I'm experiencing momentary euphoria due to the fact that the project I mentioned in my last post is finally 'in the post' to the designer. The client and the project manager stopped answering my emails last week so I'm now starting with the nagging doubt of whether I'll ever get paid by them and, if I do get paid, if they will give me any more work - and if so if I would accept it?
You see I've been in the position for the first few years of my freelance career of only having a couple of clients - one of which I worked for in a previous life as an in-house editor - and chugging along quite happily until 1) the work dried up and I realised it was true you can't put all your eggs in one basket and 2) little one went to nursery and I suddenly had more time on my hands - and I'd rather work than do the housework!
My first action when the work started to dry up was to advertise in a few places locally (so far to this date I've had no clients from this :-]), get on as many web forums for freelancers as I could and, of course Facebook.
The second was to chase up my advanced membership of the SfEP which had been sitting in the office for a year waiting for my previous employer to write a reference about my freelance work - which she simply 'didn't have time' to do. Thankfully as I could prove that in the year since I had made the application I had worked 100s and 100s of hours and had undertaken CPD (continuous professional development) the council granted me the status and I was able to add myself to the directory. The result has been several new clients and a very hectic workload but also some bad experiences - unintelligible briefs, contrary clients and late payment. There have been good points too - expanding my repertoire, building up a good client base and in some cases a bit better pay!
So I'm not in a position to pick and choose just yet - but it would be nice! Perhaps when he's at university :-)
Coronation Street Parties Senyru
1 year ago
1 comment:
Well, unless he's a prodigy and heads off to Oxford when he's 9, I suspect you might be picking and choosing before then.
My field is a little different to yours but I went through exactly the same thing for a couple of years. Some weeks I had no work at all, or work that wasn't really within my area. But once I had built up a solid base of clients, I found that I got more and more through recommendation. The key is only to do jobs that are def within your field, and that you know you can do well and then you will probably find the same happens.
But enjoy having some space and time. When you get lots of people clamouring for you to do work, it is not always possible to pick and choose and I sometimes feel "obliged" to do more than I would like.
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