What!? Yes, grow your company now.  It’s a buyers market for just about everything; real estate, employees, equipment, services, you name it. Buying low and selling high is not just a stock market axiom. Andrew Carnegie introduced the concept of counter-cyclical investing in the late 1800s.  It was his secret sauce.  During the slump between 1893 and 1897, he upgraded his entire operation to the latest equipment at rock bottom prices.  In 1900 when the economy had turned around, the profits of his companies were $40 million for the year.

You should be looking at liquidation auctions for your industry, surfing Craigslist and eBay for equipment and generally bargain hunting constantly. In the meantime, don’t forget about human capital. Great employees are getting pink slips left and right simply because the companies they work for are going under. Your company is only as good as the people who run it – this is the time to make their losses your gain.

Of course, growth isn’t just about your assets; it’s about your product. But at the first signs of economic slowing, many firms seem to forget that, instinctively scaling back marketing to lower costs. That’s exactly what most companies did during the Great Depression – all except for Proctor & Gamble, that is. To the initial chagrin of its shareholders, P&G actually increased its advertising campaign and expanded into a brand new territory known as radio. Its creative ads, known as “soap operas” (sound familiar?), were such a smash hit that P&G doubled it’s radio budget every two years during the Depression and by 1939 sponsored 21 programs, essentially creating the modern radio industry. P&G bet that Americans would keep buying household goods during the Depression, and they figured branding was the only way to differentiate their products from other companies’. It paid off. When tough times ended and Americans wallets expanded again, consumers stayed loyal to P&G.

It might feel counter intuitive to push for growth when business is slow, but this is when the time is ripe to grab more market share. If you actively manage business while your competitors bury their heads in the sand, your company can shine.