How Has the Economy Affected Your Business?

[Jim Gratiot]

A general question:

I was just curious... since the sky began falling last September, it seems like some businesses have suffered greatly while others have barely been affected at all.

Therefore I'll open it up to everybody: How has the economic downturn affected your business?

 

[LuckySo-n-So]

As a self-employed electrician (well, my dad and myself), I can say that things got pretty slow from October through February. It was kind of welcome due to the fact that Hurricane Gustav literally put my city in the dark for the better part of two weeks. It took us a while to catch up after that, and then there was not much.

I found that simple service calls (my socket doesn't work, light won't come on) dried up a little, as people were holding off on non-critical repairs. Also, a lot of new construction dried up. The main building contractor/architect we work for had nothing in the pipeline for about three months, when they usually have close to 5-10 projects going on at once (we are talking $2-3 million, 10k sq. ft. houses). There were days when I would go to the shop (my dad's house in reality) and I would do yard work or paper work just to "earn" my salary (it actually beat cutting dad's grass on Saturdays ).

Things seem to be picking up as of late, however. Working on a couple of McMansions, a few remodels, several swimming pools, and have a couple new houses coming up in a few months.

For some reason, recessions always hit Louisiana about 6-12 months late and don't last as long as the rest of the nation--at least in my line of work.

 

[Arcona]

I have submitted to 123rf and doesn't seem that the economical crisis had affected my "microstock-business" in any way.

I suppose it's because the image buyers switched to microstock sites recently.

 

[rachlynn17]

At a Bridal Show this past February, there was an obvious break in business at the $2000 mark. Those over got no bites, those under left smiling!
I think customers are trying to cut back, and they realize they can still get a high quality photographer at a more resonable price.
At least in my area (midwest), it seems that in this economy some photographers are now considered overpriced, whereas before it was justifyable to spend that much $$.