Obama notwithstanding, it now looks like anywhere from six months to a year until this moribund economy turns around. So be it.

This will be the third recession I’ve endured as an owner of a business. In the previous two, I made money. Good money. I also expanded market share. So it can be done.

Lately, I’ve been out selling sponsorships in Pittsburgh Renaissance Radio (PRR). Many, if not most, of the business owners and CEO’s I’ve been talking to tell me they are cutting back, especially on marketing expenditures. And I have to say that this is the absolute wrong thing to do.

According to PrecisionIntermedia.com, there are “a plethora of studies (most focusing on traditional media outlets) that show that in the long-run, the companies that maintain marketing budget levels --- or increase them --- during a recession or economic downturn outperform the companies that reduce marketing spending at those times.” This study goes on to say, “The reason for this is simple --- almost too simple! When the majority of businesses are decreasing their spending on marketing, media outlets get hungry and offer a bigger bang for the marketing buck. Therefore, those who maintain or increase their budgets gain greater influence on target customers.”

I have seen this time and again. I once bought outdoor media for a fraction of what it cost in “normal” times. The results were staggering! You’d have thought that my company was the only supplier in the world of my particular service. We increased our market share by nearly 18 points.

Moreover, because so many companies simply refuse to market altogether, the “clutter factor” goes down significantly. (Did you know that today, you will see as many advertising messages in one day as you would have seen in the entire year of 1954?)

I was listening to a rival radio station just this morning, and was struck by the significant diminution of ads. Typically, at a break, this station would run anywhere from 12 to 15 commercials. This morning, it was more like four to six.

According to One-to-OneMedia.com, a survey of respondents indicates that about one-third of them intend to increase their 2009 marketing budget, one-third more say they will decrease it, and the rest (40%) said it would remain unchanged.

It appears that a majority of small businesses intend to increase their marketing budgets in 2009, while only 25% of mid-sized companies and just 15% of large companies plan to do so. So what we’re seeing is the smaller, more nimble companies are taking advantage of the aforementioned media discounts to gain market share on their larger brethren. Interesting, no? Other studies I have recently read exhort this as a time to “be alone” in a medium. Of course, this is always a great idea, (remember, at one time, there was only one company flying a blimp). Recessions are wonderful times for experimentation with “unusual” or different marketing methods and techniques.

On another front, myriad studies tell us that economic downturns send people to two places: 1) entertainment, and 2) education.

It is easy to understand why people take in more movies, videos, and radio/television programs in a down economy. Generally speaking, people have more free time … unfortunately, some of them because they are not working … and others because the scope of their jobs have been cut back.

But these tend to be people at the lower end of the economic wage scale. Believe it or not, in a recession, those who hold on to their jobs or find themselves in growing companies tend to have even less free time. (Maybe it’s that gaining market share thing again.)

With regard to education, it has been long-held by study after study that institutes of education, particularly advanced education, “reap big rewards in an economic downturn” (WordPress.com). This article quotes a large state university’s V.P. for Academic Affairs as saying that a “record number of students have registered for classes such that the increase in the annual budget of the university is nearly $10 million dollars.” This, in turn, has caused problems with maintenance of the teacher-to-student ratios, living and parking space on campus, and other, related issues. The Wordpress.com article goes on to say that “the data suggest more people attended colleges and universities during the Great Depression than at any prior time in the nation’s history.” And ends with the prediction that “2009 will be a banner year for universities, trade schools, and the like.”

The final activity I suggest you all consider in this recession is investing. And you don’t have to be a genius to do it. Simply look at the stock prices today versus six months ago of your favorite companies and then invest in them with the greatest decline in stock price. You don’t need to pay anyone one percent for that advice. If you can find 10 companies that declined an average of 50% and if you have $20,000 to invest, you will double your money in a matter of a year or two (maybe three). I’m telling you that this will almost certainly happen.

Choose companies that make products or services that will be needed, of course. And unless you are a real risk taker, choose companies that stay clear of the types of crises that have recently occurred.

So there you go … things to do while waiting out a recession.