Four Tips for Freelancing through Adversity
Posted October 18, 2010 in How-To, Lifestyle
Your freelancing business and most things in your life may be going well now. You may even think this post isn’t for you since you aren’t going through hard times right now.
You would be wrong!
Everyone hits hard time now and then, including freelancers. When comes to adversity, it’s not a question of “if,” but a question of “when.” That’s just life.
In this post, I’ll explain how you can minimize the impact that difficult times have on your freelancing business. This is the topic that nobody wants to talk about, but every freelancer should consider.
Why You Need to Think about Hard Times
Adversity is a part of life. Eventually, most freelancers will go through a rough patch. Whether it’s your own illness or a loved one’s sickness, the results of a natural disaster, a personal or family problem, or something else…chances are that something will happen to derail your plans.
When something goes wrong, the last thing you want to be worrying about is your freelancing business. Let’s face it, when someone you love gets sick or when a natural disaster strikes you may not be able to spend much time working on your freelancing business. You need to focus on the immediate problem and, as much as possible, not be distracted by freelance business worries.
Fortunately, it is possible to take some precautions so you can manage when a temporary bout of hard times hits.
Be Ready
The time to prepare for adversity is when things are going well. Here are some steps you can take to minimize the impact on your freelancing business and on you personally:
- Have an emergency fund. While some freelancers don’t have savings, I always recommend putting between three and six months of expenses aside. The last thing you want to worry about during a crisis is running out of money.
- Work ahead. If possible, try to stay ahead on your projects. If you have a blog, write a few extra blog posts and keep them on hand for emergencies. Working ahead and having extra blog posts and hand can help when things get really tough.
- Establish residual income. If you haven’t already, you should be working on some projects that will bring in income that is not directly related to your efforts. Selling a product (such as an e-book) or being an affiliate for a product is a good way to keep some money coming in even if you can’t work.
- Find health insurance. Don’t wait until you’re sick to look for health insurance for yourself and your family. Buy insurance while you’re healthy. Even though you might not get sick often, even a day or two in the hospital can be a real financial setback without health coverage.
When Hard Times Hit
When the hard times do come, what will you do? Hopefully, you’ve taken the steps above and you have the option to not worry about your freelancing business for a while.
There are some other considerations as well:
- To share or not to share. This is a dilemma that most freelancers face when they are going through a difficult. Should they tell others, or should they keep their problems to themselves? While I’ve seen freelancers handle this both ways, my personal approach is to keep things on a need to know basis. If a temporary problem is going affect a deadline, I definitely inform the client. However, too much sharing of problems can look like whining, so I try not to be too negative in social media. You may take a different approach.
- Delegate as much as possible. It’s a good idea to find one or two trusted freelancers in your field who are willing to back you up in a pinch (and who can be trusted not to take your clients). Naturally, you would agree to be a back up for these same freelancers should they ever face a situation during which they are unable to work.
- Cut back on your workload. If you’ve taken some of the steps I listed earlier, then you should be able to temporarily cut back on your workload without causing yourself too much financial stress. Truthfully, you probably won’t produce your best work during a time of crisis anyway. In the end, you’ll be glad that you were able to focus on the situation and not worry too much about work.
- Avoid comparisons. If you’re going through tough times, then this is not the time to be comparing yourself to the freelancer “down the street.” Don’t feel bad if you don’t accomplish what the “gurus” and “experts” say that you should. Advice rarely takes into account the problems that people face. Just accomplish what you can and feel good about what you do manage to get done.
Fortunately, for most of us, adverse times represent a temporary setback. However, if your situation continues for a longer period of time or you don’t know what to do, don’t be embarrassed to get professional help for your problems. Just remember, everyone faces problems sooner or later.
My Story
I decided to write about this topic because I’ve been through it. Although several years have gone by, I still remember it well. Both of my parents passed away during my freelancing career. While my mother’s death was sudden, my father lingered. He spent nearly a month in hospice─during which time I did no freelancing work at all. Instead, I chose to spend every day, my dad’s last days, at the hospice.
Fortunately, my long─term clients understood the situation and were very supportive. They adjusted deadlines for me and rescheduled projects. One prospective client even delayed the start of a project for me (and yes, I was still chosen for the gig).
Did my freelancing business suffer some short-term setbacks as a result of the rough patch I went through? You bet! But, I’ve never regretting choosing to take that time off and, in the same situation, I’m sure that many of you would do the same thing.
Your Turn
Have you faced adversity while freelancing? If it’s not too painful, share how you got through your difficult times in the comments.
