LOL, Ray. Spelled it right this time.

Work is slowly starting to pick back up now (finally!), and some of my clients are putting feelers out or actively talking about new projects, but it’s been a very unsettling ride this time around — to the point where I was actually beginning to wonder if it was really the economy, and not something I’d done that had somehow sabotaged my own business. Lots of introspection there, believe me, and discovery of things I could have/should have done better (practices that will be modified as business picks up again), but no real “setback-causing fault” on my part that I could actually put my finger on.

Then, in the last few days, other freelancers in our professional group email list started talking about their experience over the past several months. I discovered, through their comments, that it wasn’t just me. My colleagues all across the country are/were going through their own versions of my experience. I’m sure I knew (logically) that I wasn’t the only one who had been seriously underemployed over the last few months — freelancers in my profession are typically among the first cut when money is tight and the last brought back on when budget crises settle — but when you’re working all by yourself, and used to putting in lots of hours every week, and then find your workload reduced to a mere trickle of its former levels, it can sure start to feel like you’re the only one feeling the pinch!

I think that’s where that “online support group” concept fits in. Few of the consultants in our professional organization talked about their lack of work when they were in the high-stress period of un/underemployment, but now that the projects are starting to trickle back in, there are several who are publicly breathing a sigh of relief, and that’s helped me start breathing easier, too. Friends and family can be a wonderful source of strength and support, but they don’t always fully understand the ins/outs/ups/downs of being a freelancer and all the ways that can tie you up in knots. So when your peers tell you you’re not crazy (or that they’re just as crazy as you for being in this business, but that it’s worthwhile anyway!), it really resonates.

Thanks, again, Kris, for sharing your wisdom and experience with the rest of us!

L

Next week, Carolyn. All shall be revealed next week.

c.