How graphic designers, freelancers and artists can prepare for a recession.
Vol. 092
How graphic designers, freelancers and artists can prepare for a recession.
Planning now and preparing for a recession prior to it hitting is one of the best preparation tactics you can embrace.
There is a lot of talk about “an impending recession.”
By definition, a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product. Gross.
If you’re anything like me, I try to be proactive in my business instead of reactive. I want to be ready in case a recession hits as opposed to panicking once it hits.
So, I did some recession research.
I looked into past recessions, I asked a lot of other creates a lot of questions, and I wanted to talk about what small creative businesses can do to prepare for and get through an economic recession.
The points below are a combination of:
My research (on previous recessions, how businesses survived and thrived).
Other creative businesses (you!) and what you’re doing.
My own insight and plans for what we’re doing here at Vicarel Studios to prepare and be ready for a recession.
What can freelance graphic designers, artists and small creative businesses do to plan and prepare for a recession?
Diversify
Revenue Streams
What are other ways you can make money? If you’re currently selling services, are there any products, prints, apparel or fonts you could be selling? Could you pick up a side hustle?
We are upping our passive income streams as it feels like a safe way to pad the pockets in small increments (low-cost purchases won’t be cut as much as high-cost purchases.)
Services or Offerings
Expand the services you offer. If you’re a graphic designer, start doing web design (learn on Youtube!) If you focus mainly on branding, start offering complimentary services like social media or email template creation.
The clients you have now (or have had in the past) are far more likely to hire you than a new client. Double down on your current relationships and figure out what your clients need, can afford, and figure out how to do it for them.
Consider making larger or smaller packages that are easy to understand and therefore easy to purchase for your clients. Ex: Are you selling logos? Consider a logo + business card packaging. Also, a logo + business card + email and social templates. … The easier it is to understand, the more likely it is that people will buy.
Industries
Some industries are affected far more than others during a recession. If you’re focused on one industry, consider diversifying a little bit.
Save Money
Put a hold on big investments or expenses.
Cut costs where you can. If you have 5 different recurring $5/month services, do an audit and truly assess if you need those things right now.
A penny saved is a penny earned!
Stay Flexible
We’ve all been through a pandemic. We’ve experienced the ups and the downs. Prepare yourself to be resilient. Be patient. Acknowledge this is indeed temporary.
Remember, your job is to understand and work with your clients. Lear and grow with them, and diversify your offerings and ability to support them. This ability to function as a true partner is invaluable.
Keep Marketing
Even in a recession, it's important to stay top of mind. Keep marketing and promoting your business so that as things normalize, you’re already on people’s radar.
I have already upped my marketing and content creation, and will continue to push that more and more.
If you don’t have a lot of new work coming in, focus on reposting old content. Don’t worry that “people have already seen it.” Everyone attention span like that of a goldfish — keep pushing work over and over, especially if it gets good engagement.
Invest in Client Relationships
If you already have clients, focus on them! Stay in touch with their needs and fears, and suggest ways that you can help them weather the storm.
Showing empathy, support and partnership like this goes a long way.
It’s far easier to convert a warm lead than a cold lead.
Leverage what’s working
It’s likely that some of your business offerings are more profitable than others. Consider doubling down on those efforts.
Alternatively, you might considering taking on some work that you don’t necessarily like. Sometimes just paying the bills is what makes the most sense. This may be a time to make sacrifices on what you want and focus on what you need.
We’re currently doing a good amount of production work. We don’t love it, but it’s consistent and pays the bills. During the pandemic we did a good amount of web design work. There again — don’t love it, but it paid the bills.
This is temporary. It might not be your favorite work… but it’s work!
DO IT NOW
Is a recession inevitable? No, it is not. Is it possible? Yes, absolutely. You can be proactive and start this controlled, planned effort now, or you can be reactive, and have a panicked attempt and keeping your business afloat as the US economy crumbles beneath you (I know, I know, a bit hyperbolic.)
Being prepared one of the best things that you can do.
The entire world semi-recently made it to the other side of a global pandemic. This has been one of the most unpredictable, terrible, and tumultuous times in modern history. And here we are — maybe a bit battered and bruised, but we're still kickin'!
Compared to COVID, an economic recession is nothin’. You are prepared. You are capable. You got this!.. But, you should start preparing yourself now.
