In an age where everything in business is about being bigger, more profitable and more famous, the idea of downsizing doesn't bear thinking about. For me, running a small business means being able to change the way I work to survive, whatever life throws at me. I've had studios, lost studios, worked from home, worked from offices and my income has gone up and down year by year. The truth is, downsizing your business is NOT a failure - it's survival. And in 2022 and beyond, the most important thing is still being in business, no matter what that looks like.
I was reading an interesting article recently in Courier called 'Startup diary : Lessons on growth with A House Called Hue'. It was written by Destiny Brewton who runs an Atlanta-based custom patch business. She writes about working from home, then getting a studio, then contemplating working from home again, the challenges of a post Covid world, and the robustness of a business that can endure. It's also about remaining open-minded to the possibilities of what those changes can mean.
I have never considered downsizing or the dips in profit caused by things I have no control of, as a failure. When I lost my studio in 2018, I saw it as a relief. A studio is all very well. It looks good on papaer, but it comes with overheads, the unpredictable nature of having yet another landlord to worry about, and of course there's that commute that I so hate. Going back to working from home after four years felt like a relief. Everything was under one roof again. It was one rent bill, and I could roll into the studio at any time of the day and night whenever I got an idea I suddenly had the urge to try out.
As the pandemic descended on the UK, working from home became a godsend. I kept working, changed how I worked and made more money in 2020 than I have in any year I have been working from home since I moved to Manchester in 2015.
If you are faced with challenges as the cost of living bites, don't think of cutting back on your business as a failure. It's a pivot, a change of plan. a new outlook. It's a survival tactic. The fact is, many innovations that boomed in 2020 were simply pandemic survival tactics that have slowly lost favour as the months have gone by. And now small grocery stores and home food delivery are starting to struggle. What's most important, is that the business survives, and you are able to keep selling in whatever format suits your customers best. Turn it into a positive lesson, you are not a failure. You are a survivor in a difficult time, when so many are going without and so many businesses are folding.
Stay strong. You can do this. And as always, thank you for your support.
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