You get up every morning and you go to work each day
Been doing the same damn job for ten long years this May
You’ve been working and saving for your Jamaican dream
Paradise is waiting across the sea
But when your plane lands Montego turns to monsoon
You’ve got the island blues
–
You’ll encounter many challenges in your business, from slow periods to problems with projects and clients. Such is the nature of freelancing. It’s either feast or famine. When times are good, they’re very good. When they’re bad, they suck.
How you deal with those challenges determines your success or failure.
Some weeks, business is booming and you have more work than you can handle. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing, and the emails never seem to end. You’re scrambling to meet deadlines and keep business on track. And then-
Silence.
The quiet feels good. You catch up on your workload, and you can breathe now. You might take your time for a few days to relax a little.
Two days of silence turns into three, then five, then seven. The flood of work reduced to a dangerously slow trickle. What happened? Where is everyone? Did the world suddenly shut down? Free time is great, but this is ridiculous!
Get Off Your Butt!
Turn your downtime into your most productive time. Don’t waste your time worrying, because that’s almost as bad as procrastinating. Don’t sit in a corner whining. Don’t allow yourself to be paralyzed with fear.
More jobs will come. They’re out there. It’s only a matter of time (and maybe some effort on your part to go get them.)
Look at your downtime as prime time to complete projects you let fall to the wayside. Take them up again and give them a second look. Most of the time, these projects are ones for passive income or for increasing your site or business appeal – but you didn’t have time to focus on them while working so hard.
Now you do. Start on that e-book, launch that new blog, work on that novel collecting dust. The possibilities are endless. Take advantage of them.
Managing Time and Money
Living in the moment is great, but you also have to keep an eye on the future. When money comes in steadily and your days are busy, it’s very easy to believe the good times will last forever.
That’s when you have to be extra careful.
Mind your schedule. Pay attention to your daily tasks, but also your weekly and monthly agenda. You might not feel like saying yes to work now because you’re too busy, but what about offering to pencil the job in two weeks down the road?
Avoid the tax yo-yo syndrome, too. If you want to get ahead, have the discipline and foresight to put money aside to cover expenses later on. If you don’t, you’ll constantly find yourself scrambling when you need cash the most.
A lull in work isn’t a reason for panic. Use those periods to improve yourself or your business in some way. Stave off the worries by staying busy and being proactive to make something happen. You may not be able to say when the work will start coming in again, but it’s just a matter of time.
