By Anita Campbell of Small Business Trend:

We can all use a little help every once in a while, especially in times like these. If your small business is searching for marketing and sales tips to not only survive, but thrive, during economic downturns, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ve created this roundup of 10 resources to help you market and sell, thrive and be successful during tight economic cycles.

Read the whole blog on Open Forum >>

Amidst the plethora of news that we’ve been hearing from all industries about the economy heading towards the ‘END TIMES’, we hear rumblings that there are winners in the midst – Some rightly (cost effective Design Agencies) and some wrongly (greedy Spivs and Speculators). Money never disappears… it just gets redistributed… and historically (recession wise) we see small start-ups in the design industry hitting the headlines for all the right reasons.

Why…

Well during these last 10 years of ‘continued growth’ and ‘good times’ we have seen some great agencies get fatter, bigger, clumsier and less attractive when it comes to ROI. Overheads become too large, rentals are too high and the leases too long. Staff have become expectant of high salaries and have become too comfortable within their role…

This is where the start-up wins out. During these hard times… Excellent creatives look for an alternative. They look to use their initiative, business savvy and offer an alternate solution to toughening economies. If we look back to the last squeeze, the creative agencies that grew from great ideas were the like of De-Construct, Moot and Glue. As Nietzsche said, the cream always rises to the top, and these fellas have done very very well.

And this is where We Love intends to win out. Injecting a little love back in the industry, remembering why we got involved with design in the first place, and bringing to the table (at prices that are accessible in these tightening times) the experience gained from working at the likes of IMG Media, AKQA, MediaCatalyst and Think! on big and beautiful brands such as Sony Ericsson, Yamaha, Sony, UPC, Mercedes (among many others) with much finer targeted solutions in the offering.

The days of ‘scatter gun’ advertising (TV, Radio, Outdoor) may not be over… but they do NOT command the sort of respect they once did… and clients are looking for design agencies that can provide better integrated campaign solutions… where one agency can take away their worries regarding creative consistency and project management. Small agencies can respond faster to changing trends and, offer a more personal experience to the client and at the end of the day (we are all measurable) be a much better value to the client on a pound for pound spend.

Now, We Love does not think the recession for the digital / creative industry will be as bad as last time. But we do think that agencies will need to reassess how they do business and how the client defines good value. A posh office is one thing… but we think the days of wastefulness are gone for a good few years yet. So no more jollies in the South of France for a while.

So, heres to the small man, heres to change, heres to the wise businessman.

Mark