Mirificam Press

What to do When the World Wants to Cut Web Design from the Budget

November 11th, 2008 in Business & Process

by: Matthew Griffin

It's no secret that marketing and technology budgets are the first to get thrown overboard when money gets tight. The web designer is in the unfortunate position of fitting squarely into both of those categories. Also, unlike our sister graphic design, web design has never seen hard times like we're moving into now. We were in uncharted seas to begin with, and now a storm is coming. But are the results of a tightening belt destined to be only grim? Absolutely not. We will weather this storm and come out the other side all the better as long as we stay long-sighted and stick to a few basic principles.

1. Maintain Relationships

When you're anxious about money, it's easy to get wrapped around the axle about the projects you're not getting and forget the clients you already have. If you get desperate and you're going to make a sales call, the easiest one will be to someone already on your client list. Not only are you going into the call with a previous relationship on the record, you already know what makes their business tick.  You understand their needs and with a little research you can easily compile a list of services that could benefit their business. If you've done a good job for them in the past, it will be that much easier to convince them to use you now.

2. Cut Rates

Ouch! This one hurts, but it's a simple facet of supply and demand. When the demand for your service goes down, your rates may need to go down as well. It's important that you keep an eye on your competitors in this area so you can make an educated decision about rate cuts. You have to strike a balance between valuing your ability and pricing yourself out of the market. You don't necessarily want to be the cheapest around, but you should be competitive with others who have comparable skills. Remember, the law of supply and demand keeps on working whether you like it or not. You can either get on board or suffer the consequences.

3. Get with the Standards

Efficiency (money's direct relative) automatically becomes an issue when money is tight. During times like these it's more important than ever to push clients toward web standards. Designing with good CSS and web standards make projects easier to manage in the long-run. Case in point: I was able redesign my business website in just one afternoon last week because I took the time to use semantic markup and well-organized CSS the first time. And If you've been paying close attention to standards all along, those sales calls to previous client will be all the more pleasant because redesign will be a breeze.

4. Build Residual Income

Okay, this advice may be a little late this time around, but it's never a bad time to start building residual income. This can be difficult in a one-time-fee driven industry. But fortunate for us, our design is inextricably linked to the IT industry. Hosting is a great place to build residual income. You can lease a dedicated server for a couple hundred dollars a month and charge hosting fees yourself rather than passing off that residual hosting income to a third party. It's true it can be a pain to manage sometimes but the benefits for you and your clients are well worth the sacrifices.

5. Be Long-sighted

As a general rule, the further you think ahead when you're making a decision, the better the decision will be. This is especially true when financial times are tough. Start saving and making cuts now so you can be the one who makes it through to the other side. Remember the scene in Forest Gump when Forest and Lieutenant Dan are out in the hurricane in their shrimping boat? They return to find they have the only boat left in the whole Louisiana shrimping industry. That's what you want to be to the web design industry.

Some Final Thoughts About Purpose and Direction

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, not all the results of this tightening will be grim. When it's all said and done, we'll have a leaner stripped down web design industry that's wiser and more mature. As Christians, our view of this type of refining process should go hand in hand with our view of spiritual sanctification. Historically, Christians have seen sanctification as the process by which God gradually conforms his people to his revealed will. But we shouldn't limit sanctification to spirituality and morals. We will be sanctified in these areas for sure, but we will be sanctified vocationally as well. This means we can truly look at the struggle toward excellence in design as a meaningful building block in the kingdom of God.

That, of course, leads us to another important question: the question of ultimate destination. If our earthly vocational excellence is mandated by God, what should that lead us to deduce about the kingdom of God itself? Well, I can tell you at least this much: I was created to take dominion of the earth, not to play a harp. And if you think God's purpose for mankind suddenly changes when you die, you're in for a big surprise. Take heart, be strong through the storm, stay long-sighted, and never forget that this whole thing is God's story and it will inevitably work out for his glory and the good of his people.

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