well im going to fly in the face of opinion a bit here and suggest that many of us in the framing business have already lived through (and done ok) through at least one recession already, and perhaps the type of people who have framing carry on having framing? Maybe we shouldn't be worried (neither should we be complacent though)
Im not Robo, and im at the other side of the country, but if I were looking for the best place to use the money from the advertising it would be in another form of advertising, namely a web site for starters.
I sometimes cannot believe the high number of
new local customers we get who have found us via our web site or a local internet directory listing. Its
daily. and we are in a small town, maybe 20,000 population within "shopping distance".
The first thing we would cut back on? I dont think there is
much we can cut back on, but I would look to improve efficiency. Maybe it needs hard times before half of us step back and look at our businesses and see where we are wasting money or heamorraging away profit, like excess stock levels, unrealistic charges for "minor" jobs etc.
No, thinking about it, I would cut back on one thing: the number of pita jobs. Someone else can clog up their workshop with those
Then I'd do what Gordon Ramsey does in his telly programme in every business he goes into to sort out: Tidy up the shop, clear out the crap, organise the "kitchen", and put a few high-profit specials on the "menu", and find some way of making the staff enthusiastic.
In fact, now that I've written it down, I'm wondering why I dont go ahead and do just that.
Im not sure a recession is the right time to cut back on your advertising spend, but maybe its a time to look at the best places to spend it.
I have a friend who is 80 this year, I first met him when he was 65, and he had just retired from the art business, and I had just started framing. Funnily enough I was talking to him yesterday, about the recession, and he said in his 50 years working in the art business, he hardly knew anyone in the business who was forced to close in a recession because of the recession itself, only because they had a poor business anyway.
I think this was echoed by John in Belfast when he said his business seemed alsmost counter-recessionary, and if you can do OK in Belfast over the years, with all manner of troubles including economic, I dont think most of us have very much to worry about.
imho the problems we all face are related to the usual staff problems all small businesses face (costs, overheads, holidays, sickness, regulations, elf n safety) etc. This is what has always seemed to stop me growing my business. Specially in an economy where people are better off on the dole than having a part time job. Last recession (early 90s) I had a waiting list of good people looking for part time work. Since we've had the "economic good times" I have constantly had problems finding and keeping half decent staff.