The tariff shifts. The rising cost of hard goods. Clients hitting pause on discretionary projects.
Even those of us with decades of experience are feeling it. And I’ve been through enough downturns to know: every one of them feels different—and the uncertainty always arrives before the data does.
But panic isn't strategy (not that I haven't tried). What works is staying useful, staying visible, and making it easier for clients to keep moving—even when they aren’t sure what comes next.
I’ve been talking with friends and advisors—many of them in other industries—about what helps in moments like this. One thing came up again and again:
Slowdowns give you the one thing you never seem to have enough of: time.
Time to fix your systems.
Time to deepen relationships (with past clients, collaborators, colleagues)
Time to clarify what you actually offer and why it matters.
Here are 9 small moves that help you do exactly that—so you're not just surviving this season, you're using it.
1. Create a “Decision Roadmap”
Every project, no matter the type, revolves around a handful of core decisions:
Scope. Budget. Timeline. Process. Resources.
You already help clients through these—just not always visibly. Instead of explaining from scratch each time, create a tool that shows them what’s coming: a worksheet, a diagram, or a visual checklist.
Why it matters: Clients want clarity. You want efficiency. This gives you both. It smooths your discovery calls, speeds up proposals, and builds trust—because it shows you’ve mapped this terrain before. Even better: it becomes content you can reuse, teach with, or build into your onboarding process.
2. Lead With Timing—Not Just Ideas
Most clients don’t understand how long things take. They wait too long to start, then expect things to move faster than they can.
Set expectations early:
“If you’re hoping to be under construction by spring, we’ll need to start design by early summer. That means having a scoping conversation in the next few weeks.”
Then use this as an opportunity to guide them (ideally using a well-designed one like this). When you explain things calmly + clearly you gain the upper hand as the trusted expert.
Why it matters: Spelling out the timeline now is how you turn loose interest into defined next steps. And in uncertain markets, any momentum is a strategic advantage.
3. Capture the Thing You Keep Repeating
This week, you’ll probably explain the same thing five times. In proposals. In emails. In meetings. Think of every repeated explanation as a tool you haven’t made yet. Turn it into an SOP, a blog post, an FAQ, or even a podcast (more on how I do this in less than 5 minutes using AI here.)
Why it matters: When things slow down, it's tempting chase any project that comes along. But the real advantage comes from reducing the effort it takes to do what you already know how to do. Make your current work more efficient and your existing clients more self-sufficient.
4: Watch cash, not just revenue
Revenue lags risk. You can be busy and still be bleeding cash. Start tracking what matters: cash flow, payment timelines, and how many months of expenses you have on hand.
Spend 30 minutes mapping your next 90 days:
What’s due, and when?
What’s coming in, and how certain is it?
What breaks first if nothing changes?
Do it now, while you still have time to fix it.
Why it matters: The more visibility you have into cash risk, the more control you have over what and when to adjust.
5. Stay Present—Even If Projects Pause
Last week, a friend told me his financial advisor emailed just as markets were tumbling:
“Just a quick note to remind you—our plan was built for exactly this. Let me know if you want to talk.”
His portfolio was down 6-figures, but he didn’t sell and what he remembered was the reassurance that the plan was designed to weather all storms.
Designers can do the same. You don’t have to say much. Just let them know you’re thinking ahead. Suggest a smaller step. Check in. Send something useful. Equally, take this time to post, publish, and share to remind them you’re still thinking ahead.
Share a short analysis of how your clients are being affected (and how you’re adapting).
Publish a case study or outcome, it doesn’t have to be a portfolio piece.
Use your expertise to help others make sense of the chaos (i.e. - what are you spec’ing now given the tariff situation?)
Why it matters: Silence isn’t neutral. Staying present shows you’re the one thinking ahead, it’s also what trust looks like.
6. Offer a Starting Point That’s Easy to Say Yes To
Some clients want to work with you, but they’re not ready to commit. If you only sell one thing—a big thing—they’ll wait. Or disappear.
Take the front third of your service—feasibility, concept, or schematic—and turn it into a standalone offer. Fixed price. Clear deliverables. Low friction.
“Before we commit to the whole project, let’s explore what’s possible.”
Why it matters: This keeps paused projects warm. It gives unsure clients a place to begin. And it gives you something to sell when full-scope work feels out of reach.
7. Skill up for Leverage
If you’ve been curious about AI (or something else) but haven’t had time to explore it, this is a prime window of opportunity.
Start small. Choose a task you repeat constantly—writing a project summary, formatting a proposal, generating concept images, summarizing dense code language—and delegate it to a tool that gets you 80% there. There are tons of examples and use cases in this blog post.
Why it matters: Time saved is only half the benefit. The real gain is what you can do with the energy you’re not spending on busywork. AI isn’t a replacement for independent thinking—but it can be a very powerful creative partner.
8. Publish the Work That’s Sitting on Your Drive
You likely have finished work that no one has seen—projects that were photographed, drawn, or built but never shared.
Take the time now:
Add unpublished project photos to your website
Finalize presentation drawings and post to your socials or pitch them to media
Submit the work to your state’s AIA awards (fingers crossed)
Write the blog post you meant to publish six months ago
Why it matters: Marketing doesn’t always mean creating something new. Sometimes it’s just about hitting publish even when it’s not perfect.
9. Clean Up the Infrastructure You Usually Ignore
Most of us patch things together to keep moving—files scattered across drives, 15 versions of your logo (guilty), templates saved to desktops, old invoices buried in folders we haven’t opened in years. This is the time to fix it.
Move active projects to the cloud (I use Google Drive)
Create a shared folder structure for collaborators
Back up and archive what you don’t need anymore
Why it matters: A clean system makes you faster, sharper, and more responsive—exactly what builds trust when everyone else is improvising.
Final note
In slow seasons, small advantages matter more. Every hour you don’t waste. Every decision you make easier. Every client you don’t lose to silence.
That’s one of the few reliable things I’ve learned from running a business through many periods of uncertainty. You act, the fog lifts a little, you act again. It’s rarely the right move at first. But the movement matters more than most people realize.
That’s how real businesses get built.
Not with certainty. With motion.