The Secret To Design Business In A Down Economy

We asked designers who've been in the business for 25 years to tell us their secret about how they have survived through tough economic times.

Since my business is now a part-time endeavor, I don't have to worry about surviving tough economic times. After 2 years working as a partner in a design firm, and 8 years as and art director in various local ad agencies, I decided in 1974, when I started to work on my masters degree at USC, that I needed a base to bring in steady income and benefits.

I became a tenured professor at California State University Long Beach, and ran my business with the assistance of part-time graduates, that were in-between full-time jobs. I did this for 10 years with an office on Pico and Fairfax. The building was burned down during the LA Riots of 1992. I moved my office into my residence by adding on two rooms.

Since then, I have had a low overhead, and moved into selling more than design services, but also collectible items (Books, DVDs and posters) on eBay and my web site, which has been more lucrative than my design services.

The secret to overcoming difficulties is to add a contingency plan to your business plan.

Archie Boston
Principal
Archie Boston Graphic Design

I just always try and do work I love, try to go to gatherings and events of people I like, admire, and in fields that I think our work is best suited for. No secret, just perseverance and love!

April Greiman
Principal
Made In Space

I have gone through some slow periods during my 30-year career in Detroit between 1957 and 1987 (since those years I have only been teaching in California and have done no professional work here)...but the funny thing is, I can't remember any of the details of the tough times and there must have been some! But I think at my age (70), I just blocked them out, because in the end they never amounted to anything really severe for me, and I have always truly loved working in a graphic design and commercial art business which only left me with "happy" memories (of course, easy to say from and during the last 20 years of not working in it !) So I guess the secret is, we will in the end simply forget the bad and when it's over, remember the rest as good enough!

Ed Fella
Educator
Cal Arts

I do have a secret! Face difficulties with joy and optimism knowing that all challenges build character and add wisdom. Unless frozen by fear, tough economic times force people to take risks they would never dare to take. I don't remember tougher economic times than the one we are facing now... maybe shortly after 9/11... but the duration of the current economic crisis is unprecedented in my business-lifetime. A major business challenge in tough economic times is keeping up with financial obligations under negative cash flow conditions, but we've always made sure that we meet our obligations to those vendors and associates who extended their support when we needed their service, even if it takes time and sacrifice to do so. I try to surround myself with clients and colleagues who are productive, positive and hopeful.

Agustin G. Garza
Principal
Garza Group Communications

Dealing with tough times and difficult situations for me always comes back to being honest with the situation and with myself. Getting to really know, understand, and appreciate me--discovering my weaknesses and my strengths and loving myself through my difficulties is what has worked for me. We all have been given gifts and we need to use them. When there is adversity or difficult times the challenges are there to expand us and to bring out our character.. Its all about gaining awareness--growth, adaptation, and surrender to what is. It is not always easy but you have to get that it is always interesting and ultimately what makes us who we are...so we need to embrace it as if it is our good friend and see what it can teach us.

Johnathan Coy
Principal
JMCoy.com

Actually we've been in business 20 years, but it seems a lot longer. We've dealt with tough economic times by always being very conservative financially, in both good times and bad, and that's helped us weather the tough turns. A creative business is really no different than any other--if you spend more than you make then you're in trouble, so you have to track where every penny is going at all times. Luckily my business partner drives a hard line on this and we've kept on track.

Planning is also important, with new hires, equipment, software, etc. As you can imagine, with around 50 employees this can be a daunting task. We have a schedule planned for a year in advance, and we review it several times a year to make sure we're still aligned with our needs. We only hire new people when it's absolutely necessary, and we try not to be "knee-jerk" reactive to every need that pops up. Sometimes it's frustrating but we're still here, and we've always managed to pay competitive salaries and to fund our profit sharing and 401k.

That being said, we've also been lucky to be working in particular areas (most notably video games) that haven't been hit as hard as others. We've only laid off people once in 20 years, during the aftermath of the dot com bust. But even then it was less than 15% of the staff, and it was a year later than most other firms were hit.

So to sum up our philosophy: there's no silver bullet, run a business like a business, plan carefully, move cautiously, stay flexible. And, of course, do great work, or none of it means anything.

Justin Carroll
Principal/Executive Creative Director
Hamagami/Carroll, Inc.