What I’m reading: Night Crawler by Diane Parkin
What’s on the iPod: The Electric Boogie by Marcia Griffiths (Oh, yes I did!)
Nice day yesterday. I managed one small project, then had the rest of the day to plan out an article, including lining up interviews and scaring up some experts. The experts part was easy – I’d read a study that I used to formulate the query (one expert!). I did a quick search for the same topic – another expert! And I used the study facts to start my query. It’s why I say a query letter can take ten minutes to write.
A few posts ago I mentioned that giving the bulk of your work to one client and having too many one-and-done clients isn’t the smartest way to work. It shouldn’t seem shocking because if you think about it, it’s true. But when do we stop to think about the obvious?
I remember a company I’d interviewed years ago for an article. The company was on the rise and was fast becoming a force in the workers compensation industry. They were all through the news – announcements, penning articles, being quoted, etc. Then one day out of nowhere, the announcement they never thought they’d make – they were closing their doors immediately. What? How could this successful company be failing?
Simple – they put nearly half their business with one customer. In a cost-cutting move, that one customer decided to move that part of their business in-house. The up-and-coming company with so much promise could no longer afford to operate. At all.
Are you doing that? Are you working with one or two clients and thinking you’ve got it made? From personal experience, I can tell you you’re in for a large, unwelcome surprise. That sure thing? It doesn’t exist in the freelance world.
A few years ago I was working steadily for two terrific publications, and was being paid great fees by both. Within two weeks of each other, they suddenly ran out of funds for the year. What once gave me 1/3 my monthly income was gone. Gulp.
I’d have been in big trouble if I hadn’t been marketing. I quickly filled that space with a few other clients. Also, I had five regular clients at that time. Losing two regular clients hurt, but it didn’t sink me. It just made me work harder to find other work.
What won’t work in this situation is to replace ongoing work with a one-time project. While it’s great to get projects in, you’re now going to work harder because when that project ends, you have to search yet again. The idea is to find clients who need ongoing help. Then supplement with the one-time or irregular projects.
It’s foolish to think you don’t need to keep building your career once you’ve found steady gigs. I equate steady gigs with building a multimillion dollar home on a fault line – you’re great as long as nothing moves. But eventually, something is going to shift.
Look at your current projects. Do you have enough ongoing work? How many clients do you work with regularly? How many do you work with occasionally or one time? How can you improve that?
8 responses to “What’s in Your Freelance Basket?”
I have quite a bit of work coming from one particular client right now, which makes me nervous. I also have some semi-regular work coming from another client,which I enjoy, and I can work it around even the busy times.
However, i LIKE one-and-done. Unless it's a company about which I'm passionate, part of the reason I freelance is to do different things. I don't mind having a regular roster of clients for assignments coming in every few months, but I don't want to be tied to doing X amount of work for Client A, Y amount of work for Client B, etc., every month. I want more variety than that.
if I'm going to be working regularly for someone, I better be getting benefits! 😉
Totally agree, Lori. That's a huge concern of mine.
In the past two years, I've lost probably five clients because of the economy. They just cut budgets, and poof, work was gone.
I have a good group of regular, ongoing, steady clients. About three of them are big ones that–if they went away–I'd d be very sad. I've been trying to really build stronger personal relationships with all my regular clients so that I don't lose them through my fault–not the fault of the economy. I think that's very important.
I also consider it important to always add new clients, as you said. Each time I've lost a steady client because of budgets, it's been my mission to boost my activities so I added a well-paying new one. Luckily, that's happened.
So while I'd like to be growing my business more, I consider it a pretty big accomplishment to be growing modestly in this economy given the losses I've sustained.
I've never been one for keeping my eggs in one basket until the current day job, which also happened during a particularly bad period of my life and I couldn't concentrate on getting the extra work. It was too hard.
A year ago we found out there were going to be mass redundancies at work and I panicked. But I was ok as it happened. However, for the past year I've been bulding up this additional job and this morning, when the day job broke some news to me, I didn't panic because I have this freelance cushion now. And a very well paid one too.
However, if this freelance company pulls the plug I'm in trouble.
If the day job does go to the wall (it's only 3.5 days per week, but they will probably offer me redeployment first), they have to give me 3 months notice + 10.5 weeks redundancy compensation and that = 6 months take home pay. Technically that gives me 6 months to replace the work, but with the freelance contracts already in, I have up to 12 – 15 months. A great buffer.
I'm starting NOW to start finding more freelance work with different companies. Because even if the day job does hold out, I want to go down to 3 days in April.
Count me with Devon in preferring a mix of steady-Eddies and one-and-dones. It's good for my self-diagnosed, unmedicated ADHD. (Look, a squirrel!!!)
And count me with Gabriella that this has been a nasty two years for losing four- and five-figure accounts, none of which were circumstances under my control. Some were budget cuts, some hired fulltimers, some were primary contacts losing their jobs or taking other jobs, some went Chapter 11 like you talked about the other day.
In my early years on my own, it might have been psychologically devastating; now I just look at it as part of the biz, and draw strength and wisdom from the lean times my dad persevered through with his business in the late '70s.
Mercifully and/or luckily, I'm diversified enough and getting enough new referrals that business is still better than it was in 2009. More important than ever to sock away as much as you can and live WAY below your means…
I also mix steady gigs with one-offs, but also have several publications I work for occasionally. I might only do one article every year or so for some places, but still try to maintain on-going relationships with those editors.
Over the years I've experienced losing three regular clients and having another drastically scale back their assignments, so I know better than to expect the work to keep flowing.
Right now a place I thought would be a one-off keeps trying to load on assignments but their pay rates aren't good enough for me to make them a steady client. I'll be open to occasional assignments, but I'm not letting them take over the bulk of my work time.
One other upside to including one-offs: they can break up your routine. It's fun to work on something different now and then.
I'm so glad you focused on this today. My last corporate job lasted 7 years and was an absolute CIRCUS (financial services, derivatives/collateral mortgage options, the recession, and little ole me in IT saying um, hey people, maybe you shouldn't buy these things since we have no way to track them).
I think that is why I'm more interested in the smaller jobs – the longer I work with someone, the more likely it is that I'm going to see their warts. I need some "pretty" after going through that.
And again, I love that all the comments give such a balanced view of both sides of the coin!
Great suggestions to spread your clients/projects out-don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Thanks for the tips.
Devon, I agree on the notion of variety and not being tied down. However, I think we all need some steady stuff. Yours is teaching (and mine will be too, very soon).
Gabriella, I agree. Building the relationship can often mean you're keeping the work because they like you and like what you do. I had an insurance agent who was great (he was also a super landlord), but he didn't invest in the relationship beyond an annual calendar. I'm with someone else now, who's doing an even worse job of staying in front of me. I may go back to #1 because he at least knows me.
Great example, Diane. I hope you're not going to need that cushion – that all goes well – but you're so smart to think ahead.
Jake, I like the one-and-dones too, don't get me wrong. I just make sure there are enough Eddies in the mix. 🙂
Same here, Paula. In fact, one of those rare publications is the one going belly up. And you're so right about breaking up the monotony! Isn't it great to focus on something new once in a while?
Michelle, you do have a point. I've seen the same things!
You're welcome, Wendy. 🙂