Image by El Garza
Related posts:
- 3 Tips to Help Your Family Benefit from Your Freelancing at Home
- 8 Tips for Success When Freelancing On the Road
- 10 Tips for Becoming a Freelancing PowerHouse
- Student Freelancing: Tips to Budget Your Freelance Earnings
- Seven Days of Freelancing Tips
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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34 Comments
Jen @ Adrinah Design
October 18th, 2010 at 9:55 amLaura, this is some very sound advice. I think rough patches for anyone in any career path are inevitable. Life happens…being prepared will make the rough times less rough.
You posed a question: weather or not to tell your clients. I am with you on this. Try to keep the personal information on a need-to-know basis. This doesn’t just include adversity but good things too (ex: wedding, vacation, birth of a child, etc). If I knew that I would be “out” for a long period of time, I would let my clients know. I think providing them with the information upfront will make them respect you even more.
Great tips…thanks for sharing!
Ryan Rosado
October 18th, 2010 at 10:18 amIt’s always good to address topics which so few people talk about. I myself just started my own freelance business so this posting is a good precautionary note to myself. Its great to see you overcame adversity and are still going strong :D
Chris @ SyracuseCS
October 18th, 2010 at 10:37 amLaura, great post! The 4 items in your “Be Ready” section are very important. I always try to stay ahead as much as possible. You never know what tomorrow is going to bring. I have my regular HSA health insurance plan, but it doesn’t cover everything and if something happens it can be pretty costly. I’ve recently picked up Aflac too, which is very inexpensive and has a lot of great benefits. I hope never to use it, but if I need to I know it’s there.
I agree with you about telling clients on a need-to-know basis. Maybe you can share more with closer clients, but for the general ones, usually just saying something like “I just need to take care of some family things for X days, but then we’ll be back on track”.
Edison A. Leon
October 18th, 2010 at 11:51 amThank you, and you are right I should start thinking about the future even if there’s one would keep out of my obligations for some time. The world is full of beautiful things that we hardly see but also of very few bad things that unfortunately we encounter once in awhile like it or not.
Emily Suess
October 18th, 2010 at 12:52 pmSo far, I haven’t suffered any setbacks. But–and a huge but at that–I’m only about 6 months into my part-time freelancing life.
Thanks for sharing your story and your advice, Laura. It gives me a little push to start thinking about how I will handle both the little emergencies and the big ones when they come up.
Laura Spencer
October 18th, 2010 at 1:05 pmThanks everyone!
I sincerely hope this helps freelancers avoid unexpected situations. As I said in the post (and firmly believe) eventually everyone will face some sort of hardship.
Most freelance advice that I read fails to take emergencies into account, and I think a lot of freelancers beat themselves up (figuratively) for not being able to follow advice that doesn’t really apply to their situation. (The last point under “When Hard Times Hit”)
Kayla
October 18th, 2010 at 2:43 pmThis could have not come at a better time. I myself just went through a death in the family and the first major down point while freelancing. I had a bigger project with a deadline coming up that I could not ignore, so it was stressful having to deal with that. I did however take at least a week-long break from my other freelancing responsibilities that could wait — blogging, working on my portfolio, etc…things without deadlines. Fortunately, I always give myself some lenience when it comes to deadlines (at least a 2-day buffer). In this case, I worked right up to the final deadline, which is something I rarely do, but at least it wasn’t late.
It’s important to give yourself time to heal and reflect on what may have happened. After this event I don’t feel as though I’m going to let myself get behind as often, for the sake of stress and in the case of something like this happens again. Planning for a bit more flexibility in one’s schedule can also help out with less serious situations too…perhaps just a break-up, or on a lighter note, an unexpected vacation.
nikos lianeris
October 18th, 2010 at 3:37 pmAlthough I’m in the very begging of my freelancing career I found this article very helpful.I had a really difficult time while I had a regural job and God knows how much in need of the things you mention in your article!Thank you for sharing! :)
Travis Robertson
October 18th, 2010 at 5:28 pmGreat advice, Laura! I’m such a huge fan of emergency funds of 3-6 months. The psychological and emotional benefit that provides can’t be understood until you experience something like you did with your dad.
Had you not been prepared, you might not have been able to take such valuable time with your father.
Nobody likes to think of preparing for these things but, like you said, it’s not if it happens – it’s WHEN it happens.
Travis
Laura Spencer
October 18th, 2010 at 6:02 pmKayla,
I’m really glad that you have found this helpful. I’m sorry to hear about the death in your family. I wish you all the best in your freelancing business.
Travis,
Thanks. You may think that you’ll be able to soldier through a difficult period and continue working, but when it actually hits you may feel differently.
