Although he is no longer in the floor covering business, Evan Hackel will always be a bona fide flooring guy. He was the fifth employee of CCA Global, serving in a range of senior management positions for 20 years. Now he is CEO of Tortal Training, a training development company, and the founder and principal of the consulting firm Ingage Consulting. We had an opportunity to sit down with Evan recently and the following are excerpts from that conversation. You can listen to this conversation in its entirety below.
Hackel: I actually look at downturns as huge opportunities to gain market share. Typically, in a downturn, retailers tuck in their heads and focus on survival. They stop spending money on advertising and upgrading their showrooms and cut back on employees. That means for those that are more aggressive, it becomes easier and cheaper for them to grow their businesses. If competitors are not buying ad space or using Facebook or pay per click, the cost for clicks and for advertising goes down. There are fewer people attempting to take market share.