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You Can Be A Contender! Proven Moves for Fighting Your Way Through a Tough Economy

by Michelle Cammarata

When the economic news is relentlessly negative, clients are scarce and the checks just aren’t in the mail, it’s easy to grow discouraged and wonder if you’re just another promising fighter without the glove speed for a shot at the title. If you go too long between gigs, you may even find yourself pondering a return to the relative predictability of salaried employment – a technical knock out that passionate freelancers will fight to avoid at all costs.

Before you board the bus for Palookaville, try a few proven moves that will land new assignments and create the adrenaline boost you need to persevere through 12 rounds of whatever this economy can dish out. Remember, you can be a contender.

Be Aggressive

Don’t wait for past clients to realize they need your services. Tell them you're available and ask if they need any work done quickly. This is not a show of weakness; it’s an essential survival tactic of savvy freelancers fighting for business.

Recently, I faced an especially bleak week with no work and nothing promising on the horizon. I called a client for whom I had done a few proofreading projects and offered to do anything he needed at lighting speed. The next day a Fed Ex package arrived with two new proofreading assignments. Within 24 hours, I had billed enough work to cover my utilities and health care costs for the month. Not exactly a marquee event, but we’ll take a few small victories on the road to the big one.

Make Associates and Loyal Clients Your Promoters

As an independent professional, you may not have a marketing team on your payroll, but you can cultivate skilled promoters. The most qualified people to work in your corner are the associates and clients who admire your talent.

Reach out to freelancers and other vendors who have worked on your team before. For example, if you’re a writer or designer, contact the printers who produced your clients’ collateral. Let them know you’re looking for work and ask them to keep you in mind if they meet any prospects. Be specific about the kinds of opportunities you’re looking for and how you add value.

Don’t forget your loyal clients, even if it’s been a while since you last worked with them. Current and past clients are not only your best source of repeat business, they can be your marketing force as well, but they have to know what you need. Recently, a client asked how my business was going. I was honest, admitting that business was slow and that I could not seem to find a major new client. The next day he forwarded a qualified referral for a potentially lucrative contract for a client in my target industry, financial services.

Does it go without saying that you would do the same for your associates and clients? Yes, but say it anyway and follow up with a note of thanks.

Expand the Ring and Get Serious About Networking

If you have not joined a formal networking group or business association, now may be the time. At some point in your freelance career, referrals from clients and your inner circle of associates may not be enough to sustain you. If that happens, a business group with a focus on networking may offer solutions. The possibilities include Chambers of Commerce, local organizations for women, networking forums for specific ethnic groups, alumni organizations, and trade associations.

It can be daunting to find the group that’s right for you. Research organizations online and try before you buy. Most will be happy to include you as a guest at a monthly meeting. Do not miss this opportunity to try the group on for size. If their membership cannot facilitate the kind of leads you need, you have just saved a lot of time and effort. Also, dues for some groups can be expensive. Investigate whether you can pay in installments. Finally, before you join be honest about whether you can make a commitment to regular meetings and service on committees. If you can afford it, and the group’s culture is right, go for it. Your inner circle will expand in no time.

Remember Life Before You Turned Pro

When I feel down for the count and wonder if I will ever work again, one exercise energizes me like no other – imagining life before I began my freelance career. I think back to the days of attending meetings about meetings, the promises of raises that never materialized, and the worrisome feeling that some pretty clueless people were controlling my professional destiny. I remember doing damage control for the VP of Incompetence and other senior (mis)management types who never met a client they couldn’t irritate. Soon my resolve returns, and I am back in fighting form. I just want to read Dilbert cartoons – not live in them.

Some day (in the not-too-distant future, we hope) businesses will need freelancers in greater numbers again. When the cycle swings up, who do you want to be? Your own boss or someone’s employee? I thought so.

Shake off the body blows and hang in there. You can make it work and be the champ you always knew you could be.

Michelle Cammarata, a marketing consultant and copywriter, can be reached at michelle@redarrow.net. Following a layoff (which she chose to view as a liberation) from an Internet development and consulting firm, Michelle broke the cycle of silliness also known as a lifetime of working “real jobs” to follow her dream of self-employment and founded Red Arrow Communications (www.redarrow.net), a marketing communications firm that celebrates its first anniversary in May 2003.

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You Can Be A Contender! Proven Moves for Fighting Your Way Through a Tough Economy

Be Aggressive

Make Associates and Loyal Clients Your Promoters

Expand the Ring and Get Serious About Networking

Remember Life Before You Turned Pro

SPOTLIGHT CONSULTANTS FROM OUR FREELANCE COMMUNITY

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