The CIN Blog

I recall sitting in my office this time last year thinking about the year ahead. To be honest for the first time in my career I was dreading it, as I’m sure a majority of people reading this were too.

The economy seemed to have dropped off a cliff; clients were getting the jitters, payment terms and cash in the bank suddenly became massively important to me and a general batten-down-the-hatches spirit seemed to prevail over the country.

With any downturn, and this is the second I’ve run a business in, the key thing to hold on to is it the thought that it won’t last for ever. And this time I’m reminding myself that when the good times return (as they surely will), that they won’t last for ever either.

In fact, I’m going to write a letter to the directors of BCS to be opened in five years’ time outlining what we saw, what we did, how we reacted and what got us through this recession so they can (if I’m not here for some reason) steer the company through.

So now I find myself sitting in my office thinking about 2010. I believe there are a few key factors to consider. One is that a lot of organisations have cut deep on staffing and as workloads increase will struggle with capacity and servicing issues. Another is that there is some excellent talent out there looking for a home. I’m sure you’re smart enough to see a link here and take advantage of it if it’s relevant to what you do.

So my prediction for the following year is that it’s going to be one that will be good for those of us working in the creative industries sector who are well outside of London, with its associated overheads/fees.

Yes, us.

It’s a time when larger local organisations are going to spend on things like creative services but are going to look for real value.

They will be looking for someone who can service them well, which can only be aided if you are in a sensible drive time as you just can’t beat face-to-face time. They will be looking at the actual talent they can purchase from and not take a blinkered London-centric view.

In addition, middle-end and SME operations are going to be looking to increase market share, as they have very lightly reduced everything else down (head count, new product development etc) and now are focused on increasing sales. I can see this is going to be a year of opportunity for all of us in CIN and now is the time to get a strategy in place to take advantage of it.

So, my New Year’s resolution will be the same as the one told me by an MD of mine 25 odd years ago, probably as we were coming out of our last recession… “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise” (Ted Turner).