How to Make the Most of a Freelance Dry Spell

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One of the best feelings as a freelancer is having your hands full of exciting projects… Until your work dries up. So how to make the most of freelance dry spell? Read this post to learn some creative ways to cope when work dries for freelancers.

Once in their lifetime, every freelancer will experience a time when clients drop off all at the same time.

Just like that, the feast becomes famine, and there’s no incoming work or money anywhere in sight. Those periods can be some of the scariest for any freelancer. But downtime doesn’t need to be downtime.

There are steps you can take to steer yourself back towards work and use this time productively. Here’re a few things you can do to make the most of the freelance dry spell.

Brush Up Your Skills

When you have more time because of less work, you can use it for updating your knowledge. This is the perfect time to book a course on something that you wanted to do for a long time. If you are an online marketer you can add some additional skills such as Google or FB ads. Learning a new skill will help you pass the time in a productive way. With brand new marketable talent, you may even be able to expand the scope of your services.

Update Your Portfolio, Website and Social Media Profiles

When freelancers are busy for several months on time, updating CV or portfolio is the left aside and forgotten. You’ve done lots of awesome work but it is nowhere to be found because you haven’t updated your portfolio in over a year. If you want to find work, you need to show work.

So when your work dries up and you need to pitch to new clients you will need a shiny new portfolio.

Whilst you have time on your hands, highlight your latest projects on a traditional CV, digital portfolio or LinkedIn projects. The more you can showcase your talents, the greater the opportunity for consistent, high-quality bookings.

Boost Your Marketing

As a freelancer, you are your own best salesperson. Marketing is your most important tool for getting a word or more out there.

You probably should sit down and update your website. While you are at that, why not add a couple of new blog posts? Or even offer to guest blog for someone in your network. – it’ll give you an opportunity for you to boost your online presence, showcase your industry knowledge and comment on creative or emergent tech.

Also read: Top Negotiation Tips for Freelancers

Diversify Your Income streams

Whatever you do for freelancing, figure out other ways to make extra cash using those skills. Yes, it might take some initial hard work. But, adding extra income streams could pay off in the long-term.

Any self-employed person or freelancer should ideally work for multiple clients so that if one source dries up there is another one to fall back on.

If you’re a marketer, could you sell a marketing course? If you’re a writer, maybe you could think of organising writing workshops or maybe even write your own E-book?

If you have some marketable skills plus write with flair, you might also be able to grow and monetise your own blog. Since you have some extra free time on your hands at the moment, now might be the perfect time to start a blog.

Here is a day by day guide to set up a brand new blog.

Choose a profitable niche and keep working on your blog in your downtime. It’s totally possible to earn a decent income from it. But don’t forget to keep pitching to new clients! 😉

Look After Yourself

Last, but not least!

Taking months off work — more-or-less is the freelance equivalent of jumping off a cliff.

Now that you have some ‘forced’ time off, you may find the dry spells are a perfect time to hop off the conveyor belt and take a break.

Use this time to take care of your mental and physical health. Don’t stay glued to your work desk. Cook something that you’d always wanted to cook, eat something delicious (and healthy), stay a little longer in bed and exercise properly. In short, treat yourself!

If your budget allows then go for a little holiday.

Everyone deserves quality time off. Perhaps like most freelancers, you thought it too risky to take a vacation whilst there was plenty of work.

So schedule some me time and relax with your family and catch up with mates. Jet off to hit the slopes or soak up some rays. You’ll return to work refreshed and ready.

So here are some of my tips to make the most of the freelance dry spell. How do you cope with this time? Let us know in the comments below.