Company lacking trade at the outset in recession (5)
I believe the answer is:
troop
'company' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'lacking trade at the outset in recession' is the wordplay.
'lacking' becomes 'poor'.
'at the outset' says to take the initial letters.
'in recession' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
The initial letter of 'trade' is 't'.
'poor'+'t'='poort'
'poort' written backwards gives 'TROOP'.
(Other definitions for troop that I've seen before include "herd" , "Group of people or animals" , "Military body" , "Flock, crowd" , "Body of soldiery" .)