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Episode 189 - How to Recession Proof Your Business
1.2k Plays1 year ago
Before recording Part 2 of the Marketing Quick Start Episode, we heard from a business owner that the current economic climate has been hurting their business. If you feel that way too, don't worry, you're not alone. We're heard from many business owners of the last few months that things have been a struggle.
The question went something like, "How can I increase my bookings in a recession?"
So this episode is all about tips for running your business during a recession. And even if you're not feeling the squeeze of the current economic conditions, we hope that this episode helps prepare your business for maybe a harder season down the road, should you ever experience one.
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check 'em out at https://daveyandkrista.com/ And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction to Business Growth and Event
00:00:05
Speaker
Sometimes you just have to go and do the things that others won't. You have to get back on that new business grind and do those things that just don't necessarily scale. Maybe things that you just haven't done for a while. Welcome to the Brands at Book Show, where we help creative service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones.
Economic Climate Impact on Bookings
00:00:26
Speaker
Before recording part two of the marketing quick start episode, we heard from a business owner that the current economic climate has been hurting their business. If you feel that way too, don't worry, you're not alone. We've heard from many business owners over the last few months that things have been a struggle.
00:00:42
Speaker
The question went something like, how can I increase my bookings in a recession? So this episode is all about tips for running your business during a recession. And even if you're not feeling the squeeze of the current economic conditions, we hope that this episode helps prepare your business for maybe a harder season down the road should you ever experience one.
00:01:01
Speaker
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check them out at DavianCrista.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts. Now on the episode.
Seasonal Changes and Home Life
00:01:18
Speaker
All right, we are back recording this beautiful spring day. I don't know if it's quite beautiful. It's kind of rainy and cold.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yes, it is a little bit depressing that it got so cold, considering how warm it's been. Our house does perpetually sound like spring though, because I mean, much to my delight, you brought home more chicks and ducks this year. And so they're currently living in our mud room. And so there's just constant chirping cheap. I don't know. Yeah, really the ducks don't make noise. It's just the chicks, but it sounds like spring in our house all the time.
00:01:51
Speaker
Which sounds wonderful. People are shaking their heads like that. Probably sounds wonderful. That's actually the alarm that you chose on your fancy alarm clock, right? Yes. Yes. I wake up. I have, what is it? The hatch? It's like for adults though. It has a light. So it slowly, the light gets brighter.
00:02:09
Speaker
And then once it hits a certain time, I also hear the chirping in the background. It's wonderful. So is the chirping of the chicks and the ducklings that are down in our mudroom. And don't let Krista fool you. She loves the chicks and ducks. You certainly got some Instagram content out of them. I did. But soon enough, they will move to a more outdoor brooder setup. You've promised me after the cold of this weekend passes,
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah, after this cold snap, we'll probably move them out to more of an outdoor brooder setup for the next few weeks until they're big enough to move in with the rest of the flock. But I'm really excited about spring. I love spring. We've been spending a lot of time outside gardening
00:02:52
Speaker
I'm really excited now that we're a few years living in this house, right? That our gardens especially, our yard just feels like we're not starting from scratch, right? We're really starting just from a better place each year. And so I'm really excited what that's going to look like over the next year. I mean, two years ago, we had no gardens because we moved in and it was just way too overwhelming. And it felt like a big cost too, to just plan the gardens and walkways. So we waited six months and did nothing. And then what, 2021? We had to start from scratch with a garden, which
00:03:22
Speaker
It was really fun, but also kind of overwhelming to figure out all the different things you have to, I'm glad I'm not a landscape designer. That's all I'm going to say. Well, I'm really excited about the spring, but we're not talking about the spring in this episode.
Recession Debate and Business Strategies
00:03:36
Speaker
What we're talking about is recession proofing your business or, you know, also, I guess alternative title could just be running your business during a recession. I know there's a little bit of a debate right now, whether we're in a recession, whether we're not in a recession, you know, so on and so forth.
00:03:49
Speaker
I think that there's a large agreement that people are starting to sort of feel the pinch of the current economic climate. So take that for whatever it means. But we talk to a lot of business owners on a daily basis and I think over the last few months, a lot of business owners have seen a little bit of slowdown.
00:04:09
Speaker
And on varying levels depending on what industry they're in. But I think that's generally the consensus that we hear. And so we've received a few more questions about operating a business in a recession, about how to maybe find more inquiries if maybe inquiries have slowed down. And so this question stems from a question we received back in our marketing quick start guide.