If you’re anything like me, I looked back at the pandemic years and I really wish that I had more of a plan in place as opposed to panicking and scrambling.
I wish I would have acted a bit more calmly, a bit more gracefully. Upon reflecting on how I reacted, I assessed how I would have done it differently.
With "an impending recession" on the horizon, now is a better time than ever to start thinking about what you might do if the client work stops coming in.
What are we doing to prepare Vicarel Studios for a potential recession?
1) Fostering Client Relationships
We’re currently focused on building stronger relationships with our current clients as opposed to trying to find more new business.
We have already built trust with these people, and we’ve delivered successful work to them; therefore, it’s a much lower bar to entry.
Think of this as the ease of converting a warm lead vs a cold lead.
We are currently nurturing our current clients as much as possible, and I am trying to secure retainers or consistent recurring income from projects wherever possible.
2) Creating and Selling Digital and Print On Demand Products
Oftentimes people cut large costs during a recession. The small costs (between $1 and $50) are still likely to occur. These are “feel good expenses” like coffee, beer, a new hat, or a small event with a friend that helps us retain our sanity or perception of control.
With that in mind, we are building more contract templates, brand standard templates, fonts, or print on demand products that can be sold for less than $20, but can be sold on our website and other sites at scale.
It’s tough to sell enough $20 items to makeup for the loss of a $10,000 product, but any income during a recession is good income.
We made our first font during the pandemic, and it profits the business between $15-$30 every day. If we could repeat that success with a few other products, we’d be in great shape!
3) More Frequent Online Presence
I’m currently amping up my social media an email marketing game.
Why?
To stay relevant and top of mind.
Consistently marketing yourself through a recession will keep you top of mind and in front of your customers or prospects. Think of this as maintaining momentum as opposed to completely stopping, and having to rev up your engines again at the end of the recession.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that some business will thrive in a recession (not everyone is affected equally.)
Through constantly sharing valuable content and engaging with our audience across social media, our newsletter, and elsewhere, we are more likely to meet new business owners or prospects who could hire us amidst difficult times.
4) Saving Money
This situation also highlights the importance of living below your means. If you start making big cash, don’t start spending big cash. I just had my best year in business, but I also own a toaster that I bought for $7 at Goodwill 5 years ago. Yes, this is a bit extreme…
There are always, always, always droughts for short or long periods of time as a freelance creative.
You must set aside money in anticipation of a drought. I was busy with work for 4 years straight — and then the pandemic hit. Thankfully, I had plenty saved so it wasn’t a big deal. The last two years have been our best two years in business. However, I have hardly increased my personal spending, and that has afforded me a money buffer that secures Vicarel Studios in case a recession really hits.
5) Portfolio and Work Updates
I’m currently trying to spit out some new case studies and portfolio pieces. I’m trying to do this before a recession hits so that we can share and market the work during that time.
You could argue that losing work during a recession is the perfect opportunity to reallocate that time towards creating those case studies; however, I want to be marketing, and talking about the portfolio pieces that we already have. Instead of doing “behind the scenes work” once a recession hits, I’m focused on doing the behind the scenes work now, and then continuing to put out a ton of work if shit hits the fan.
My thought: if other agencies and clients see us constantly promoting work through a recession, the perception will be that we are continuing to get hired to produce work for other people.
This builds awareness, trust, and credibility.
This will make us a more likely candidate to get hired at a time when competition is higher.
Reminder: Don’t be scared to repost old content. If a recession and work drought hits and you don’t have a lot of new client work to share, that likely means you will have plenty of time for internal business work or marketing.
If this is the case, batching the creation of social media posts is a perfect way to spend your time. You can spend one hour going through old work or Instagram posts and then set them up with new copy and then have them ready to post when things truly slow down.
Being Proactive vs Reactive
There are plenty of other things that you can do to help yourself BEFORE the recession hits.
Nobody knows if it'll be big, bad, chill, crazy, long, short or otherwise. The best thing you can do is be proactive now and protect yourself.
Remember: the work you do now is what benefits you in the future.
Act as if it's inevitable and as if it's going to be brutal. This way, if anything less dramatic plays out, you’ll be in a great position.
What are you doing to recession-proof your business?
Cheers,
Adam