Preparing your agency for an uncertain future
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss what agency owners can do to weather the current climate of economic uncertainty and potential recession. They suggest preparing for different economic scenarios by creating best, neutral, and worst case plans, cutting unnecessary expenses, and keeping lines of communication open with team members. Chip and Gini also touch on the idea of diversifying income streams and being flexible with the type of work taken on, while cautioning against overreacting to market changes. They share personal experiences and practical steps to help agency owners lead through economic downturns. Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “One thing you see typically during periods of uncertainty is agencies doing wild pivots to different industries thinking there’s no way that they’re going to be hit by this. I would warn you to be really, really careful about that.” Gini Dietrich: “I do think one of the things, and this is just a good exercise every year, is to go through all of your expenses. Go through your credit card statements. Go through everything that you’re spending money on and really determine is this something you need.” Chip Griffin: “If you’re having a tough time, take on project work. Don’t sit there and say we only do retainer work.” Gini Dietrich: “Being flexible, understanding what your best, neutral, and worst case scenarios are, and cutting your expenses are probably the three smartest things you can do.” Related Is business slowing down for agencies in 2023? Agencies and the possible Recession of 2022 Let’s talk about the “R” word How agencies can prepare for the coming recession (part 1 of 2) How agencies can prepare for the coming recession (part 2 of 2) View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And Gini, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of economic uncertainty out there. In fact, some economists think that there’s a 50/50 chance or better of an actual recession. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, it’s, that has gone up from 20%. Right before the inauguration to now 50%. So, also, there has been mumble from the White House that they, he, they believe that the only way to curb inflation is to have a recession. Chip Griffin: That would be an interesting, and as far as I know, never before tested strategy. This is not an economic discussion or a political discussion. So we’ll, we’ll veer away from the causes of how we may or may not get to that place. But the reality is that a lot of owners are coming to us and they’re, they’re concerned. They’re, they’re very worried about what might happen. And they are wanting to try to figure out what they can or should do in order to be better prepared for leading their business through any potential economic downturn that comes about. Either because of a large scale economic situation like a recession, or it may be more targeted if you are in an industry that is being particularly hit by some of the policy things that are taking place right now, which had a disproportionate impact on certain agencies that that work in sectors that have, you know, major impacts by the changes in government funding policies. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I have a really good friend who in January started to say, starting to bleed. And then, and then a couple weeks later, she’s like, Oh, bleeding’s getting heavier. And now she’s commenting that they’re hemorrhaging clients because the tariffs are affecting them because of all the work that she does. She does like robotics and B2B really manufacturing kinds of things, and it’s affecting them. So. She is definitely hemorrhaging, hemorrhaging clients right now, and it’s, it’s bad. It’s not good for her. Chip Griffin: And, and I mean, there are a lot of owners who are either in that same situation or concerned that they