00:04:34
Speaker
Right. And so what we've decided to do is kind of break it off into its own episode. We chatted a little bit about that in the second part of that episode. I highly recommend going checking out both parts one and two. Part one, the marketing quick start guide was really well received. Seems like people really like that.
00:04:51
Speaker
So anyways, continuing that conversation here, and what we've come up with are nine things that businesses can do in this season to hopefully either recession-proof their business or run their business better during maybe an economic downturn. I wouldn't say this is necessarily the definitive guide, but I think that each of these things we found helpful maybe in slower seasons of our business. Right. And I think that it's good to note that
00:05:17
Speaker
most businesses, if not all businesses, go through slower seasons. I think that's just part of doing business. Yeah, 100%. I think that for a lot of business owners, you can feel a lot of shame in potentially admitting that to others or feel like, oh, it's only happening to you. And I just don't think that's the reality of the situation. I think even the most successful business owners that I know have experienced slower seasons. And some of them in this past few months,
00:05:45
Speaker
So, and I think it can be, you know, if you have friends who are also business owners that you can talk to about this, I think it's good for a few reasons. One, you probably won't feel so alone afterwards. I know that's, you know, certainly the case if, you know, regardless of the struggle, regardless of the business struggle we're facing, having friends to talk to about those sorts of things makes you feel not so alone in it.
00:06:06
Speaker
Additionally, I would say it's good for others to know, especially others who could refer you work. And we talked about this a little bit in the first episode, but if someone were to send us an email and say, especially somebody who we're already referring to work to, like a copywriter for instance, and we knew that it was maybe a slower season for them,
00:06:27
Speaker
Then the next time we have a referral for copywriting, let's say, you know, that person's going to be top of mind. Yes. You know, so I think that people are more willing to help out when they can, you know, than maybe we think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, let's jump into these nine things. Otherwise, I think this episode is going to last forever.
00:06:46
Speaker
So let's start with number one. And the first step that we have is just doing things that others won't, you know, getting back to that new business grind, you know, and these are things that might not necessarily scale or they might not be things that you've had to do for a long time in your business, maybe since really just starting your business.
00:07:05
Speaker
Yeah. And so one of those is, is networking and getting together coffee dates with other creative professionals or industry peers who like you mentioned could maybe refer to you, maybe letting them know that you have availability and like this is what you're looking for or going to different meetups or networking events. Or I know that like our local chamber of commerce is very active and they have all sorts of business events.
00:07:29
Speaker
They have people speak there too, so that might be something that you could reach out to, especially if you serve other businesses. So I think that just getting creative and ways to get together with other people who could possibly refer to you is always helpful. And in a busy season, it may not be something that you have time to do, but if it is a slower season for you, this is just a good basic thing to do.
00:07:52
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And even just going the extra mile for the current clients that you do have, thinking about ways that you can really sort of level up their experience. And again, if you have a little bit more time because it is a slower season, then this is a great opportunity to focus a little bit more on the clients that you have, really creating a remarkable experience for them so that they're more likely to talk about you and share about the experience that they've had with you.
00:08:18
Speaker
There's a great book and I'm struggling to remember the title off the top of my head, but I think it's called Moments. I want to say it's by the Heath Brothers. I'm going to double check. It was a great book, especially when it comes to creating a remarkable experience. Is this the one where they talk about the phone at the pool where you can call and order something, anything you want? Is that the book?
00:08:37
Speaker
Honestly, I don't remember that part specifically, but I will find it. I'll track it down and I'll make sure that I link to it in the show notes, but highly recommend that for just, I think it's a great way to start thinking about the client experience you provide. Something else that we mentioned, or something else that Chris and I were just reflecting on was the early days of the pandemic and how creative businesses got during that timeframe.
00:09:01
Speaker
One specific example that comes to mind is photographers who would do the front porch sessions. So they were socially distanced and they were able to go around and sort of capture that season for different families in a way that made sense for that specific time.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah. Or I think about like bakeries that normally specialize in wedding cakes. They obviously weren't shooting weddings at that time. So they had those like cake decorating kits that you could pick up or cookie decorating kits, which I mean, people were looking for things to do with their kids at that time. And so that was just a great creative way to bring an extra income for your business.
Creativity Through Constraints
00:09:36
Speaker
I think if it is a slower time for you, this is maybe another season to get creative with what you offer and think about if there are new things that you could create to meet needs.
