Oh yes it is that time again. Time for all of us to let the mothballs out of the Excel program and share how the month has been. Want me to start?
Where to start? How about at the beginning?
Queries –
I burned up the bandwidth this month. I put out at least 5 new queries a week, mostly to magazines. To date, I have one inquiry and it’s a shaky one – I have no idea what they’re paying. Sure, I hate those types of blind ads, but the subject matter interested me and the poster indicated competitive wages. We shall see. I’m tempted to avoid magazines, but honestly, someone is writing for them or they’d be empty or defunct, right?
Job postings –
I picked up the pace on these. Despite my ultra-picky ways (I examine those ads for any hint of nonpayment), I managed to find a number of acceptable possibilities. I’ve completely foregone Craig’s List. I opt for Anne Wayman’s hand-selected list instead, and that of Angie Hoy at Writer’s Weekly. A few finds from my regular “rounds”, but no work came of any of it. Time wasted.
Existing clients –
Two current clients handed me small projects. The good part is one of those is ongoing, so I’ve upped my income a smidgen for the remainder of this year. My regular gig is still going, though we’re about to see the usual drop in business for the next two months. It rarely dries up completely, but it makes a huge dent in the income until September. I did get one referral that went belly up and I had a few potential collaborations that are still on hold waiting for buyers. I have one project that as of Friday is awaiting the completion of the contract. I’m eager to get going on that one.
Earnings –
Seriously? Aren’t we supposed to earn something? I did, though only slightly over what I made last month. I’m nowhere near my monthly goal – sitting at about half of it – and naturally, the gigs I had that would cushion that blow disappeared early this month. It’s been a month of catch-up trying to find more ongoing work.
Bottom line –
I’ll be marketing in different areas. I won’t abandon publications yet, but I’ll be moving into networking face-to-face where I can. I made the brochures, but here they sit. I can’t seem to get moving on that, mostly because of the time it consumes to make them, compile a mailing list, mail them, and follow up. I have to break this up into smaller tasks if I ever expect to get them out the door.
Time to locate new clients, and that means Lori has to go to marketing events and conferences. People relate to faces rather than emails. Time to give them a face to go with the name.
Please tell me your June was better than this. How’d it go? What’s your July looking like?
June was great in many ways, although with the problems with UHaul this latter part of the month, it's taken time away from the fiction.
It looks like I've landed a regular gig for something I really want to do. Money is okay — not brilliant, but enough to make it worth it for me — and the area is something about which I'm very excited.
The Macbook has made a huge difference in productivity and upped the income. Because I can design REALLY well on it, my marketing materials have made a leap, and that's going to be a focus in July — getting materials out there.
Hearing that you and others are having good months makes me believe this is a temporary slump, Devon. I'm working on other things – my fiction side – and maybe I'll dust off the children's books and get them circulating again.
Hi Lori.
As always, I appreciate your candor in your monthly assessments.
After a horrid May (remember how I chastised myself for my lack of motivation?), my June was great, but not as great as I'd expected.
I was supposed to turn the last of eight assignments for the month in on June 29, but the ed called and said, "Hey, we're thinking of retooling this article a bit, and of course we'd extend the deadline to get it done."
That was fantastic for me because it eased a deadline crunch, but it also meant some income will be deferred to July. That's okay. Still a good month.
July's looking good, too.
On the new business front, it's dismal. I did respond to one Craigslist post but got no response.
However, an editor I've been keeping in touch with for literally 1.5 years is finally giving me an assignment in July. Go figure.
The lesson? Though it sometimes seems fruitless to stay in touch with people who ask you to do just that–especially when it drags on for ages–marketing is partly keeping your face before the people who may need your services.
Bottom line: I know I need to follow your lead and do much better at marketing, but so far, I'm hanging in there without it.
As you said to Devon, it sounds like you're just going through a rough patch. I'm confident a pro like you will suddenly see business flow in!
I'll be doing June invoicing this afternoon so I don't have concrete numbers just yet. It's looking to be a fairly good month for me, though–near my monthly aim but probably on the lower end of my goal. However, here's a different trend I'm concerned about. HALF of my May invoices are still outstanding. I usually have a few ongoing clients who are stragglers and come in around the 45-day mark. And my magazine client is notoriously late. Even letting those clients slide, I'm still having to send out a lot of late reminders. I'm not particularly happy that I have to expend additional time on that dreadful task.
June turned out to be a good month for me after all. That's two months in a row that were above the mark (assuming I can get all my clients to pay). But keep in mind that I had a dismal first quarter.
Once I sit down long enough to breathe from running my kids all over town as I frantically work in remote locations, I will have to look over my own numbers for June. Everything seems to be okay – not spectacular mind you, but okay.
I am a little nervous about the lack of new business I'm bringing in (same experience as you with job postings), so I'll be firing up my marketing efforts within the next couple of weeks. BTW, did I ever tell you how much I LOVE that you do this each month?:)
Thank you, Kimberly. I'm glad it helps you. I bare my soul because hey, that's who I am. If I'm going to share the good times, I'm going to share the cruddy ones, too. 🙂
Kathy, your first quarter results are understandable. It does beg the question – do we have enough stored away for these times? How much is enough?
Gabriella, I'm dying to know where you're finding magazine work. I've hit a brick wall. No one's responding. It's wild.
Another post. 🙂
Hi Lori.
I focus on online and print legal, real estate, and personal finance publications. A handful have cut back, but few have eliminated budgets altogether. I guess I'm extremely lucky?!
June was my best month this year, but I'm way down from last year on average. And July . . . well, it's probably a good thing I was planning to take time off in July. I won't be juggling vacation/surgery recovery with too much work, at least not at this moment.
I've been pitching, but the responses aren't positive. "No freelance budget" and "I barely have enough work for my regulars" are common themes.