How should I approach my business expenses during an economic downturn?

Implement zero-based budgeting by starting from scratch and justifying every single expense. Cancel your credit cards and reissue them with new numbers to force yourself to re-evaluate all subscriptions. When you go through the cancellation process for services, many will offer significant discounts, extended free trials, or better plans to keep you as a customer. Go through this exercise even for services you intend to keep - you’ll often discover deals worth thousands of dollars in savings that weren’t available until you tried to cancel. Cut 15% off the top through cancellations and you’ve effectively added 15% to your bottom line without selling anything.

---

Asked by artists facing economic uncertainty · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2025-04-24