00:09:47
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, you know, creativity really, I think really happens. I think there's an explosion of creativity when there's constraints. Right. And so really taking a look at maybe some of the areas of friction in your business, those might be really paths to some sort of creative solution.
00:10:06
Speaker
that can either up level your client experience or lead to some sort of new offering or new way to serve clients. One of the things that I just came across, a friend had sent me, this is an example and he wants to create a similar video for his business, but it's a company that serves college students and they store college students dorm room stuff.
00:10:27
Speaker
in between semesters. And I thought that was genius. That is smart. Think about how annoying it is to move out of your college dorm and then where you put all that stuff. Especially if you have to go far away. Exactly. And again, I know that that example doesn't quite like perfectly fit, but what a creative way to serve people.
00:10:44
Speaker
Anyways, moving on to number two, focusing on other areas of your business. So a few examples there, one of the things that we do for instance, so we have custom brand design that we offer people, we also have what's called semi-custom brands. And people can have us customize one of our semi-custom brands for a fraction of the cost that our custom brands are.
00:11:05
Speaker
Right. Of course, it's not the same experience, but it is a great starting point. Maybe for people who don't have the budget to do a custom brand, maybe they just haven't really been in business long enough to know exactly what they want, like a custom brand might need.
00:11:20
Speaker
And so we would challenge you to think about like, if there are things that you could offer that as Ashton Carter, I think greatly put it your lipstick offers. Like it's a starting point. It's a way to get to work with you for a lesser cost than maybe giving them the full normal client experience.
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And we'll link to that post too. I think that's just such a really, I think it's such an insightful post for this season. The Ashlyn Carter Instagram post that you just mentioned. Yes, in her episode too. We'll link to both. Okay, yeah, awesome. Great. So moving on to number three, rework your pricing and collections based on the current economic climate.
00:12:02
Speaker
so basically the question is your collection still makes sense you know and what we're talking about is not so much lowering your prices alright maybe it does include that that just might be a reality for the season that's not what first comes to mind i think really it's thinking about
00:12:18
Speaker
of what you're serving people with, of your product, of your service, what is the 80% that people really care about? What are the things that people really remark on after you serve them or after they use your product? And really focus on that and double down on that and figuring out ways that you can add value to that product or service without maybe adding hard costs for yourself.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, so maybe if you're a wedding photographer, for example, and all of your collections up until this point have included a wedding album, maybe that's something that you take out of a few of the offerings right now. Because even though it's a wonderful product for couples to have, I think that at the end of the day, what they might want is wedding day coverage and not the tangibles that they take away from that.
00:13:05
Speaker
And maybe that it just becomes an upsell like later in the process, but maybe taking that option out is what gets people through the door and signing a contract. Yeah, exactly. Maybe it lowers the upfront cost, and it's always something you can upsell down the line. I think the same thing, maybe for people who typically rely a little bit more on prints,
00:13:24
Speaker
maybe they also throw digital files in there too when usually they would upcharge for the digital files because in this and maybe in this specific season, that's something that people are looking for. Maybe they know they can save money by going to just a shoot and share type photographer.
00:13:41
Speaker
And again, obviously there are like businesses have principles, you know, and values and certain business models like that more print business model, they might hear that and be like, Oh no, we can't do that. And that's totally fine. But the point being just kind of getting creative around ways you can add value like that, you know, for website designers like us.
00:13:59
Speaker
something a lot of people care about is SEO. That's something that we could probably add to our collections that definitely add some time, but I'd say that the hard costs associated with it wouldn't be too high. So just another example of what I'm talking about here.
00:14:20
Speaker
All right, moving on, moving through this list. Number five,
Pricing Strategy in Economic Downturns
00:14:24
Speaker
and this is something that I think you came across, and maybe I'll let you share that, and that was a little bit of research or insight that you came across recently.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think this was another Ashlyn Carter tip. She just is full of wisdom. But she talked about how in this economy, people are looking to save money. So especially if you're a business that serves other businesses, instead of saying something like, this product will help you make X amounts of money, you might want to say this product would help you save money or like this bundle helps you save money.
00:14:58
Speaker
because more people are focused on saving right now than they are on maybe spending or even the mindset of making money. Yeah, exactly. And I think that at the end of the day, people are looking for value right now. That does not mean, what I'm not saying is that people are looking for cheap. But I think what people are looking for is value in a season like this. And so if you can use language like that in your copy, I think it increases the chance that you can at least start having more conversations with people.