Donny Gamble
October 18th, 2010 at 9:43 pmI think that preparation is definitely the key here, so you will be able to have a short term and long term plan.
Debra Stang
October 18th, 2010 at 10:27 pmDear Laura,
Aside from life’s ordinary ups and downs, I have bipolar disorder. It’s usually pretty well controlled by meds, but sometimes I’ll find myself in a downward spiral with no good reason why. I’ve learned to do pretty much exactly what you suggested–work ahead, keep enough in my savings account to see me through for a few months, beg, borrow, and hire my other freelancing friends to help out, and avoid sharing my life story with clients. I’ve lost a few gigs due to my illness, but for the most part I’m able to keep myself on track and get the important assignments done…and I always know it’s only a matter of time until my doctor and I find the right medication combination, and my mood is stable again.
By the way, I think you made absolutely the right decision about spending time with your father. I’m a hospice social worker in my day job, and I know just how valuable those final moments and days can be.
Debra
Solomon
October 19th, 2010 at 12:28 amVery useful information. If we do give our best to our clients (little more value) I believe they would stay with us in thick and thin.
Thanks for sharing !
Solomon
October 19th, 2010 at 12:32 amLaura, You did a great thing that you were with your father during his sickness. That’s a great lesson for all of us.
Ameet
October 19th, 2010 at 1:29 amGreat Post Laura very motivating and very helpful…i like the point “Avoid Comparison”
keep posting such good articles
niubi
October 19th, 2010 at 8:47 amExcellent post! I’ve actually followed most of this advice myself, aware that while now my bread might be buttered, anything could happen tomorrow. Thankfully I’m prepared for at least a year should anything catastrophic take place. By the way, anyone who’s looking into making some residual income could do worse than check out DubLi Network – it’s working a treat for me :)
Issa
October 19th, 2010 at 10:08 amLaura, I’m glad to read this post as many freelancers these days ( including myself ) forget that we are not invincible from the forces of adversity. I think it’s not being paranoid or what, but it’s only practical to have a plan B when plan A fails. I’m blessed to have a freelance career that flows seamlessly and yet, I’m missing having a nice time off with my family so I might as well take some of your tips here and do projects in advance – and have that good ol’ vacation for good, which I haven’t had in two years running. Thanks!
Freelance FactFile
October 19th, 2010 at 11:43 amI’m having problems publishing my comments. Third time lucky?
I had to call on my ‘buffer fund’ last year because my husband was out of work and a number of my freelance projects got cancelled due to lack of client budget. Ten years ago we both opened a savings account where we put in £50 each a month. We couldn’t access it until the ten years were up (which was September 2010) so we both received payment of £6,000 each last month. So that’s helped build the buffer fund up again.
It’s also good to have one or two friendly freelancers whose work you rate who can step in and help you out if you’re mid project. That way, the work gets completed and you don’t leave your client in the lurch.
Your point about health insurance doesn’t apply in the UK, as we get free hospital treatment. (Unless you opt to have private treatment – which you have to pay for.)
Ann Olson
October 19th, 2010 at 8:09 pmI’m sorry about the loss of your parents. My parents are still living, but I don’t how I would handle my client work if anything were to happen to them. Thank you for your tips — they are extremely useful.
Tom @ Premium Online Writing
October 21st, 2010 at 3:18 amI had one of these hard times myself not that long ago actually. Luckily I’d already done the things you suggest – I keep cash reserves to last a little while, and I have a passive income from another website I own. Then I just went crazy on marketing. It’s pretty easy to turn things around as long as you’re prepared enough that a down period won’t sink you.
grand group
October 22nd, 2010 at 11:17 pmit is really not easy to be a freelancer. but if you like the life style, then it is worthy to do it.
Ruth E. Thaler-Carter
October 27th, 2010 at 12:28 pmSome of these tips are almost word-for-word what I suggest in my booklet (“Get Paid to Write! Getting Started as a Freelance Writer”) and my freelancing presentations. I would add one other suggestion: Think about expanding into other services or products. This is similar to the tip about residual projects, but a little different.
If your current markets have dried up, look for new topics to write about. Not everyone can do things other than writing, but even a hobby could generate much-needed income in a crisis. If you don’t have the skills to offer, say, editing, proofreading, website content, layout, photography, etc., maybe you can make and sell jewelry, needlework or other craft items. Look through your closets and shelves for stuff you rarely use to see if there’s anything you can sell on Craigslist or maybe through a neighborhood garage sale.
Best wishes to all as we cope with these difficult times.
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