- Freelancers undergo periods of high pay and low pay, often referenced as the "feast or famine" cycle.
- Surviving the lean periods can be tough, especially when work is slow right as you're getting started as a freelancer.
- These successful freelancers said save up, think of alternative revenue streams, ask for referrals from reliable clients, and cut back on luxury expenses to stay afloat.
- Another key takeaway is to continue looking for work, even if you think you'll come up short.
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One of the many challenges of being a freelancer is simply getting paid.
Whether the issue is the dreaded "feast or famine" syndrome of having an irregular and unpredictable workload, inconsistent (or complete lack of) payment from a difficult client, or always having fewer projects during certain months or seasons, it can be hard to keep the doors open as a freelancer during a lean period.
To help freelancers get through the "famine" part of the cycle, Business Insider picked the brains of five freelancers who faced tough lean periods but came out the other side to find out their best strategies.
Save as much as you can if you're just starting out
"I have experienced that the first year of being a freelancer is the toughest period, as there is no guarantee of income or stability," said Helen Chen-Tournay, a financial manager turned freelance content creator for her blog Mama Bear Finance, which helps moms navigate their personal finances. "But it doesn't mean this will last forever."
Chen-Tournay emphasized that it generally takes at least a few years of consistent work for a business to take off. In fact, she admitted that she is still in her lean years now — with her pay hovering around $1,000 per month — though her earnings have been steadily increasing month after month.
"While my success cannot be measured by income alone, the interest generated via my business has been steadily growing — for example, over 790 Facebook followers, 200 private subscriptions, and thousands of total share counts on my blog," she said.
Based on her own experience, she said it's important to set reasonable expectations for the first year as an independent worker. For her, this meant padding her savings from her career in corporate finance over the last 10 years by leaning on other forms of income such as investing and reselling things online.
"This ensures that some of my bills are covered while I build up my freelancing business without the pressure of financial constraint," Chen-Tournay said. "I'm well equipped financially to embark on the path of a freelancer."
Pratibha Vuppuluri, who's a freelance consultant and the chief blogger of She Started It!, an online resource guide for working moms, stressed the importance of figuring out and sticking with a cash management plan, so that you have something to pull you through during lean seasons.
"I was an independent consultant in 2012 when I had freshly quit my investment banking job, with the intention of building out a research and analytics practice," she explained. "During that time, given how vulnerable one can feel leaving a steady job, my top focus was building a savings nest through my initial consulting earnings." Vuppuluri lived very frugally for the first year to ensure that she was able to save enough to manage as an entrepreneur.
Cut down your business and personal expenses
London-based digital marketing freelancer Ryan Scollon has worked in his industry for seven years. But as this is his first year of freelancing, he said that he "fully appreciate[s] the stress of not having much work and consequently, struggling to pay the bills."
When Scollon first started, he had only three clients, the total income from which was not enough to cover his mortgage. He now reports having around 18 clients and earning 66% more than what he did when he was a full-time employee, while working 10 fewer hours a week.
Scollon's advice for getting through the first year of freelancing is to do what he did: analyze your monthly expenses and cut away any luxuries that you don't need or use.
"Let's say it was $2,000," he shared as an example. "Instead of trying to earn $2,000 every month, why not look at bills you can cut away to reduce that to $1,500? Finding new work is one of the most common things that freelancers struggle with, so this method should allow you to get through that tough time, no matter how hard it is for you to find new work."
Once you've identified your monthly goal, determine how much you can cut that down by if you shave off some unnecessary expenses. "From gym memberships that we don't use to premium TV and mobile phone contracts, there are plenty of ways that we can look at cutting costs," he shared.
By looking for ways to spend less, Scollon was able to whittle 23% off of his previous expenses — which meant that he didn't need to bill as much client work.
To identify these cost savings, Scollon started off by looking at the tools that he used for his business to see if he really needed all of them.
"Any tools that I did not use were canceled," he explained. "I then audited the rest of the tools to see if I could reduce the monthly package or get some sort of discount. I also switched to a cheaper hosting provider for my website, which saved me £200 over the year."
Next, Scollon looked at his personal expenses and reduced his phone contract, switched to a cheaper gym, and canceled his Amazon subscription.
Prioritize recurring revenue over project-based work
Alex Panagis worked as a freelancer for two years before starting his own content marketing agency, ScaleMath. Panagis said that he learned that the best way to stay afloat during tough times as a freelancer was to build recurring revenue, rather than being fully dependent on project-based work.
The founder explained that if you're, say, a WordPress designer or developer, bringing in clients who loved working with you on their site redesign into some sort of support or care plan is an excellent way to build up recurring revenue. That way, during times when the number of projects coming through is significantly lower, the temporary shortfall won't affect your bottom line as much as it would if you were solely doing project work.
