Summary

The author of the article experienced an 80% drop in freelancing income within a month due to the loss of two major clients during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses strategies for dealing with income instability in freelancing.

Abstract

The article details the author's personal experience with a significant income reduction from $9,000 to$ 1,500 per month, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of freelancing. Despite the perks of being self-employed, such as flexibility and potential for unlimited income, the author highlights the inherent risks, including client dependency and sudden changes in income. The author suggests preparing for such instability by growing savings, diversifying income streams, and being ready to pivot quickly when faced with income loss. The strategies helped the author recover from the income shock without replacing the lost clients, instead focusing on other income streams and adapting to the changing business landscape during the pandemic.

Opinions

Freelancing offers benefits like working from home and choosing clients, but it also carries the risk of income instability.
Some clients are ideal, offering good communication and timely payments, while others can be challenging and difficult to manage.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the financial risks of freelancing, leading to sudden client losses.
It's crucial to have a financial buffer, such as a well-funded savings account, to mitigate the impact of income fluctuations.
Diversifying income through multiple streams can provide financial stability when one source of income is lost.
Freelancers should be mentally prepared for income changes and be agile in their business approach to quickly recover from financial setbacks.
The author's personal strategy involved focusing on alternative income streams rather than seeking new freelance clients during the pandemic.

My Freelancing Income Dropped Over 80% In 30 Days

The rollercoaster of freelancing

The numbers in the title are real and they are my own. In one month I went from making nearly $10K per month down to $1,500/month. This happened a little over a year ago. And that is the rocky rollercoaster of freelancing. This is how it happened.

The Income Instability Of The Average Freelancer

Freelancing comes with so many perks. You’re self-employed, your own boss in many cases, with the ability work from home, earn an unlimited amount of income and best of all, you’re likely free from a lot of the constraints of working a 9-to-5 job. When I first started freelancing, I thought it was a total win!

I could work with 5 clients at $2,000/month each or 20 clients at $2,000/month each with no barrier to how much income I could truly earn. I loved that I had the control and I could pick and choose the kind of clients I worked with.

I worked from home and in my line of work I could work the hours I wanted, in my pajamas, navigating my work schedule around my personal life and it was amazing. But, there’s the other side of freelancing.

The Side Of Freelancing Many Don’t Openly Discuss

This is the side that some freelancers don’t talk about much and that’s the income instability. At the end of the day, you are working for someone else and it’s outside your control if they decide to stop working with you, whether you’re meeting goals or not, they decide to move in a different direction or close their business altogether.

My experience freelancing has been interesting. I’ve worked with dozens of clients and each experience is a little different. Some dream clients have been amazing. They were excellent communicators, open to my feedback, they paid their invoice on time, gave bonuses, and more.

Others have been on the opposite end, with me having to chase them down to pay their invoice, try to steer them off a 3-hour phone call that doesn’t bring us any closer to completing the project, and wondering if they were happy with the goals that we smashed.

How I Went From $9K/Month To $1,500/Month

Covid hit and I hadn’t impacted the changes that many around me had. For me it was delayed by a few months. But then, it finally hit and I lost two huge clients in the span of 30 days. My world was shook.

And just like that, I lost more than 75% of my income. How can you guard against this happening? If you freelance, you really can’t. But, what you can do is prepare for those income gaps which ultimately will happen.

Grow your savings account
Diversify your income (have multiple income streams)
Be aware that income instability is present and be available to quickly pivot so you can make up that lost income

First, I think growing your savings account is essential, whether you freelance or not. Because the truth is, you can lose your income out of nowhere whether you freelance or you’re a 9-to-5 worker. And your savings account is the buffer that can keep you from going homeless.

Next, income diversification is a must. Multiple income streams is the name of the game. This could mean selling digital or physical products on the side, carrying multiple streams of passive income, operating a second business on the side, etc.

If you have five income streams, for example, if one income stream disappears, like the freelance income, you have the other four streams of income to help keep you afloat. Then, just be aware that these changes in your income will happen, whether you unexpectedly gain a big client or lose 2 clients in a month.

If this happens you’ll be able to quickly bounce back and pivot so you can recover and not experience the setback which might have happened if you unknowingly were hit with a big change in your income.

How I Bounced Back?

I hit the ground running and instead of replacing those two big clients with two more freelance clients, I decided instead to ramp up another one of my income streams.

Because of the circumstances surrounding my loss of clients (the brewing pandemic) I figured it would be difficult to secure new clients in my line of work at the time, when many businesses were closing and a ton of changes were happening.

I refocused my efforts in a new direction instead and to this day, I still haven’t replaced those clients, happy in the new path I’ve carved out for my business. Have you ever experienced a huge swing in your income as a freelancer? What did you do to bounce back?

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