Getting Used To One Client's Consistent Offering and What To Do When That Ends.

As a Freelance Writer I have come across a lot of negative situations, as I'm sure you all have. My most recent "issue" is that of my main income source seeming to dry up. Of course I may be jumping to conclusions here, but it seems clear to me that after nearly a week of no work that I shouldn't hold my breath. So, as I mentioned before and as it should be a common practice for my fellow freelancers, switching to the so-called "back-up plan" is in order.

Something All Freelance Writers (Any Freelancer Really) Should Do.

It should be common knowledge for all or at least something that you have been advised to do at some point, but having multiple income sources or streams is probably one of the most important things you can do. It is great to find that one source that trumps all others. The one income stream that brings in money on a consistent basis. Sometimes it really does not even matter if it is a big source or not, at long as the consistency is there. It is great advice and something that I have done since my early days as a Freelance Writer.

There is one thing about doing this however, and it is something that people do not normally tell you about this. It is something that I found out the hard way. While it is not an extremely harmful thing to your career it can slow you down a bit and that is the last thing you need when you have no income for the time being. The problem tends to be yourself and how you may have gotten either too use to what you were doing or too comfortable.

When we are working with a consistent source or income or in a certain manner for a while it can become habit. I know this happened for me. I had gotten so use to the way this one particular client wanted their work done and the method to which I reached that end, that when it came time to do something different I was lost for a bit.

Changing Things Up.

I don't know about most of you, but I tend to be a creature of habit. Once I get used to doing something a certain way, and I do it that way for an extended period of time, it can be hard to stop or change. Hell, change itself can be hard enough sometimes. At first I did not like the manner in which work for this particular company was done. I thought it took too long, it became tedious, and sometimes I felt like it dulled my writing senses. Thing is, when it came time to do something different I noticed that I sort of missed what I had before.

Moving to my "back-up" income sources or working for other companies or clients became difficult. I started having to proofread my work much more than usual. I had gotten a couple pieces rejected for revisions and I was just not happy at all. I really had to take a step back and re-evaluate my situation. By doing exactly that I found out what I should have been doing all along and realized that if I found myself in this position again in the future that it would be much different.

My Simple Solution.

Now I cannot promise you the same results because we are all different animals. Especially in writing. There are certain ways that we do things or certain grammar laws that govern the way we all write. But beyond that we all have our own flair and add our selves to whatever we write in various ways. However, what I did to fix my little "problem" is more of a general fix so it should bear results and if not I'm sure it can be adjusted to work for anyone. [Look at me - talking about this as if it is a software patch or something]

What I realized that it was a slow (and still is somewhat) process to get back into the groove of doing things with all of the different clients and their different methods. They all have work generally and instead of hitting them when I needed them I should have been using them all along. I should have made time for them during my work day when I was working for the income source that was consistent. Had I worked one or two of these companies/clients into my work day routine a month ago say, I would have not had such a difficult time of it now.

So that is what I will do moving forward. Whenever I get back into having a consistent source of income and working for one place, I will have to mix it up a bit. So if my work day consists of an 8 to 10 hour day (which most of the time it would) I can mix up  the work load. I would probably organize it something like this:

• 80% or my work day (6 hours 15 minutes approx. in 8 hour day) for my main client.
• roughly 5-10%  for each of the three others I use (roughly 30 minutes to an hour).
• Then maybe 30 minutes at the end to finalize things. Get work ready for tomorrow, etc..

Of course it is not an accurate model nor is it set in stone. All this represents is a breakdown of how I will do things moving forward once I get a consistent client or income source again. Hopefully it will not take long to do that either. Who knows, maybe one of the places I use for my backup will become that consistent money train. That is after all how I ended up getting consistent work with the place I am now moving away from. They were a back up to other things I was doing and as time went on they got more and more work and it slowly made sense for me to spend more time with them than anywhere else.

That is probably the biggest lesson in all of this. For any Freelance Writer the work is fluid and dynamic. IT is always changing. I got to used to working with one place and forgot how much this industry fluctuates. Even on a small, one person scale. These companies go through changes, as does the work they need and the people providing it. You have to be ready to change your methods almost at a moments notice. The people who are capable of making those changes and adapting to the ever changing landscape the quickest are the ones that will be left standing.