Great Self Promotion
The 37better Project, from the 37signals guys (archive from 2001 – some links may not work), has some really cool promotional things that they did for their company. It brought them tremendous exposure. The 37betters were linked up everywhere and discussed at length in all the right places.
Slow times are a perfect time to start putting together self promotional materials. What are the patterns in your business? How can you demonstrate competency beyond what everyone else is doing? Every designer has a portfolio of their designs, but how many have a portfolio of their minds?