Text and photos by Photoguru Sean Arbabi

This economic year is affecting everyone, not only in the U.S. and U.K., but as well around the globe. Budgets are tighter for companies small and large, resulting in less advertising, affecting ad agencies and magazines - this trickles down to photographers through fewer assignments, smaller stock sales, and less work. As for the public market, individuals are just as concerned and have less disposable income, resulting in fewer purchases of books, fine art prints, lower workshop numbers, as well as tighter budgets for wedding and family portraits.

So what to do? How do you keep your business going during these times? Here are a few ways to keep the ball rolling - some are tangible steps, and others can't be measured - but they've worked for me the past 20 years as a full-time pro.

1) Keep yourself busy, very busy - although it's not a tangible thing you can keep track of, I believe the more energy you put out there, the more comes your way. I've noticed when I'm busy, I'm not all that motivated to get to extra work since my schedule is packed and free time is limited. It's not the best way to run your business since you should always be marketing, but it's reality. Yet when times are slow, it's easy to get depressed and lose confidence. So instead, use that hunger to motivate you. By keeping yourself busy and always have things to work on, whether capturing new images for your portfolio, cataloging your work, taking advantage of the time to connect with new clients, or starting new projects you've had on the back burner, time will pass and opportunities will arise from the positive effort.

2) Partner up with others. I also believe in synergy. I'm not big on trades since they don't pay the bills, but if you need a designer for some promotional materials, and a designer needs a photographer for their specific need, making a trade can save both sides money - and the collaboration of creative people can often lead to new opportunities.

3) Reorganize: Take time to reorganize your business and hone your skills- we rarely have time to do this, so no better time than the slow present. Whether captioning and organizing your images, cleaning out your computer, or re-packing your photo bags- when I'm swamped I rarely have time to do any of this, so I use my slower times for these tasks. I call it investment toward future earnings. How so? I'll give you an example. When a request comes across my desk for Yellowstone images and my client needs to review some asap, I'm able to build a lightbox immediately and throw it up on the web due to captioning them a year earlier during a slow week. That quick response, in turn, leads to more sales.

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