Why Creatives Must Diversify for the Coming Crappy Economy, and Beyond
It really is not an option these days.
I am a photographer/designer/writer.
I have photographed famous people, infamous people, and ordinary people. I have traveled the world with my camera. I made images for corporations, magazines, ad agencies, and various charities.
I also owned an ad agency for ten years that grew from my home office to the third-largest agency in Phoenix in 2000.
I diversified a long, long time ago.
The catalyst was waking up one morning and realizing I had $675 in the bank and $163,000 in receivables. Along with having a truly good spring meant that I had also footed a lot of production bills for ad agencies that hadn't paid me yet.
I got on the phone and made some calls and by the end of the day, I had a good amount promised for the following days.
But it pissed me off.
Big time.
These agencies with their 90-day payment schedules, some going to 120… that’s four months, were holding onto MY money. Meanwhile, modeling agencies were demanding to be paid in 30 days, assistants had to be paid that week, leases, lab fees, film and consumables, mortgages, and more.
(Yes, I had savings, but taking money out of savings to cover shit I shouldn’t have to cover means losing interest on that money, so any way you look at it I had become a bank for people with more money than me and was operating at a loss.)
So I stopped working for ad agencies and knew that would take a chunk of my income. I also knew that I had better design skills than some of the designers I was working for.
it was disheartening to spend the time and effort on a great image only to have it cropped to fuck and back by someone with the taste of a pier rat.
So I became a photographer who designs, and that meant meeting clients farther up the food chain than usual. With the agency model, I was the last in the mix. As a designer photographer, I was at the top of the entry points.
And I learned how to speak and work with CEOs, CFOs, and CMOs.
Within a year, I was handling design and advertising for 5 large companies and a handful of smaller ones.
And then… the internet.
AOL.
Then (BAM!!!) Netscape.
And I jumped in with both feet, designing websites for law firms, power companies, major league baseball stadiums, and startups.
I hired a guy to handle sales.
Then a gal who was a great illustrator and designer.
Then a coder.
And another coder.
Then brought in a partner.
We grew every year.
In 1999 we were the third-largest ad agency by billing in the valley.
I was a Creative Director with 3 ADs/graphic designers and 3 coders all working together seamlessly in a 5000 sq ft building in downtown Phoenix.
60–70 hour weeks.
Flying to Istanbul, Singapore, and Silicon Valley regularly.
I drove a sports car. :-)
And then… 9–11, 2001.
The phone stopped ringing.
For three months.
My partner stole tens of thousands from me and left me holding the bag for three major companies. His attitude was ‘fuck ’em for trusting me’.
I went to each and told them I would make it right and three accepted the offer. One thought I was part of the problem, judged me a crook, and banned me from their facility. I completely understood, but that stung.
This was also a very challenging time for my family. When my partner stole the money, he also robbed my family of college money and more… that was hard, but we got it done.
(Did you know there are over 100 ways to cook macaroni and cheese?)
And it took two long, hard years, but I got it done.
Because I had diversified.
If all I could do was make a photograph, I would never have been able to keep those businesses satisfied or my family afloat.
(In one case, the company had paid for a year of work in advance which was now gone — so I did it for free.)
That 9–11 recession was a tough one. I weathered it well enough, though.
Since I was diversified, I could offer website development, graphic design, and photography.
One client was three sources of income, rather than one.
I had to find fewer clients to keep ahead of the game than those who did only one thing.
This same thing happened in the 2006–2008 recession.
And now, 2023 is here. This recession is going to get worse.
Some say much worse and much different than previous ones where some semblance of government austerity helped curb inflationary pressures.
And there are going to be the regular challenges of a recession, plus a few different challenges to all who create.
First, it is truly a global model at this point.
Is this good or bad?
I say, embrace the power of ‘and’.
As a business owner, I can hire a designer from Fiverr, a technical writer from Freelancer, grab some free images from Unsplash, and get copy first drafts from AI.
This is stuff YOU can and should be doing.
If you are currently a photographer, writer, graphic designer, web professional, or marketer, you need to diversify to offer more of what you do to the clients you have. You need some room to say “yes” instead of “no, I am just a writer”, or “I don’t know how to make a website”.
Since most of my focus is on photographers, I have the following urgent suggestion uttered in breathless urgency because it is urgent now:
Become a multi-threat, client-absorbing monster.
Take your photography further. Expand your vision.
Learn to do basic design, then take it a little further by making it better than average.
Learn how to craft a good email, a good headline, and understand web metrics. In other words, spend time writing and learning.
You can add web production to the mix. Square Space is a great tool and you do not need to know coding to make a great site with a store. See also; Shopify.
The tools are out there.
The help is out there.
What I am telling you is to be able to get to a place where you can take any kind of additional work along with your photography. You do not have to be the best at any of these ‘add-ons’, you must be competent. You will become better.
Scott Adams calls this a “Talent Stack” and it makes a lot of sense to me.
Here is a good article on “Talent Stacking”.
Let’s say the client needs a logo, brochure, FB and IG ads, motion, a set of trade show graphics, images and design for a Powerpoint, an email campaign, and photographs of their merchandise, associates, and buildings.
“Can you do that”, she asks plaintively.
Your answer is a confident “Yes, I can handle all of that for you”.
Because you can.
The infrastructure is there. You have been putting these talents together for a while and you can either do them yourself or find someone who can and pay them a percentage of what you are billing.
And in the last 6 months, it has become stronger and more accessible for all of us.
Photographers who can only make images are going to find it harder and harder to compete with full-service visual professionals.
(And of course, there is that AI vomitous drek everyone is drooling over breathing down our necks this year. People who drool bother me.)
With everything from Skillshare to YouTube at your fingertips, there has never been a better time to learn how to make this work for you.
I am doing a class for creating these diverse strategies in March of 2023. I call it “The Creative Class” and it is focused on preparing photographers for this new landscape of business. It will be a six-month-long course, available in January 2023, starting in March.
More information coming soon.
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I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System (enrollment begins January 6, 2023) where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.
Check out my newsletter and community at Substack. We are new, but growing.
You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.