Huggy, one thing that you may find a benefit, in a poor job market, and economy as a whole is that if you can maintain a level of service, and adapt. When other competition may go under you will still be there. Additionally if you do find busy times it should be fairly easy to find someone that you can pay to do some of the manual labor like digging trenches, and on bigger projects carting equipment and supplies. Could easily save you some time on some jobs but not cost you a huge amount extra. It just comes back to being smart about when you really need it, and keeping the relationship business, where you are not likely to feel sorry for them and give them work you cannot afford to give.