00:15:26
Speaker
All right, number six, and this number six here, investigate opportunities. I know this sounds similar to focusing on other areas of your business. I think we mean something slightly different. Basically, looking at your time and looking at maybe the projects that have been on the back burner right now because you've been busier and asking yourself, maybe now's the time to launch that course that you always wanted to launch or maybe create a new product
00:15:50
Speaker
or adding an arm to your business. So like if you're a photographer and you've always wanted to add a photo booth to your business, that's something that you could probably do. Obviously there's some investment there, but something that you could probably do pretty easily. And it would be a nice value add to the next wedding you shoot. Or maybe a portrait photographer who's never offered many sessions before. Maybe that's something that you start including in your offerings this year.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Just maybe an opportunity that you explore that you otherwise haven't considered just because, you know, maybe you haven't had to or you've just been so busy that many sessions is just something that, you know, you didn't have time to offer. Yeah. So there are all sorts of different ways that you can, again, get creative. One of the things that I want to add here is just sort of a warning. And I almost hesitated to include this tip at all. It's just be careful before adding to your business or pivoting your business because that comes with its own cost, both in time
00:16:47
Speaker
and money. For instance, let's say you decided you wanted to pivot your photography business right now. You're doing mostly wedding and family photography and you wanted to pivot to brand photography, let's say. I'm not telling you that's a bad pivot. What I am saying is that it's not just as easy as saying, oh, now I do brand photography. One, does brand photography fit on your website with wedding and portrait photography?
00:17:10
Speaker
Probably not. Most of the brand photographers that I know that do a really great job of that have their own brand or website for that specific service. And a lot of that comes down to the images that they're sharing and then especially the copy because the copy is going to speak differently to a business than to a bride and groom or a portrait or a mom looking for photos. So I think that's like what you're kind of getting at too.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah, I think, and ultimately what I'm getting at for this point in particular is that every decision you make, like everything you decide to do, you're saying no to something else, right? So there's just, there's costs associated with every decision you make. So I'd hate for somebody to be like, oh, well now I'm just going to go launch this course. That sounds easy enough, you know? But if there is maybe a course that you've been thinking about for a while and you share content related to that and you already know that there's interest out there, maybe with that extra time, now's the time to launch that. Right. Yeah. All right. Number seven.
00:18:04
Speaker
is evaluate your spending. So now is a good time to just go through your finances especially because it's tax season and you might have done this already to do all of your expenditures for last year and just evaluate what you're spending money on. Are there cheaper alternatives? Are there things that you're paying for that you just don't really use anymore?
00:18:25
Speaker
I'll add a caveat here that you don't want to just go down to a cheaper alternative and have it actually end up costing you business. Like one of the first examples that comes to mind for me is maybe going to a cheaper website host that actually results in a slower, more finicky website that could end up costing you business. So I think there's like an offset here and a balance that you have to be careful of. But I do think that it's always a good idea to go through your expenses and see if there are things that maybe you don't need right now.
00:18:53
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And even over at Till Agency, one of the things that we went through were some of the SEO tools that we were using. We use a lot of different professional tools. A lot of SEO tools out there, especially professional ones, do come with a pretty sizable monthly or annual cost. But because there was significant overlap between a lot of the tools that we were using, we got rid of a few. And maybe just for the season, each of those tools had maybe its own specific benefit. It did one of the things that we needed to do really well.
00:19:22
Speaker
But that's just one way that we were cutting down on an area that we just don't 100% need right now. One of the things that I would mention though as well for this tip is not to have a fear or scarcity mindset. I think it's important in a season like this to be prudent and to save money, maybe potentially where you would be otherwise willing to spend it. But at the same time, I think that you can still do that with an abundance mindset.
00:19:50
Speaker
Right. One more thing that I'll add is that it can be a good idea to have a business emergency fund. So to make sure that you have several months worth of expenses, including your paycheck or salaries for employees in your business account so that you don't feel the crunch in a slower season.
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah, and of course, if you're already in the slower season, that can be a hard thing to feel like starting or whatnot. And it just might not be a possibility right now, but keeping that mind for the future. The ninth one that I want to talk about, I'm sorry, this is the seventh, seventh or eighth, sixth.
Lead Generation and Audience Expansion
00:20:25
Speaker
We might have forgotten a number in our spreadsheet area.
