Agencies and the possible Recession of 2022

Chip and Gini put this talk off for as long as they could, but many listeners have come to them during the past few weeks asking if they believe a recession is likely and what they should do to prepare their agencies for one.

The truth is that the things that you should do to prepare for a possible recession are the same things that you should be doing to run a successful agency during the good times.

The only difference is that you might want to be slightly more cautious and build in just a little more flexibility. That’s it. Don’t go overboard investing in the good times or cutting back in the lean ones.

In this episode, Chip and Gini share their perspectives, including what has gone wrong for them in the past — and how you can make sure that you are communicating effectively with your team, clients, and prospects during turbulent times.

Key takeaways

* Gini Dietrich: “Really look at your staffing. One of the things that I repeat over and over again is have a nice mix of employees and contractors.”* Chip Griffin: “It’s essential that you overcommunicate with your team right now because they are absolutely seeing these same things and they are worried. Fill that vacuum with information so that they don’t fill it with speculation.”* Gini Dietrich: “The phrase “cash is king” exists for a reason. So have as much cash in the business as you can have. Six months is better than three months. Three months is better than nothing.”* Chip Griffin: “You will see if the economy turns down, in the early months it will be the agencies that are relying on debt and equity that will have to make the biggest cuts the soonest. Don’t be one of them.”

Resources

* Let’s talk about the “R” word (SAGA article)* Should your agency hire contractors or employees? (Agency Leadership Podcast)

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 today we’re not gonna depress you, but we might recess you. Right after this.

Gini Dietrich: Boy, I missed your segues. That was, that was special.

Chip Griffin: Did you have a good vacation?

Gini Dietrich: I did. Thank you.

Chip Griffin: I’m glad to hear that. It’s important to take time off but that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about something much more stressful and yes, probably a little bit depressing for some of you to think about.

I’ve been asked. And I know you’ve been asked Gini so many times by agency owners in recent weeks about the possibility of a recession, the R word. People are, some people are freaking out. Some people are just wondering about it. Is it gonna happen? What should we be doing? And so we tried, we’ve talked about having this as a topic now for the last month or so we kept putting it off.

And I don’t think we can do that any longer because the curiosity and concern is rising to a level that we just can’t ignore it anymore.

Gini Dietrich: Yeah.