While Panagis started out by only taking clients on retainers, now that he has financial security by having a substantial number of clients with these agreements, he has started freeing up internal resources to allow for additional work outside of retainers.
Get creative in finding new sources of income
"The online world has so much to offer, you just have to be open," said Vuppuluri. "When freelance jobs are not that available, you can resort to other means of earning, like small side hustles."
One route she turned to when times were lean was selling items online through various platforms like eBay and Etsy, which surprisingly taught her a lot about copywriting and marketing — skills that became valuable in her standard freelance work.
Another strategy she had was to create a "productized service," such as SEO audits or Instagram post packages, that customers could book ahead for.
"Typically freelancers tend to take on projects for the present," she said. "I often advocate to create service packages that are evergreen and that customers can book 30 days or few months in advance — thus creating a pipeline of 'confirmed' projects — which allows for income visibility and provides a hedge for lean months."
It bears repeating that another part of prepping for a lean period should include consistently scouting for new clients, projects, and contracts. You can pursue this goal through a variety of avenues, from continuously tapping your professional network at conferences and online to searching job sites specific to your field to following up with current and former clients to ask about new projects that may be on the horizon.
Reinvest in your online presence
Chhavi Agarwal was a full-time freelance writer for two years before shifting gears over the last year to focus on career coaching through her blog, Mrs Daaku Studio. She shared that the toughest period that she dealt with in her freelance career came three to six months into it, when she faced a serious project draught that came on suddenly.
"I was unable to get any new clients, and two of my existing clients were on hold," she recalled. So she took a day to devise a workaround plan, which began by optimizing her participation and presence on LinkedIn.
"I searched for words that employers use and made a note of profiles that came up," Agarwal said. "I studied them closely and began working on my profile. I used keywords in the title, description, and experience and ensured I attract the right clientele through search."
She shared that her efforts resulted in three to four new leads a month. To date, she still receives leads from LinkedIn even without updating her profile or checking the platform.
Tack on new offerings to your portfolio
Agarwal said that adding more services to her list of offerings to clients helped her sustain her business during difficult months.
She started offering whitepapers, presentations, email copy, newsletters, and editing in addition to her regular blog posts for current clients. That, coupled with asking for more work, sustained Agarwal during her lean periods.
For example, with one client, she proposed offering a basic monthly newsletter.
"I already knew they were finding ways to build an engaged audience, so I suggested a few lead magnet ideas and a newsletter," she said. As a result, Agarwal reeled in an extra couple hundred extra bucks each month.
"If I did not do this, I probably would have halved (or more) my profits that month," she explained. "This allowed me some more time to find new clients and add them to my roster."
Ask for referrals
"It is such a simple thing, but we often forget to ask," Agarwal said. "If your client is ending a contract with you, ask them for referrals, and they will be happy to do so."
In Agarwal's case, when her first client contract ended, this strategy resulted in the client referring her to two other companies — one of which ended up becoming a long-term client.
"When the client and I were wrapping up, he asked me if I needed anything from him. Besides asking for a glowing recommendation, I asked him if he could refer me to his clients (or other people in the business he deals with)," she explained.
Agarwal also followed up her verbal request with a simple email that essentially said:
Dear [client's name],
It was great working with you and I learned a lot. I am taking on new clients right now as you may have already guessed, and it would be really helpful if you could refer me to your friends or clients that may be on the lookout for a writer. They can reach out to me at [email or phone number].
Sincerely,
[Your name]
When asking for referrals, Agarwal suggested always being direct, humble, and polite — tell clients exactly what you're looking for in terms of types of clients and projects.
Send some cold emails
During her slow period, Agarwal stalked writing job boards such as Problogger, desperate for any work available.
"Every time there was a new job opening, I would send in an email right away," she said. "My aim was to [be among] the first few to apply so I sat on the top of the client's inbox." Through this method Agarwal was able to bag a few gigs immediately to help fill in the income gaps.
Agarwal described learning to pitch as a "game changer" for her freelance business's ability to withstand the inevitable ups and downs. She learned how to effectively cold email prospects — in other words, reach out to potential clients she didn't know personally directly — by taking a writing course that taught the technique.
"At first, it might be scary, but you will find it is a great way to land clients," she said.
Agarwal added that cold emailing worked best for her if the lead was already warmed up a bit — for example, after initially contacting them on LinkedIn or another social media site.
"This is also the best way to get more responses," she said. "When your contact remembers you from a platform, the chances of them responding increases by multifold."
When the freelancer sent at least five cold emails per day, she averaged one new client per month.
"It did take up time to warm up the contact first, so I always did a mix of emails — a few emails to warm up leads, plus a few to clients I have never contacted before," she said. "If you think you are going to be caught up in a situation with no clients, start cold emailing like there is no tomorrow."
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