[00:00:00] Real quick guys. Has this podcast offered you any valuable insights for your business? If it has, I'd be thrilled if you could pass it on to a friend or another creative, share it via Instagram story, Twitter or dm. Whatever feels right for you. I'm driven by the goal to empower as many creative entrepreneurs as possible, but I need your help to achieve that.
Thank you for your time. Now let's dive into today's episode. Recession. Recession. Recession. As someone who owns their own creative business, This can be a scary word to hear, but should it be as freelancers, should we be worried about an upcoming recession? What can we do to make sure we stay in business and thrive during this time?
Let's talk about it. Welcome to the Creative Biz Launch Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your creative business and scale to six figures. Whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, or designer, you'll find something of value here. If you read anything about the economy in the past few months, you know that everyone's talking about recession.
Now, I'm no economist, so I'm not here to tell you whether we're heading towards a recession or not. This episode is [00:01:00] breaking down what we need to do as freelancers and creative business owners during a period of slower business. Back in early 2020, I was just getting my first clients. I was focused on doing photography for coffee shops, restaurants, and breweries.
I spent the end of 2019 building up my portfolio and fighting my niche, so as soon as 20, 20 year old around. I was ready to start getting real paying clients, but the world had other plans. In February of 2020, I was talking to a few local coffee shops and businesses about working together on some upcoming projects.
I couldn't wait to land paying clients, but then March hit, we had a nationwide lockdown. Businesses came to a halt, and those coffee shops I was planning on working with were worried about photography anymore. They were worried about staying in business. None of the businesses I was talking to at the time needed a photographer anymore.
They were just trying to survive. At this point, I was questioning whether or not I could actually make a living from photography. I spent months learning how to run a photography business [00:02:00] and how to get clients. I built up my portfolio and I was proud of it, but now all the clients I had going for me had no money to spend, so I gave up on my dreams and decided to work in corporate America forever.
Of course not. You don't believe that? How else would I be in business today? Instead of throwing in the towel, I pivoted. I spent some time really thinking about what types of clients I could attract who had money during the peak of the pandemic during this recession, well, no one was going out to restaurants or breweries or coffee shops.
Everyone was staying at home. So what did I do? I started reaching out to to direct consumer brands. I had a coffee shop portfolio, so I started reaching out to canned called Brew Companies. I knew that I had the style they were looking for, and they had the sales because everyone still wanted coffee, but no one wanted to leave their house.
My bet paid off and I was able to land a few of those clients in a time where others were struggling to get clients. I pivoted and I found a new opportunity. What am I trying to tell you with a story? Well, [00:03:00] there's opportunity out there. You just need to look for it. You need to do some thinking and reorganize.
Re-strategize and find out what industries are thriving and what industries are struggling. If your current niche is in a struggling industry, you may have to pivot temporarily. And who knows, maybe you'll like this new opportunity much, much more than your current niche. So if you're in a niche that's thriving during tough economic times, well it's time to double down, my friend, double down on what's working.
And if you start seeing more clients say yes to you, then increase your pricing.
You can then start to scale your business to keep up with the new demand. Now, I'm painting a pretty picture for you here, and the truth is it's not always going to be this easy. It's not easy to switch your niche, and your industry probably won't be thriving during tough times. Things will get tough.
You'll probably get more clients saying no to you. You're gonna end up losing clients because they can't afford you anymore. You'll probably have more people asking to lower your prices to accommodate. What do you do here? There's a right and [00:04:00] wrong way to adjust your pricing. If everyone is asking for a lower rate and you keep saying no, then chances are it's something wrong with your pricing.
The market knows what they wanna pay for something, and if someone's undercharging you, if someone's charging less than you and you're charging way more than the entire market, well no one's gonna want to work with you unless your service is way. Way, way better. If just some people are asking for lower rates and others are accepting your rates as they are, well then your pricing's fine.
This is a tough situation to recognize and you need a bunch of people talking to you to realize if your pricing's good or bad. And this is done through sales calls. That's why I pitch. That's why I tell you guys to talk to clients over the phone rather than just. And up working on your marketing and trying to get clients that way.
You want to be doing active sales, so you can actually get on the phone and listen to client struggles and see how we can solve their problems.
Now, if everyone is still asking for a discount, well you're gonna have to lower your prices a bit so they can still sign on clients during this tough time. But this will be [00:05:00] temporary. Don't let your ego get in the way here. I'm sorry, but you're not worth a certain price. Yes, everyone says, charge what you think you're worth, but in reality, if no one can afford to pay that anymore, then you're going to go out of business.
