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Dear Ed archive

February 2009

Dear Ed

I was booked up in November for three jobs, but then two of them were cancelled and it left me in a financial mess. What can I do?

Mariki

Dear Mariki

Funny you should mention that. My work schedule hit the doldrums mid-November and I rang around in search of work. I found a new client and soon had jobs racked for the end of November (giving me a two-week break before the first job came), then mid-December, mid-January and mid-February. I was happy: if the first job due at the end of November took four weeks, and I got paid four weeks after that, I’d have money coming in from the end of January onwards.

But then:

the end-of-November job became a mid-December job, before getting caught in an undertow and dragged out through The Rip, never to be seen again
the mid-December job became a mid-January job and, as I write, is currently treading water and looking a bit green around the gills
the original mid-January job did a reverse pike with two-and-a-half twist, cracked its head on the diving board, entered the water badly and never surfaced
the mid-February job is holding as I write this (although I suspect it’s wearing Chinese floaties).

So that left two jobs out of four, and two of those look iffy. It also left me with a two-month wait for the first job rather than the anticipated two-week wait. Assuming the mid-January job actually surfaces and takes four weeks, and it then takes four weeks to get paid, I’ll have money arriving in mid-March. From a November phone call to a March payment; why, that’s a scant four months!

Which brings me to Freelance Rule #1: A job doesn’t exist until it lands on your desk. And, equally important, Freelance Rule #2: Make sure you have three months’ income as backup: without it, you’ll be the one thrashing about in the sea trying desperately to remember the provenance of your floaties.

Don’t forget to breathe