From recent discussions with designers and their clients it’s obvious the majority of businesses are looking at where they are, where they were and where they want to go.

When expectations are managed, designers can add value managing a client’s social media presence – but it’s not to be under-estimated or under-serviced. Much reputational harm can come from inactivity or the wrong activity.

We all know it’s easier to get more work from existing clients than find new clients. Here are three great examples of creatives doing just that…

Australia is just coming out of lockdown with all the pundits predicting we will never go back to the old way of analogue communication. The virtual decade is upon us!

Or is it?

It seems everywhere we read, watch or listen there’s advice to adapt to the new normal. Problem is there’s very little consensus about what this new normal will be. Economists see a recession, business gurus see opportunities. Here’s what I think…

Recently I was a guest on a Streamtime Webinar talking about DIY business healthchecks.
We discussed the reports you can pull from project management software to check valuable profits aren’t leaking.
This is the stuff I wish I had have said…

In ’normal’ hard times, the traditional process is to reduce fixed costs; refine and reduce your service offering. But in crisis times like this, you must rethink the business model. Companies that survive and go on to prosper look beyond costs and services to the weaknesses that existed in the business operations.

We had the good fortune to have worked through the 1987 market crash, the dot.com boom and crash and the global financial crisis. I say good fortune because it taught us how to pivot.

This COVID19 crash is going to be far worse.

This has been a tumultuous few weeks and we are looking at another 4-5 months of it. We have spoken to more than 100 designers over the last few weeks and we are starting to get a picture of how the industry is faring.

Now is not the time to take your foot off the pedal. Besides, for most design business owners there’s no option but to plough through the plain. The key is to plan short term, mid term and long term goals and strategies.

So, this is our life now – working remotely and meeting virtually. So much seems to have changed but in reality most designers still have the same services to offer the same clients.

It is unprecedented times and it’s easy to feel overawed by the scale of this pandemic. But the same way you eat an elephant – bite-by-bite, is the same way that design studio owners can survive.