Many freelancers and small business owners experience slow periods, variable income or what is known as the ‘feast or famine’ cycle.
For this reason, you need to accept that, for whatever reason, you will most likely experience slow periods at some point in your business and plan accordingly.
These slow periods may be down to many factors, such as market conditions, which result in a decrease in demand for your services, a seasonal lull, or client budgets drying up, among other things. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a buffer fund or a fallback plan, such as another income source, to tide you over during these slow periods.
However, these slow periods don’t need to be unproductive or viewed as negative and something to get panicked about. Instead, here are 5 productive ways to embrace them.
1. Enhance your skills
Learning never ends (or goes out of fashion), and learning new skills or updating and refreshing current ones is an excellent way to spend this downtime.
Investing in yourself (and, therefore, your business) is never a bad idea. It may result in you adding new products and offering new services to your clients or simply adding to your skill stack so you can charge more.
It’s not just by taking courses that you can enhance your skills but also enrich them by listening to relevant podcasts or reading business books. All things you now have more time for so you can bring fresh insight and perspective to your work.
How about digging into some industry research and all the latest trends? Research can get you ahead of the industry curve and perceived as an authority or thought leader in your field.
2. Reach out to others
Or ‘network’ as it’s known by its more formal name. Networking with other freelancers and solopreneurs can help put things into perspective, and it can also be helpful to talk through issues with others in your industry or profession, get their take on things, and share ideas.
Your network can also refer you to new clients and make you aware of any new projects in the pipeline.
As well as your professional network, take this time to nurture client relationships and follow up with previous clients, see if they need help with anything, or simply drop them a line to see how they are doing. It’s not about hard pitching but a genuine desire to help and start a new conversation – you never know where it might lead.
You can ask them for referrals too – don’t be shy!
3. Take stock and review your business processes
Take this opportunity to review your business processes. Could some of them do with a bit of a spruce up or be brought up to date? Are there some manual processes that can be automated?
Now is a great opportunity to get your business processes as slick and efficient as possible so that your operation will run like clockwork in the background when business is booming again.
One task that needs to be done so you can get paid is invoicing. Doing this manually can result in delays (as well as take up your precious time). Fortunately, invoicing software can take on the heavy lifting and help speed up the payment process. Invoice Ninja is a leading free invoicing software for small business invoicing, online payments, recurring invoices, tracking expenses and billable tasks.
Perfect for the job!
Try it for free here.
4. Update your website, review blog posts and optimize socials
Is your website up to date, or could it do with a bit of a refresh? What about the site speed and the on-page SEO? How are your blog posts ranking, and when did you last publish one? How much traffic is your website getting, and from where? This data will give you an insight into areas that need improvement. A couple of well-written blog posts shared on social media advertising to potential customers that you are open to work may be the boost your business needs.
Talking of social media – are the bios all up to date on all your social media channels or could they be better optimized? And what about your social media content scheduling? Is that as efficient, timely and effective as it could be? Or are you posting random content when inspiration strikes?
Social media content and scheduling so you are consistent and sharing valuable content can always be improved upon.
A well-thought-out and received social media post could land you new clients; after all, that’s the point of your business being on social media in the first place.
5. Relax and rejuvenate
Finally, learn to go with the ebb and flow and use this time to relax and rejuvenate.
When work comes in, and business takes off again, you may not have the opportunity to take that special vacation you’ve been promising yourself, the sailing trip around Santorini, walking the Camino de Santiago, or just a long city break to a destination you’ve always wanted to visit.
Likewise, is there a physical activity you enjoy? You don’t have to use this downtime to pound the streets running marathons or go full tilt at the gym – but a healthy dose of exercise may be the tonic you need.
A change of scenery, a well-deserved break, and mood-boosting exercise can do you a world of good, so when the slow period ends, you’ll be super motivated with fresh ideas and raring to go!
