Some days ago I received an email from a freelance designer who contacted me for some advices concerning the hard economical period in Italy. His problem is loss of income due to poor client demand. This is a classic when the economy goes bad, all small business soffer because their clients start saving money cutting their budgets.
In Design it is the same thing, who has a freelance job has to be prepared to these periods of hard time and it comes with experience, but how?
The answear is : diversify your client portfolio, just like the funny drawing here at our left.
I tried to help the freelance designer, that wrote to me, trying to explaine the importance of diversification, the concept is: if I loose here I can still gain there", my income is more protected and I can be more flexible, too.
In conclusion I would like also to keep your attention on networking, it is very important for everybody to have a good professional network. For a freelance designer it is vital! It is the combination of diversified client portfolio and networking that can help a lot who is going through a difficult time.
Good luck!
Image Via: www.cartoonstock.com
