As we all know, the economy moves in cycles. There are ups and downs occurring all the time. Currently we are experiencing one of the worst economic downturns in history, and I don’t expect we’ll see economic growth to turn positive before the middle of 2010. It was announced this week that consumer inflation is still stubbornly high, and that the country is now officially in a recession.

However, that doesn’t mean we have to sit paralyzed with fear. Now is the best time ever to start a new business. If you can start (and more importantly bootstrap) a business in the middle of a recession, you can be virtually assured that your business will flourish when the economy starts growing again.

So what am I doing in preparation for the next economic upturn? I’m learning all I possibly can about how to run online businesses. I have chosen this field for two reasons. Firstly, it’s incredibly cheap to start an online business. It shouldn’t cost you more than R150 to get a website up and running, and nothing more than R100 per month for hosting (I have seen hosting for much cheaper than this, but I would recommend you get a good stable hosting company). Then you need a very basic computer, with a cheap internet connection. I dare you to try and start another type of business for cheaper than this.

Secondly, South Africa will experience a massive technology bubble over the three years, even discounting the effect of the expected economic upturn. The country’s internet access is currently being strangled by Telkom’s incessant efforts to make profits at the cost of the consumer. With Neotel and Vodafone entering the broadband market much more aggressively than Telscum, and all the new international connections coming to South Africa over the next 2 years, the cost of internet access will plummet. In two years, everyone and their dog will have broadband. Even those without computers will access the internet on their cellphones. Websites that are marketed correctly, and with moderate traffic now, will receive a huge amount of traffic in 2 years. And we all know that traffic equals money, but only if it is done correctly.

I’m learning these skills now, and making the mistakes before the upturn. I will be ready to take full advantage of South Africa’s .com bubble. I will build my businesses while the bubble inflates, and then cash in before it bursts.

How are you going to take advantage of the next economic upturn?