The One-Client Freelance Predicament

by Paige Taylor on November 8, 2011

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve worked for one client for the past four years.

As a freelancer, putting all of your eggs in one basket is a huge risk. After all, if the company pulls the rug out from under you, your income instantly drops to zero. And you are left scrambling for clients.

This is not the first time that I’ve been a one-client freelancer. It’s happened a few times during my nearly 30-year freelance writing career. It typically happens by accident, when a company has so much work for me that I didn’t have time to work for or look for other clients. It’s very seductive to be wanted so much by a single company – but also dangerous. I know well the awful feeling of losing that one client for any number of reasons – no more work, went out of business, got a new staff. Every time that I was left with no clients, I  vowed that I would never have less than three clients at any one time again.

Despite my knowing better, here I am again – with a total of one client. I ended up here four years ago again through the convergence of two forces. This company offered me a steady stream of work during a time when the economy was tanking. While it was in a freefall, I didn’t exactly feel like knocking on doors that were laying off employees, going out of business, or just weathering the storm.

But now the rubber has hit the road. My one client’s workload for my marketing writing services is diminishing. While the economy is not 100 percent yet, it’s better than it has been over the last few years. It’s time for me to start looking for new clients before my work dries up completely.

Originally, I had planned to start looking for new clients in late October/early November 2011. But a last-minute round of projects lured me into waiting until after the holidays. I was happy to have an excuse to delay the inevitable, because it’s been four years since I made my last cold call.

So now, as soon as the New Year of 2012 arrives, so will my next round of client hunting. I’ll record my experience here as a learning tool for other freelance writers. Until then, I’ll share my preparation for embarking on the inevitable task of finding new freelance clients.

And I won’t stop until I have a minimum of three.

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Self-Promoting Your Freelance Writing Services — Does it Ever Get Easier?

by Paige Taylor on October 6, 2011

I have been gainfully employed as a freelance writer for the past three decades. During this time, I have ridden the waves of the proverbial feast-or-famine cycles. When I was flush with work, I didn’t spend much time marketing. When I had little work, I worked to find work. It’s a pattern I know well — and have executed successfully numerous times. Yet, I am still nervous about my next round of self-promotion.

Self-promotion is the bane of many freelancers; yet, without it we could never build sustaining careers. Few freelancers I know want to spend their time making cold calls, sending promotions, and chit-chatting with potential clients at industry events. We would rather be writing. However, the freelance lifestyle demands self-promotion — and on a regular basis. The freelance life is rarely stable in the way that full-time jobs typically are. Our income is tied to our ability to continually find new clients.

Three-and-a-half years ago, I hit the equivalent of the “freelance jackpot,” just as the economy was tanking. In March 2008, a former client contacted me with a writing project: updating one of his product’s brochures. That assignment led to another, and another, and another, as he launched new products and updated existing ones. I wrote all his marketing materials, from web copy to white papers: And I stayed steadily employed almost exclusively with him — until now.

I feel extremely lucky to have made it as a freelancer for 30 years, including through the country’s recent economic crisis. But in the past few years I have become so comfortable with my steady work for this one company that I lost touch with the local business world. In fact, I have no idea how the economic crisis has impacted life for freelance writers in my area. I am about to find out.

The steady work I’ve enjoyed for this company is coming to a close. My client now has all of his marketing and sales material up-to-date. He will likely employ me for small projects in the future, but nothing that will pay all the bills every month.

Very soon I will be, once again, taking the steps necessary to market myself to potential clients. I will create a contact list, start cold calling my contacts, follow up with hot leads, attend networking events — and hope that I find enough work to keep myself in food, housing, health care, and other essentials long into the future.

I’ve followed the self-promotion path dozens of time in the up-and-down world that is my life as a freelancer. This time I will do something a little different. I will document my search for new clients on this blog — and share my experiences with other freelance writers.

As I write this blog, I hope to hear from other freelance writers about how they are fairing in today’s business world. Please share details about the freelance climate in your area, the impact of the economic crisis on freelancing, and how you are promoting yourself to stay gainfully employed as a freelancer.

It’s a good time to learn from each other.

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My First Freelance Blog Post

June 9, 2011

Hello all. In this blog I will discuss issues important to successful freelance writers.

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