|
Hey, Blake
I’m certainly no qualified economic forecaster — but, similar to what I posted in the group this week (link in the Inside The Group section below), it feels like the trade winds are starting to shift.
Although I’m still generally optimistic, I tend to trust my instinct, so I’ve made a few adjustments in my agency as of late, and I thought I’d share them with you in case their helpful.
1. More Savings in Reserves. I typically keep 3 months of salary + business expenses in my business savings, but I’m going to try to get that up to 6 months by the end of Q3. Unless tragedy strikes, it’s unlikely I’ll make $0 for 6 months (thanks, MRR!), but if the economy slowed down for a year (or 3), having more in reserves would make it less painful if I had to dip into my stockpile.
If you’re curious, I keep my business reserves in a high-yield account that earns about 4% interest. Certainly no “investment”, but it’s better than my local bank and I can have cash in hand in less than 24-hours (that liquidity is important).
2. Being Slightly More Aggressive. Thanks to the opportunity to serve this community, I don’t have to take on a huge workload in my agency — which has afforded me the privilege of being pretty selective about projects I take on. But, as of late, I’ve started to saying yes about 20% more than I normally would.
Since I’m mostly limited by my capacity, that means I’m outsourcing more (with much lower margins), but I’m not sure now is the time to turn away people handing over cash. Of course, that doesn’t mean taking on nightmares — those always end up costing more than they’re worth — but I’m not going to let capacity be the only thing to hold me back when I have so many perfectly capable connections through TAB.
3. Relationships, relationships, relationships. If businesses continue to tighten budgets, service providers like us are often some of the first to go. Of course we know that what we provide is more than just pushing update a couple times a month — but clients don’t always see the work we’re doing behind the scenes.
I’m in the process of dusting off my client newsletter, and being more consistent (and frequent) with my client touch-points. It’s a lot easier to let go of the web designer you haven’t talked to in 6 months than it is the one who’s constantly offering a helping hand.
Like I said, I have no real economic expertise, but I’d rather be wrong and prepared than right and flat-footed. Worst case scenario, I’ll have more money in the bank than I know what to do with and my clients will be even happier with my service — I don’t see a downside.
|
