Surviving A Recession As A Photographer

Impending Economic Doom

Cue the music. CNN is playing it up. It is all over the news that our economy is could hit a recession in 2020. I know there are a ton of photographers and other freelancers out there that are getting worried because economic growth might stagnate.

What Is A Recession?

Put simply a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP. It just means that the economy is not growing.

What Would A Recession Mean For My Business?

So the obvious question for commercial photographers is what would a recession mean for my business? In general, the answer is simple people and businesses are spending less money during a recession.

That means that things might tighten up. It does not necessarily meant that people will spend less money in your niche. I’m going to tell you about my experience in the last recession and give a few tips to help you survive the possible recession.

I Began My Business In A Recession!

I started my business in 2007, during the beginning of the last recession the last recession lasted form 2007 though 2009. I was able to start and maintain a viable freelance photography business that entire time. I was just getting started in commercial photography at the time. In general the budgets were down a bit and there were less shoots taking place because some clients had less money to spend. Commercial photography is not necessarily a recession proof business. It all depends on where consumers decide to spend their money. In the last recession I found that overall clients were still spending money on marketing. You have to market and advertise products to get sales.

Some Tips For Thriving In A Recessionary Market

Sit down and create a budget for your business and for your personal life. See were you can cut expenses.

Dig the well before you need it. Start networking now. Build up your network so that you have many different potential clients to pull work from.

Keep your head up! In a down economy it is easy to get down on yourself for not making enough money. You have to stay positive and provide excellent imagery for your clients.

Create compelling content and tell compelling stories. We are creatives after all! The more we put ourselves out there the more people see our work and hire us!

Wrapping It Up

I don’t know if we will go into a recession or not, I’m no economist. Having said that I’m not worried. After spending 12 years in this industry I know we go though cycles with advertising and marketing. There will be up years and there will be down years. Either way my company is going to stick around and create compelling imagery for my clients. I am going to choose not to believe this recession is going to happen. I hope our economic growth continues. Let’s opt out of this recession togeather.