How to Grow Your Business During Downtime

Wow, what a weird time we’re living in. We’ve been locked down here in California for almost a week, and the rest of the country is joining us state by state. Even crazier is that this is affecting people all over the world - we’re really all in this together. We know that this is an especially challenging time for freelancers, it’s hard to retain clients or book new ones, and you may be unable to work in the way that you typically would.

We had a different post planned for today before all of this went down, but decided to switch gears and talk about some ways that you can grow your business during downtime. While this virus is causing more downtime than most of us have ever experienced, there will always be slow seasons for contractors, and it’s good to be prepared for a decrease in income at any time. Here are a few things that you can do in order to keep growing your business during this season.

build your portfolio

Remember this post that we wrote on why to create just for fun? Now is the perfect time to fill in holes in your portfolio and create the kind of work that you want to be doing for clients. Make a client brief for yourself, and get to work. Not only will this help you book new clients and learn new skills, working with your hands helps improve mental health. Plus, when you’re creating you’re too busy to check the news which we all need a break from right now.

network (online of course)

Just because you can’t meet up in person doesn’t mean that you can’t make new friends and connections or encourage your fellow freelancers. Last week, Arabela and I were supposed to have a coffee date with our friend Diane, but instead of canceling we took it online instead and invited our friend Claire as well. It was really refreshing to talk with other creatives about what they’re doing in this time and how we can help each other. Reach out to friends, join Facebook groups (here are some of our favorites), message people you admire on IG and set up some video chats or virtual co-working sessions. Make sure to be open about how you are struggling and how people can help, offering your own resources in return.

build your list of dream clients

Pitching your services is the main way to get yourself in front of the clients that you want. We have a series of three blog posts on how we identify our dream clients, pitch to them, and follow up. When you’re crazy booked, it can be hard to set aside time for this, but now is the perfect time to start reaching out to companies who might need your help either now or later. Start by making a list of the clients you want to have, then build a plan to customize your services for this specific time and go get ‘em.

apply for grants

There are a ton of resources out there to help struggling freelancers, and more are popping up everyday. Research some ways that you can receive assistance and use some of your free time to fill out applications. We’re working on building a full list of resources including grants, so look for that later this week.

repackage your services and reach out to past clients

we’re all going through a crisis together, and while you definitely don’t want to sell yourself short, it could be helpful to look at how you could repackage or discount your services in a way that helps other businesses as well as your own. if you’re having a slower season in general not related to a world pandemic, it could be a good time to reevaluate your services and how you could add to or customize them in order to attract new clients. Now is also a great time to check in with past clients, let them know that you’re available if they need any assistance and potentially offer them a discount.

learn something new

It’s always good to be learning new skills and hone in on the skills that you already have. Think about something new that you want to learn, or something that could help you increase the value of your services. Learn new photoshop or illustration skills via Adobe Live, or make your own tiled backgrounds for shoots. It’s also ok to take this time to focus on skills completely unrelated to your craft, you never know what will inspire you, and we all need something to keep our hands busy during these long Netflix binges. Some other places to learn new skills are PHLEARN, Skillshare (currently offering 2 free months), CreativeLive, Domestika, A Beautiful Mess, Honestly WTF, Bon Appetit, Colette Peri (stop motion), and Lauren Hom (handlettering).

cut expenses

Let’s be honest, we all spend more money than we should. When finances become a little tight, it’s a great opportunity to go through and clean them up. Look at all your subscriptions and see if any can be lowered or cancelled entirely (speaking of, you can get two free months of Creative Cloud right now). Once you’ve lowered expenses as much as possible, set up a plan for saving as well as setting aside money for taxes and for yourself. Having a savings account will help you whenever your income is a little lower than anticipated. Read about how we do this in our business here.

increase your social media presence

Having a killer presence on social media is more important now than ever. Take a look at your current accounts and think about how you can improve what you are already doing. This could be scheduling out content, creating new content, or finding ways to offer more value to your followers. Then look at platforms that you aren’t currently on or that you want to get better at. Brainstorm how you could connect with others through TikTok, use Tailwind to drive more traffic to your site via Pinterest, or increase your knowledge about Facebook and IG ads. Now is also a great time to start and build an email list.

increase your passive income

Passive income is a form of income that once set up takes very little or no time to maintain and brings in money “passively.” Experts say that one form of income is not enough to keep your business afloat, on average you want to develop 6-7 different revenue streams with most of them being passive if possible. Brainstorm how you can increase your passive income in a way that makes sense for your specific business and then work on implementing some of them while you have the time to get them set up. Some ideas include: record an online course, create downloads or templates for people to purchase, design merchandise, write an ebook, or sell stock photos via Stocksy or Adobe Stock (use your fun shoot to create stock images if you don’t have any currently).

read books

This goes along with building your skills and learning something new, but is more specifically related to business. Creatives are often not equipped in the business side of things when starting out, so take this time to learn more about how to run your company and market yourself. There are so many great business books out there, some of our favorites are Profit First, Freelance and Business and Stuff, Work Party, and Side Hustle.

organize your drive (aka your life)

Raise your hand if your files are a hot mess…just me? Having a messy desktop, external hard drive, google drive, task manager, etc., can really slow down your productivity. While everyone is cleaning out their closet, take the time to clean out your files, get rid of anything you don’t need and make it easy to find what you’re looking for in the future. While you’re at it, set up systems to help everything run more smoothly when you book new clients in the future. Evaluate your on boarding and off boarding to see where you can improve and make tweaks where you need them.

invest in your business

It might sound counterintuitive to spend money right now, but there are some ways that you can invest that can pay off in the future. Some ways to do this are through booking coaching sessions (you can book a session with us here), put money into marketing your services, or invest in a new website to make your work really stand out (take a look at some fun templates here). Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, and while you should definitely be wise about this, it’s also not something to be afraid of.

There you have it! Lots of ideas for how to make the most of this time or any time that business is a little slow. I know this time is really hard for so many, but it’s also an opportunity to learn and grow, and do things that you might not have time for when you’re booked solid. I also want to remind you that this will turn around, there are always ups and downs in freelancing life, and it’s going to swing up again, just hold on and keep pushing. If you have any ideas for additional things you can do, please share them!

Is it the weekend yet?
Elle