One thing about freelancing that is virtually unpredictable is that you can be nearly unemployed for months at a time, perhaps just have a few projects on your plate. Then, like a summer rain storm in New York, the skies open and more work pours down on you than you can reasonably handle. You have barely enough time to finish all the projects on your plate and have to turn down projects you would have jumped at only a month or two ago.
I am now in such a phase and thus may not be up to my full blogging levels, although I hope to find time to get pieces written in my few spare moments.
I would like to invite my readers to share in comments their experiences with such situations. How do you handle a heavy workload or multiple projects? What sorts of project management systems do you have in place? How do you deal with income fluctuating by a factor of ten or more month to month?
Or just pop in and say hello and tell me what you are doing.
Thank you for reading.
Hi Lucas,
Thanks again for your great article on Dance Lighting over at On Stage Lighting.
I wish I had some kind of magic bullet answer to this problem that faces all freelancers but I have yet to find one. It seems like everyone wants to do their gig on the same day of the month and you can only be in one place at a time. Of course, pre production work can be “managed” a little, as long as one can keep to the the teams planning schedule, but site work is just that – work on site. And clients don’t really pick the dates for their show based on our availability. Well, not often
I work in commercial events, everyone knows that if you use freelancers you have to get used to the fact that they can’t always do your show. So you end up with a pool of guys who you trust and can draw from when things get busy. As a freelancer, the issue this brings is client retention. If you can’t do this show, maybe you won’t be asked to do the next one. Some freelancers just accept all offers and then worry about logistics when the time comes, often using a pool of their own trusted friends to deputise for them. This can work up to a point but too much of it can really nark your clients and they go elsewhere anyway.
As for planning for massive swings in earnings, my motto has always been to just keep doing something. This doesn’t mean working at the local burger joint but most LD’s I know spend a lot of time, probably like yourself, working for other designers, operating consoles, rigging and generally making sure that no one else gets a look in.
As long we are turning a buck and still remain available for the next “big” gig, life is Situation Normal.
Cheers
Rob