Many of you will not remember the last recession and most of you will not have been running businesses at that time. Those of you who were, will remember that creative businesses fared very badly in the early 1990's.Creative services are usually the first to suffer as client FD's reduce or stop spending on marketing, new product development etc, the so called discretionary expenditures.

This obviously effects agencies and those who supply agencies badly.

Banks  lend less willingly and charge more for the privilege. They also become quicker to call in receivers to struggling customers and are less willing to give management teams the time and space to try and pull through.

As clients come under more pressure, some will be taken over and if your client is taken over by a rival you may lose that account. Some clients will go to the wall, leaving unpaid bills in their wake...including bills you may have sent them. Clients will want you to work for less as their budgets come under pressure.

Your profits suffer and more importantly cash becomes very tight.

This all happens very quickly and it feels like you are having all of the bad news - lost clients, downward renegotiation of fees, bad debts and a drying up of new business pitches and enquiries - in a frighteningly compressed period of time.

Steering a business through these times is very different to running a business during  a booming or more benign times. My concern is that because the last recession was 15 years ago many people running creative businesses today have no idea what this is like.

If you were in business in the last recession do you agree?

Will your business survive or will it disappear?  Are you worried at all?