A Bitter Pill to Take, Mayor Baker’s “Total Collapse”
By Jason Moriber • Oct 9th, 2009 • Category: Insight & Analysis, Trail BlazersMayor James M. Baker of Wilmington DE, speaking at the GCECS2009 this past Tuesday, made a striking point. To paraphrase he said: This isn’t a recession. It’s a total collapse, a time for a restructuring.
It’s a hard pill to swallow, but a restructuring of how you run your business might be the necessary medicine, especially for creative professionals, small businesses, freelancers, etc. (Huge companies are making deep changes as well, Eli Lilly, Conde Nast to name two, but it’s the smaller operations that are bearing the brunt of the recession.)
Many creatives I speak with are hunkering down, keeping a low profile and plan to wait for the good times to return. It’s a coping mechanism, sure, but the recession’s symptoms might last years. Can you hunker down for that long? Should you?
I’m with the Mayor. I think its time for us to rethink our plans, to accept that the market has totally shifted, to reach down to our bootstraps and pull ourselves up and out of the old market and into the new one. I think the only productive way out of this era is to get re-creative. This includes trying new business models, collaborating with peers (and even former competitors), and most importantly identifying and acting upon new opportunities NOW, not waiting for gigs to arrive, and to even create them for yourself.
Jason Moriber is a veteran product/project/marketing manager, underground artist/musician, and online community developer, Jason expertly builds/produces/manages clients' projects, programs, and campaigns.
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