As a freelancer, you are the boss, laborer, marketing department, bill collector, bill payer, and more. When things are slow, you go into marketing mode. When things are busy, you’re often dealing with double the prospects while juggling double the workload. It can be tricky to get things into that perfect “pocket” of a balanced workload.
For me, the more leads I get on new business, the more time I’m spending on estimates and business requirements. As a result of that, the less time I have available for the projects in-process. Is it smarter to keep the prospects waiting, the existing clients waiting, or the wife and kids waiting?
I want to know what you do to balance your time between new projects and projects in the queue when things are insanely busy, and I want to know how you spend your time when things are slow.
Funny that you posted this today. I'm experiencing both extremes of the workload spectrum this week. As of two days ago, I was entering panic mode becuase I suddenly realized my upcoming calendar of projects was nearly empty. This hasn't happened to me in well over a year, so I was a bit nervous.
So I just go through the motions of drumming up new business: I sent out a newsletter, blog, submit guest posts, respond to some job board ads, etc.
Now today, I'm suddenly overloaded with proposal requests for several large projects. If they all come through at the same time, I'll be back to “drowning in work” mode. So it goes.
One tip for your busy times is to develop solid working relationships with other freelancers you trust to sub-contract out parts of projects. It has taken me about 2 years to find quality go-to guys, but I now have a few I know I can rely on.
That's excellent advice, Brian. I've been slowly working on developing a good network of folks to help out and I think that's a great tip. Kind of fun going into “project manager” mode.