Your Total Guide To Business

My Strategy For Surviving Coronavirus

By designer and branding specialist Allison Murray of Allison Murray Design based in the Cotswolds.

When did you realise the Coronavirus could be a problem for you and your business?

I was actually entering the year in a very positive mode, work on my new studio had been completed and I had just won a local Business Person of the Year award.

I had a number of new potential clients that wanted to launch their business ideas and needed naming and branding, it really felt like a strong year ahead.

Then the problem became clear at the beginning of March and the reality of Coronavirus and what it meant as far as my clients' businesses dawned quite quickly. They became very nervous of cash flow and about moving forward in this uncertain time. Not the best time for a new business to try and launch itself.

One of my potential clients was a recently bought and refurbished care home, they wanted an identity, photography and brochures to promote their beautiful and caring business which stopped for safety reasons rather than money and I can only imagine the tough time they are having now.

What has been your plan to continue?

I have offered my clients reduced rates and deferred payments to help ease their financial burden. This still allows me to create their branding so they will be in a strong position when the world gets back to normal. Also they need to be visible so that they are in a strong position to get back to business. It will help them to hit the ground running.

How have you changed your business as the weeks have passed?

I work for myself so I don’t have the worry of staff or massive overheads to deal with and if anything I have done more of the things I would employ suppliers to do like artwork and illustration.

I am also having to deal with a teen at home that is quite demanding. I have to make sure she is doing her school work and that she isn’t just sitting in front of the telly or getting up late during what would be a school week. I have tried to keep to a routine as much as possible.

What have you seen about business which has been positive?

Some clients do have the vision to realise this can be a time to be brave and seize opportunities to move things forward. I just completed an identity for a wedding venue and they were desperate to get the branding out there, knowing that a lot of couples will be wanting to rebook next year and taking the time they have to reassess their plans.

Also contact with other self-employed businesses has been invaluable, having others in your position is great and out of adversity great things can happen like the Cotswold Collective and The Cotswold Challenge.

It’s also a time to do the things that normally get left, website updates, connecting with old clients and suppliers.

It’s an opportunity to assess what’s important in life too and to keep creative when I am not designing I am painting. It's something I never have the time to do. So when I get some downtime I pick up my paint brushes, it’s important to keep the creative juices flowing.

Have you seen any negative behaviours in business?

I have been pretty lucky. Many of colleagues in the design world have had clients withhold fees after the work has been completed even though it happened at the beginning of the year.

Some of these clients have genuine reasons, but others are using Coronavirus as an excuse not to pay, but carrying on using the unpaid design work regardless.

There doesn’t seem to be legal system that can help at the moment and it’s normally a costly affair, normally copyright stays with the designer until final fees are paid but it’s proving hard to uphold for some. There is a certain amount of trust between a client and a designer.

What advice would you give to others in business?

Try to work out payment schemes that help your clients. Spend the time getting your “house” in order, invoicing, website update, files. Things designers are notoriously bad at keeping on top of.

Find other ways to be creative, do the things you always wanted to do, like art.

Create or update your own brand or see how your branding could help a charity that couldn’t necessarily afford you.

What can we do to help each other?

Communicate and network. Help others with opportunities even if it doesn’t relate to you or benefit you in the short to medium term. The long term dividends could be huge.

Your parting thought?

I appreciate that this period is really tough for all business, however I think it may offer some hidden opportunities for all of us to develop projects in readiness for the upswing which will inevitably come.

I'm a firm believer in disruption in business providing new opportunities. We just all need to be a bit braver and believe in ourselves and our product or service.

For more information visit www.allisonmurraydesign.com

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