Your reading the daily newspaper or listening to the news and you hear more bad economic data just about every day.  Then you have an epiphany.  I think I am going to start my own business.  Your family and friends call the nearest psychiatric ward to get you committed, but you may be on to something.

Consider the following:  There is usually less competition in a bad economy.  The highly leverage, weaker companies are either going out of business or are out of business already.  There may be lower costs in starting a new company.  Since no one else is buying anything, you will be negotiating from a strengthened position.  It may be easier to recruit and retain new employees.  Since more people are out of work, the potential  candidates for your new workforce has just increased.  And since you are starting from scratch,  starting salaries, benefits and other employee related costs are negotiable.

Also if you launch a start-up company now you are not in bad company.  Johnson & Johnson, Caterpillar, McDonald's, Walt Disney, Adobe, Microsoft and Charles Schwab all began their companies in economic downturns.