It doesn’t feel very good to have your client call you up and break the news that they’re cutting back.   But since we are well into what appears to be an ever deepening recession, it’s something you’ll probably experience this year if you haven’t already.

It happened to me a few months ago. One of my clients relies heavily on government funding; about $31 million or so worth of it.  By and large, their programming dollars come mostly from one government agency.  Our city government, like many others around the country, is facing the prospect of furloughs, so millions are getting trimmed from the operating budget.  Naturally, my client’s twice-removed $31 million program ended up on the chopping block.

I knew something was up when I could never reach my  contact directly. When I finally did get her on the phone, she informed me that my invoices were being held up by the funding agency for further review. The funders wanted more details about what I was doing (that hard to define PR work), etc. At the same time, the agency’s financial woes had been leaked to the papers and were all over Internet. I’m no dummy.  I knew where this was going.

My contract, which was actually up for renewal, was put on hold.  One of my specialties is multi-month, multi-year, multi-tier communications and marketing programming, so I couldn’t stop working cold turkey without letting a lot of time and effort go to waste.  Pulling the plug meant that quite a few irons I had in the fire would not only cool, but go cold all together.  A few projects that had stretched out over several months were finally nearing completion. But I was no longer receiving payment, so what was I to do?
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To say that economically, things are rough around here would be an understatement, and at this point also a cliche. For entrepreneurs, things are tougher than they once were, no question. But that’s not to say that there aren’t still opportunities for marketing and PR professionals to turn a profit.

It’s really tempting to get so excited about the prospect of a new client that you underbid yourself. Not to mention the dynamics of this recession. You might start thinking “Wow, things are really tough right now, and I’m sure they can’t really afford my normal rate. We’re in a recession. Let me lower my fees, so that I can close the deal, just this once…”

But you’re never going to turn a profit if you don’t get paid what you’re worth. And you can’t get paid what you’re worth if you hedge every time someone says they can’t afford you. Furthermore, that will really come back to bite you once this recession is over. Your clients (who didn’t know you were doing them a favor) will think that you’re only worth the peanuts that you charge.

Scenario: You meet with a new client. You absolutely love them. They love you and you’re both giddy about working together. You promise them a proposal/quote for your services and they tell you they’re looking forward to it. You go home, happy and start slaving over the proposal. You painstakingly detail the scope of work and deliverables. You decide how long all of this will take, outline the budget and break down your fees. You submit the proposal and wait. Read the full story