00:20:28
Speaker
It looks like there's no number three. Yeah, it looks like we skipped number three. So I'll come up with a third tip and put it in the show notes. No, but the next thing I want to talk about is ramping up lead generation. All right, ramping up lead generation. And you might be thinking, well, how's that a recession related tip?
00:20:45
Speaker
And honestly, it's something that we should all be doing all the time in our business. But sometimes when word of mouth referrals are just flowing in, it's something that gets put on the back burner, right? Trying to figure out how to break into new audiences. It's just something that maybe we're not thinking about when it seems like we're breaking into new, colder audiences just through word of mouth referrals.
00:21:08
Speaker
So this is something that is worth maybe putting some effort into in this season, figuring out how you can get in front of new audiences. And even beyond that, how you can get people's contact information in order to have a conversation with them. You know, email lists of course come to mind on this.
00:21:25
Speaker
But again, going back to one of our first examples is maybe there's wedding shows that you can go to where you will, again, this will be more wedding specific, but for any industry and networking event that you can go to where you can actually get people's emails to follow up with them. And maybe you can come up with a system that sort of rinse and repeat to do that and build out a system for actually connecting with people, getting their contact information, and then being able to nurture them down the line.
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah. So that's something that I think is incredibly important for any business, which is why I think it comes up so often, you know, certainly on the podcast here. It's just lead generation is key, I think, for creating, you know, sustainable growth over time. Yeah. And that is something that we are always doing in our business. Like one of our ad sets in particular for our Facebook ads is always running lead gen.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah, always, and something that we pay very close attention to. Obviously, for different businesses, I think it gets a little more challenging when industry comes to mind. You have a shorter runway in order to nurture people. But again, thinking about ways where, again, you can get in front of people early on in the process and the channels in which you do that.
00:22:33
Speaker
Pinterest for instance I think probably very much a place that brides go to in particular for wedding inspiration you know and so can you create resources that are appealing to people early on in the process.
00:22:48
Speaker
I wanted to say something else about ramping up lead gen, but it slipped my mind. So maybe it'll come back to me. And our last tip here, which is either tip eight or nine.
Patience and Creativity in Tough Times
00:22:57
Speaker
I'm not sure if we skipped tip three, I guess it's tip eight, but it's just to be patient. I mean, I think that certainly in a season like this, it can feel like the season is going to go on forever, but just to look back through history,
00:23:10
Speaker
You know, recessions come and go. And that's not me. That's I'm not trying to make a light of such seasons. But if you look back through history, recessions come and go. And so this one at some point we can trust will end and the market will get back to, you know, hopefully a place that's better off than it was before.
00:23:32
Speaker
And again, by focusing on some of these foundational pieces in this season, you can set yourself up for that much more success when we get out of this season.
00:23:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think that there have been a few studies lately, or at least like articles that I've seen where a lot of like the big, prominent, most well-known business have actually come out of recession. And I can't remember the specific examples, but I know that in 2008 Shopify, yeah, Shopify, I remember that one. Like a lot of really great businesses came during those hard times and maybe they wouldn't have come to be or been that as successful if they hadn't had to get creative and come to be in that season.
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah, and again, at the risk of sounding cavalier, again, I don't want to make a light of this season, but I really do think that that pruning process leads to creativity and growth. But it can be hard and we recognize that. Keeping your heads in a situation like this, it can feel like everything's going wrong. I definitely am prone to, whether it's a recession or not, a season where I'm like, everything is burning down around me.
00:24:39
Speaker
So again, I think that's why just going back to tip number one, it's important to have people in your life who can be there for you and support you and that you feel comfortable sharing these things with. And again, I speak from experience here. I think it's always harder to share that with people than you think it's going to be. I'm sorry, I misspoke.
00:24:58
Speaker
It's easier. Yeah, it's always easier to share that with people than you think it's going to be, you know, or, you know, I think in my experience, they always typically respond a lot better, you know, both more encouraging and supportive than I think they would be. So I highly recommend to find people in your life that can help with that. Awesome. Yeah, I think that's it for this episode.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yeah,
Audience Engagement and Appreciation
00:25:18
Speaker
that's it. You know, if you have any tips that you feel like we left out, definitely send us an email or send us a DM on Instagram or comment on, you know, related posts to share with others. We'd love to hear those. And thanks for listening. Yeah, thanks, guys. Thanks for tuning in to the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.
00:25:52
Speaker
you