Being a freelancer and working in the online medium definitely carries some risk. There is no safety net to fall back to in case the contracts stop pouring in and relationships you have spent a long time building can be gone in a blink of an eye.
The current economical situation is definitely not helping in this respect. It simply seems that there are fewer projects out there and that those tend to offer a much lower pay. Appearances can be deceiving though, because in every crisis there’s a hidden opportunity.
How do these opportunities work? Well… a real example is perhaps the best answer. About 10 years ago there was another crisis (which coincidentally struck much closer to home). It was branded the dotcom bubble. Companies and lives were destroyed, it was practically an economical fallout. Beyond the headlines though, new ideas were steaming and new companies and careers were taking shape. As we speak, the majority of the Fortune 500 companies were founded during that era.
How does this apply to you? Well, try to see it this way. What are you doing now? You are probably searching frantically for new projects, trying to outdo yourself, acquiring new skills all the time and trying to create your own opportunities rather than simply waiting for them.
This crisis will eventually pass, as all other things in this little world of ours. When that moment will come, you will find yourself stronger, more knowledgeable and with an inner strength you simply did not know was there. So here is my advice: don’t give up and let yourself be pushed around, push back, adapt, try to broaden the ways you find new work, try to seek new niches you can cater to and in the end it will all be worth it.
In the end I would like to give you one tip on how exactly you can accomplish this. If the market for your specific skills seems to have dried out, start thinking of who could use your skills and more importantly what sort of other projects they would most likely have at the moment. If you find these projects, you have found your potential customers and from that point on anything is possible. It’s proactive, adaptive strategies like these that will keep you afloat.
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