Not every moment as a freelancer is going to be busy. But making productive use of any downtime is vital to your success…
The last contract has been fully signed off and the client is happy. You’ve not got anything set for the coming weeks – so what do you do with your time?
Here are 7 productive ways to spend your downtime when working as a freelancer…
1. Search for work
As a freelancer you should always be on the hunt for new work. Hit your usual sites, call past clients or head to networking events. Anything to get the next contract signed and ready to go.
2. Marketing
Part of finding new work should be the marketing of you and your skills. This means updating any websites and online portfolio, boosting your presence on social media and looking at innovative and affordable ways to get your name known in the industry.
3. Training
Making sure you have the right skills to tackle any project in your industry is vital. New technologies mean industries are changing all the time, making training even more important.
Read our blog on training as a freelancer for more information.
4. Reviewing
Don’t just rest on your laurels. The client might have signed off your work and said that they were happy with what you did, but there’s always room for improvement.
Go back over your working processes, the final submission and everything else to see where you could improve. Even if you can’t see any problems, ask the client for some detailed feedback.
5. Researching
On top of training, you should also be researching – not just your industry, but the entire market place in which you operate. This means being up to date on any new trends, technological advances or changes in legislation that could affect you, or a client.
6. Upgrading
Bringing in new equipment – whether that’s a computer, camera or something more specialist – can end up causing disruption as you learn how to work it, transfer files across and generally get to grips with it.
So if you’ve got a bit of free time, then it might be a good moment to upgrade your equipment.
7. Take time off
Everyone needs a holiday. And if you know you’ve not got any work coming, now could be the perfect time.
If you’re flexible enough, you could catch some last minute deals. But make sure you either take a holiday or work – sitting around the house doing a bit of work isn’t restful or productive.
Posted by Julie Tucker