How to Maintain a Steady Income: Addressing the Top Freelancing Concern
A recent oDesk survey showed that the top concern for 76% of freelancers is maintaining a steady income. Of the other worries considered, no other single concern netted over an 8% response. As a freelancer, I know that this is my top worry as well, especially during the holidays when my personal life begins taking a progressively larger and larger chunk of my schedule. When it comes to managing my current workload, marketing myself for future work, and continuing to develop my skills, I subscribe to Aesop’s fable about the tortoise and the hare, “slow and steady wins the race.”
Managing Your Time
The essence of the “slow and steady” metaphor is time management. Setting your own schedule can be overwhelming, and having the flexibility to say “I’ll get to that later” is both an empowering perk of working for yourself and a serious pitfall. Learning to stagger your workload and devote enough time to marketing yourself can be a difficult balance.
I prefer to work at least an 8 hour day, from 9am to 5pm. You know yourself best, whatever your prime hours are, schedule those to be your work time. If you have a lot of assignments on your plate, schedule the majority of the day for your current workload, but be sure to leave at least 1 hour to marketing yourself, and 1 hour a day to further developing your skills. Don’t be rigid, this schedule should be flexible as your workload, marketing needs, and educational demands grow and change.
For example, if you only have a sinlge project on your plate due in one week, projected to take 20 hours, don’t wait to complete it. Conversely, don’t work the entire 20 hours over a couple of days, either. Think slow and steady. This is when it makes sense to spend 4 hours a day on your project, and spend the rest of the day marketing yourself, applying to jobs and insuring that you’ll have work next week.
Marketing Yourself
It sounds simple but, check relevant job posts everyday (it’s easy if you use oDesk’s “Job Alerts” via email). Only apply to jobs that you are qualified for, and value your time appropriately when suggesting a price for your work.
Add a “Hire Me” on oDesk link to your blog , LinkedIn, Facebook, and other networking sites. If you are active and contributing to online communities then your insights may directly correlate to future work. (Note: you must be logged in to oDesk to follow the link above.)
Nourish good working relationships with your existing clients. Your quality of work and communication skills are prime marketing tools when developing good relationships with clients – and repeat business is a powerful resource for a steady income.
Developing Skills
Developing your skills can greatly increase your value to buyers. Learning new skills will keep you on the cutting edge, prepared for the future and help insure that your talents are always in demand.
Knowing what to study is just as important as the learning itself. Follow trade journals and blogs that cover your field, but don’t be fooled by hype – check resources like oDesk’s Trends page and see firsthand what skills are in demand, what skills are in decline, and how many providers are you competing with for jobs.
You’ve already invested a lot of time and resources to get to where you are now, but continuing to build on your current skills is essential to expanding your opportunities for future work.
Steady Work, Steady Income
The key to a steady income is working steadily. If you can chip away at your current workload, market yourself effectively, and continue your professional development, then you’ll be on your way to developing a healthy freelance operation, and hopefully a steady income.
Nice tips. Thanks
So, you feel that the secret to a steady income is in how one manages their time? Is that a correct reading?
I’m interested because, after years in this game, I still cannot steady my income, this year alone I had a $6,000 month and a $1,000 dollar month. That’s no way to pay bills!
You make a great point! Well, as freelancers, we have to wear a lot of hats. The above outlines how to manage your time and effectively wear the hats of your own sales, marketing, education, and production teams. One area that was neglected was a freelancer’s accounting department. That’s a great idea for a follow up post. In the meantime, maybe set aside some time to review your monthly revenues from the past year(s), pay yourself a salary that reflects the average, then put any excess in to a savings account for those tough months.
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Great ideas on time management. Personally, what I hold on as the best way to maintain a steady work and a steady income is a good working relationship with my clients. And surely time management is one of the key ingredients to that relationship. They don’t only give you good feedback, but you get the bigger chance of a repeat hire.
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Great Insight… I look at the issue from another perspective, HOW TO MANAGE UNSTEADY INCOME…
Some jobs are seasonal in nature, another factors is how saturated your field of expertise relative to the number of freelancer against the job demand. My guess is most of the respondents who have steady jobs have a very broad range of expertise and have been in the game for quite a while to have a “loyal customer base”..
Accepting the fact that freelancing is an unstable field motivates me to:
I look at my current clients as strategic partners… my goal is not income, its a by-product of customer loyalty…
Look beyond my current projects and and make mid-term plans… i may let go of a one-time juicy offer to be able to do a longer-term ‘work-for-peanuts’ gig. it allows me to cultivate my relationship with the client whose business eventually grows and refers me to other clients….
Invest rather than spend.. Every project i get into adds to my ability to get project and deliver service..
I give more emphasis on RETAINING rather than ACQUIRING clients… I find ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing to the least expensive but most effective way to go…
55dallas..