Recession could bring more business to freelancers

If Nicolas DeGrazia is right, 2009 could be the year of the freelancer.

"I have a general sense that more of what we're seeing on the corporate side is a scaling back" rather than elimination of budgets that fund creative projects, says DeGrazia, co-owner of Bitter Jester Creative, Inc., Highland Park.

What the scaling back might mean "is that clients can't afford (iconic Chicago ad agency) Leo Burnett, but they can afford us."

Freelancer affordability may be the key.

"Other freelancers we know are turning jobs away," DeGrazia says.

Bitter Jester doesn't look like a freelance business if you picture the freelancer as a lonely entrepreneur hoping to pick up pieces of work. Bitter Jester is a creative content production company that produces documentaries and narrative stories for clients as diverse Ohio Art (think Etch A Sketch) and the American Medical Association.

But DeGrazia and other co-owner Daniel Kullman think like freelancers. Both the Ohio Art and AMA assignments came in freelance fashion, the result of a string of networking contacts that connected Bitter Jester to Lou Beres & Associates, a Chicago advertising agency.

"We know a web designer who knows a graphic designer who knows an ad guy (at Beres) who needed some video shot," Kullman. "Socializing is part and parcel of what we do in our business."

"We primarily grow through networking and word-of-mouth," adds DeGrazia. "We keep in touch. We call clients and friends to see what they're doing."

Advertising for their award-winning company?

"People flipping through magazines are looking for product, not a videographer," DeGrazia says. "We go to parties and events (because) it's hard for us to not talk about what we do."

"We got into this for two reasons," says Kullman. "First, we want to control our own destiny. Second, we're both very creative and extremely passionate about what we do."

It's important to Kullman and DeGrazia that content comes from them, not higher up the structure that hires them.

Creative freedom is a mantra for entrepreneurs like Kullman and DeGrazia. Creative as they may be, however, the business still must grow.

Partly to combat an anticipated slowdown in business but partly because of the freedom to choose that being their own bosses gives them, DeGrazia and Kullman expect to be "more involved with nonprofits this year. They need marketing more than ever."

The entrepreneurial freedom to point Bitter Jester wherever they want it to go comes with a price tag, as other business owners know.

"There's lots of personal sacrifice," Kullman says. "Our friends are buying condos and nice cars. We've put those things off. We're building a foundation."

"Not many of our friends are entrepreneurs," continues DeGrazia. "They're 9-5ers" with regular schedules and free weekends.

Questions, comments to Jim Kendall, JKendall@121MarketingResources.com.

© 2009 121 Marketing Resources, Inc