How a recession could impact Lynchburg, businesses share outlook on possible recession

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — As fears of a recession continue to grow, our region may have a built-in silver lining, and businesses in Lynchburg say they're ready to weather a recession.

David Eakin, the manager of The Art Box downtown said business is steady and they have some fiercely loyal customers.

"They like to support us, and they want to keep us here. So, I think they would do that in a crisis," Eakin said.

At Bikes Unlimited, Owner John Seinar said while a recession is a cause for concern, the pandemic has 100% prepared them for a future crisis.

"The biggest thing that we've learned is just to adapt, like, really quickly and think outside of the box and when things get tough, we have a phenomenal team here," Seinar said.

SEE ALSO: 'It's like day to day:' two families still hotel-hopping after apartments deemed unlivable

Emeline Green owns Hill City Donuts.

Her mindset is to stay focused on relationship building.

"The more we pour into the community, they will pour back in too and I know that as hard times come there's always the light at the end of the tunnel as well," Green said.

Chris Chmura is the Chief Economist and CEO of Chmura economics and analytics. The City of Lynchburg hired her to present data on Lynchburg's economy to the council.

Chmura said Lynchburg is somewhat insulated when it comes to how bad things could get compared to other places.

SEE ALSO: GALLERY: Fall foliage peaks, reveals stunning display across Central Virginia

She said the education and healthcare fields employ about 30% of the workforce and tend to do fairly well during a recession.

"Overall the industry mix within the city is pretty favorable in terms of going into a recession. Your decline, I would not expect to be as great as the nation overall," Chmura said.

Chmura also said she expects Lynchburg's unemployment rate to go up from 3.8% to around 5 or 6%.

She suggests employees find a good place to work and stick to it so that they'll have a better chance of having a good job through the recession.

SEE ALSO: Gretna library undergoing renovations faces issues with cost and inflation

Nancy Hubbard, the dean of the School of Business at the University of Lynchburg has advice for businesses bracing for a possible slump.

"I would always say try to be as lean as you can lock into long longer-term contracts," Hubbard said. "If you can, make sure that you're competitive price-wise and also understand that while the recession may be coming, that does present an opportunity for you to maybe try different avenues of trying to create new business streams and trying to find ways that you can bolster your sales in other areas."