Leave your ego at the door and price what the market is willing to pay. It's better to take a pay cut, then go out of business. You might lose some cash flow, but still you're, hopefully you're earning enough to survive during these tough times. You're still getting clients and that's all you need right now.
Recognize that these tough times aren't here to stay. They're just temporary. When things pick back up again, you'll be able to raise your rates again, and now you'll have way more case studies on your website to help you get more new clients. The other thing about having the economy be in a slower period of time is that it really.
Doesn't affect small businesses that much. Let me explain. When the economy as a whole is slowed down, you just have to do more work to get more clients. The stock market's crashing, but your small business isn't affected by that. Really, [00:06:00] people are spending less, but you can just do more work to get more clients.
You're gonna have to do more work during this time. But you can still earn the same amount if you're reaching out to way more leads here. It's a numbers game, and if you put in the work, you'll be able to get those clients. Let's go back to my story. I mentioned that I had some coffee shops and breweries that I was gonna work with, and then Covid hit.
They didn't have a budget. Well, I was still early in my photography. Career, and I was hungry to get any clients I could. This was 2020 and I didn't have any clients to my name. I wanted these clients, even if it meant working for free. When those businesses told me that they had no money, I offered them to work for free, and they said yes.
I picked up some beer from the breweries, got some coffee, and took a bunch of awesome photos, and some of these photos are still in my portfolio today. Yes, I worked for free here, but what did I gain from this? The photo shoot didn't take that long for me to do. It was pretty straightforward, but I helped the businesses with marketing materials and photos for their online ordering.[00:07:00]
From the shoe. I had new photos from my portfolio, from a real business, not just some random beer from my house. Now, when I got on sales calls, I could reference this business that I worked with and how I helped them survive during the pandemic because of my photography. This free work also got me a case study and a Google review from my website, the owner of the brewery.
Gave me an awesome review, boosting my social credibility as a product photographer. Now, future clients could see that I've worked with businesses and I've helped these actual businesses with my work. Social credibility and case studies are so big when you're trying to land clients, and I did this exact same thing for a coffee shop.
They gave me some of their coffee beans. I took some awesome photos, and again, I got. All this for free. I did this shoot for free, but I got case study, a Google review, and I boosted my portfolio. Plus I worked on my photography skills. I recognized that it made sense for me to do some free projects so that I could move the needle forward in my business.
I wasn't worried about making a quick book during these months. I had a multi-year vision in place. [00:08:00] I knew that the work I did today would help me months down the road, and it did. So it might make sense for you to go down this route and provide something for free or for dirt cheap. This is a decision that you need to make for yourself.
I can't make this for you. Spend some time writing out all the pros and cons and see if this decision will help you in this week, month, this year. Weigh all your options, make a decision and execute on it. The worst thing that you can do is sit around and be unsure of yourself for weeks or months. Just make the decision, do the work, learn from it, and grow from those decisions.
Most decisions are reversible, so don't really dwell on it too much.
Now, if you find yourself in a really great financial situation with a big cash buffer that you can use, then great. This could actually be the time to start those other projects that you've been wishing to do. If you're not getting any new clients right now, don't just sit around all day and wait for things to get better.
Now is the time to take action. Have you wanted to start a YouTube channel? Now? You can devote all your time to that. Do you wanna direct a [00:09:00] short film? Do that, put together a script, get some friends to star in it and make it happen. Who knows that YouTube channel can become a new source of income for you, and you may never go back to client work.
But if you never start, you'll never know. I've heard of a lot of stories of people during the pandemic doing just this. During the last recession, they were wedding photographers and they lost all their weddings and they had nothing to do, so they got on social media, they grew their Instagrams, their tos, and their YouTube channels, and now that's what they put all their effort in.
If you've ever wanted to do something like this and you have the means to do it, Or a session could be a great opportunity to do just that. Just make sure that you have that cash so you don't end up in the streets. Last thing here. I know you're here because you're serious about growing your photography, your videography business, and I have something that could be a game changer.
This is my free 60 minute workshop. That's the ultimate guide to turning your passion and to profit. It's packed with actionable tips and insights on how to attract and retain high paying clients. Create I Accessible service packages. And [00:10:00] pitch to companies. If you're right to transform your business and start attracting clients you deserve, check the Allen description below and sign up for free.
That's all I got today and I'll talk to you next time.
