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Go to Church

Sure, the economy is down, the outlook is bad, stocks are still falling – heck the news media eats this scare-you-to-death stuff up.  And, we tune in and listen.

But, we’re all trying to run a business here, too.  And, in a down economy, not everyone suffers.  In fact, historically, there are some market segments that flourish.  For example, typically, when the economy tanks, the government steps in and tries to prop it up.  How?  With money!  Another example?  Well, we all still eat, right?  Maybe instead of eating at Morton’s, we’ll pick Outback.  In fact, McDonalds had its largest growth of same-store sales over the last ten years during the last recession. Why? Because it’s cheap, consistent food.

And, in our market, in addition to the government spending money, so will the worship community. When times are tough, people seem to gravitate to houses of worship. People pray more, enjoy the fellowship of the church and it’s a great kid-friendly, safe, inexpensive environment.


And, they feel obligated to donate, too. Maybe not more than they usually would, but historically during a down economy, more people attend churches and other houses of worship, so as the memberships increase, the donations do too.

Now, most houses of worship are obligated to their many outreach programs and, as you can imagine, during dark economic times, they are getting more requests than ever.  So, a lot of this money goes to feed the homeless, shelter the poor, fellowship programs and the many other community programs supported by the religious community.  But, some is saved for maintenance and upgrades, including technological upgrades.

These facts, and the fact that churches are integrating AV-based technologies in record numbers to draw in and keep generations X and Y are why those that serve the religious commercial AV markets will flourish in 2009.  It’s not a guess or a “might be” sort of thing – it’s a fact.   In most cases, houses of worship will have more money in 2009 than they did in 2008.

Are you going to church?

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