Dealing with quiet periods - planning ahead.
Getting proactive is essential - don't wait for a quiet patch to happen, before you start preparing or getting active.
In the first of a series of posts on dealing with quiet periods, we look at getting ahead of the game.
Recognising that there will be quiet periods, and being prepared for the reality that you’re unlikely to be busy all of the time, helps mitigate it when it does occur.
Ups and Downs
If there’s a well known “assumption” about self-employment which is probably fairly accurate for most freelancers, its the concept idea of feast and famine: swinging between periods of being really busy, and then times when you can’t remember the last time you spoke to a client.
This inconsistency is one of the biggest challenges which freelancers can face - and whilst there’s always more we can be doing to keep a new business pipeline filled, the reality of working for yourself is that you’re likely to experience periods of little or no work.
When these periods extend beyond a week, a month, a couple of months - it can feel really unsettling, especially if you’re having to start eating into your savings or emergency fund, and it can lead to questioning whether self-employment is a sustainable way of working for you.
But recognising that it might (or will) happen helps you prepare somewhat emotionally for a quiet patch - so at the very least, it doesn’t come as a surprise, but rather you can start planning today, for something that might happen in a few months time.
Causes of quiet periods
There are naturally any number of reasons for quiet periods, some are inside your control, others are not.
Perhaps you have finished a project, and hadn’t been actively looking for the next piece of work. Perhaps a client cancelled a project leaving a gap in your schedule.
Perhaps, as we are seeing currently, there is a general economic downturn, leading to some hesitancy investing in projects from a client perspective. Perhaps it’s the summer holidays. Perhaps it’s the end of the year. Perhaps you have been relying upon word of mouth, and not actively chasing new leads. Perhaps there’s an R in the month.
Realistically - there are just too many factors in play to be able to predict when you’ll have quiet periods.
There are definitely seasonal variations and spikes, and key moments in the year where things are more or less likely to be active from the client side - but even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll be next in line for the work.
It’s important to recognise that some things are outside of your control - and not to blame yourself for things that aren’t your fault. It’s not a failure of you or your business when times are hard.
But equally, it’s important to not just say that “everything will be fine”, and it’s on you to take action into your own hands to mitigate the situation where possible - whether this means investing more heavily into finding new work, or exploring alternative options.
Get ahead of the quiet times
It’s almost impossible to know when you might not be working, so do what you can to plan ahead wherever possible.
Start having conversations with clients now even if you’re busy, to line up work for next month or the month after that. Remember that summer and winter holidays are almost always quieter, so ramp up work during the spring and autumn, or speak to clients to see if you can help out whilst their staff are away. New business is an always-on thing, rather than when you just need it.
Start to widen your strategy for looking for work too - if you’re reliant upon word of mouth, whilst that can be very effective, it is also incredibly hard to forecast. Consider other ways of looking for work - such as speaking to recruiters, joining community platforms or jobs boards, and of course, proactively reaching out to potential clients or engaging with your existing network.
Putting aside some money each month where possible to cover costs on the quieter periods can really help. Advice from most financial organisations will suggest having 3-6 months of cash aside for emergencies. Whilst that might not be realistic for many people, even just a small percentage put aside, almost treated like tax, can help to cover essential bills when you are generating an income.
Many freelancers are also looking towards diversifying their income - so they’re not wholly reliant on a single type of revenue, i.e. perhaps in addition to working as a copywriter, you might also be generating income from writing training materials, running workshops, offering skills as an editor etc. Whilst it can add to the mental load, spreading your income over a few streams means you’re less reliant on any single source.
Playing a longer term game
Mitigating the ups and downs takes a number of different strategies - 1) building a forward pipeline of prospects and projects, so there’s always something waiting for you 2) marketing and networking to keep your name and capabilities visible and opportunities open and 3) perhaps most importantly, playing a longer game.
Rather than observing your workload week by week or even month by month - looking at the year in totality. It’s entirely possible you’re having a very slow January, but if you had a crazy busy February and March - it can even out. Try to take a 12 month view - no-one can see the future of course, but look back over the past 12 months, are you on track or below where you need to be? (And if you’re not sure what you need to be making each month or over the course of a year, get ahead of that anxiety too - do a personal budget).
A mindset shift from ‘monthly salary’ towards ‘business revenues’ can be useful to remember that you’re unlikely to have a regular income, but the income you can generate via your business will have peaks and troughs, but over the longer-term, works out similarly.
Next up, we’ll look at the emotional experiences and dealing with the feelings that arise when you’re in those quiet periods.
How are you doing?
If you haven’t yet - we’d love you to take part in our annual research project, exploring the mental health of the self-employed.
Ever year, we get positive feedback that completing the survey is incredibly helpful to identify any issues and challenges you’re facing as a freelancer - so it benefits you, as well as the wider self-employed community.