven
• Timothy Snyder on the Ezra Klein Show
• “The best of all possible worlds” from Candide
• A history of recessions in the 20th and 21st centuries
• Rana Foroohar on the Ezra Klein Show

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Have a question about an episode of What Works? Is there something you've noticed online, in the news, or in your business that you're curious about? Go to zipmessage.com/whatworks! Leave me a message, and I'll try to respond in a future episode!