There are a lot of words that describe freelancing: satisfying, terrifying, liberating, and lonely, but steady is not one of them. January (and February for that matter) are slow months for me. This is my fourth year as a freelance communications consultant in Korea and January 2019 was easily the worst month ever.
There were no late payments coming in for work in December (but thanks for paying on time), there were only a few editing jobs (better than none), none of my clients wanted training in January (but I'm lining up some training in March), and there are very few big projects on the horizon. Sure, this has happened before and then I get three calls and four emails in a day and I'm running around like crazy but during the dry periods doubt starts to creep in. What if nobody calls? What if they found someone else to work with? Do I need to start looking for a full-time job?
Samira Shackle put out a great thread on Twitter about freelancing that really struck me. She talked about the need for a financial cushion (YES!) and some great ideas for how and where to look for more work. I've said it before and I'll say it again here, I don't like to commit to long gigs. As soon as I do that, I miss out on something more lucrative or more interesting. So I turn down opportunities that would help pay the bills but would also tie me down.
Type "betting on yourself" into Google and you will see that it is a popular idea that many people espouse. It turns into a mantra for me during the slow winter months as I remind myself how busy some of the other months have been and hopefully will be. Freelancing for the last three years has been amazing and has the potential to be rewarding both professionally and financially but I still send out my CV when a full-time position looks like an opportunity to learn, grow, and help while reducing some of the financial uncertainty that comes with freelancing. Stay tuned to see what happens in 2019. I'm curious too.
There were no late payments coming in for work in December (but thanks for paying on time), there were only a few editing jobs (better than none), none of my clients wanted training in January (but I'm lining up some training in March), and there are very few big projects on the horizon. Sure, this has happened before and then I get three calls and four emails in a day and I'm running around like crazy but during the dry periods doubt starts to creep in. What if nobody calls? What if they found someone else to work with? Do I need to start looking for a full-time job?
Samira Shackle put out a great thread on Twitter about freelancing that really struck me. She talked about the need for a financial cushion (YES!) and some great ideas for how and where to look for more work. I've said it before and I'll say it again here, I don't like to commit to long gigs. As soon as I do that, I miss out on something more lucrative or more interesting. So I turn down opportunities that would help pay the bills but would also tie me down.
Type "betting on yourself" into Google and you will see that it is a popular idea that many people espouse. It turns into a mantra for me during the slow winter months as I remind myself how busy some of the other months have been and hopefully will be. Freelancing for the last three years has been amazing and has the potential to be rewarding both professionally and financially but I still send out my CV when a full-time position looks like an opportunity to learn, grow, and help while reducing some of the financial uncertainty that comes with freelancing. Stay tuned to see what happens in 2019. I'm curious too.
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