A collective challenge: surviving as creative freelancers

I spoke to two creative sector coaches recently who both had work postponed almost immediately as lockdown began in the UK, they are yet to know if it will return. A friend gave up a full time job to go into freelance event organising just weeks before everything shut down. Many, many creative practitioners have had work cancelled, commissions withdrawn, and projects interrupted. You only have to look at Twitter to see a myriad of stories as freelancers struggle to deal with the impacts of Covid-19.

Among the many things that have been exposed as a result of the pandemic, for us one of the most significant is the insecurity of a significant part of the creative workforce – freelancers. It strikes us as ironic that those who often make the work and those that look after the guests that enjoy it are those on the lowest and most fragile earnings. While it has been spoken of before the reality of organisations reducing fixed costs over the last ten years and people wanting to work flexibly has left thousands of people without a safety net. The initial Emergency Response Funding from the Arts Council helped some people and then there was the roll out of Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS), but once the details emerged it was clear many were left unsupported

The government have shown they are willing to act on this [the need for cash by the creative and cultural sectors]. [But now] it is time for them to act on the ‘forgotten freelancers’ too…These workers, so unfairly left out of government support schemes need some support. Mike Clancy of the union Prospect

While everyone’s circumstances will be different and we can’t go into detailed recommendations, we can suggest areas to consider, they are broad ranging but everyone’s circumstances are different. Some of them may seem obvious but we didn’t want to make assumptions about what might be useful. In brief:

  1. Get support
  2. Consider alternative funding approaches
  3. Take care of business
  4. Shout about yourself
  5. Developing your work
  6. Alternatives
  7. A new personal business model

Get support: this a time for collaboration and collective support. Don’t feel you have to carry everything on your own. There are a growing number of freelance support groups online.

We are sure there are others so do let us know of any you are working with!

We know you are probably looking at cutting back on expenditure but you might consider joining the Association of the Independent Professional and the Self-employed (IPSE), which is campaigning hard to get the government to address the imbalance in support for self-employed people. Membership also brings a range of benefits like life assurance and pension provision (we have no affiliation with IPSE).

You could set up your own network of friends and colleagues who are dealing with the same challenges. You can offer each other practical support and if one of you becomes unwell and you have similar skill sets you could step in for each other when there is a contract to deliver.

There are also lots of offers of on social media from others in the sector who are specifically posting to say they are available to help people they have worked with in the past. If you haven’t been hit as hard as others by the crisis, please consider offering support in whatever way you can.

Consider alternative funding approaches

We fully support the campaigning for freelancers to get equivalent government funding to that of employees but recognise this may take time people don’t have and not everyone will necessarily benefit. There may be some alternatives that could help:

  • Mutual aid: a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Trupo is an example of a freelancer’s mutual aid circle in the US
  • Funding Circles: a funding circle is a peer to peer lending approach
  • Generosity economies: The Artist Support Pledge was created by Matthew Burroughs to provide support for artists impacted by Covid-19 lockdown and is based on a generosity model. Artists sell their work via Instagram for up to £200 and once they reach £1,000, they commit to buying the work of another artist. You might be able to try something similar in your field
  • Crowdfunding: some freelancers have had success in generating project support, others have been using crowdfunding to pledge any funds raised to other freelancers in difficulty

Take care of business

IPSE provides some practical business guidance:

  • Discuss your situation, including current and future contracts/commissions etc, with your clients. You may be able to negotiate some flexibility in terms of delivery
  • Discuss payment terms with clients and ensure you are paid promptly. For further help on this, you can contact the Small Business Commissioner’s office
  • Assess what options might be available through government support and how long they will last. The situation changes regularly so don’t just write off support in this area
  • Look at your finance options with your bank and discuss any existing loan repayments, loan options or overdraft extensions
  • Check your contracts and any insurance cover you may have to see if you have potential for a claim (if you haven’t had loss of earnings or business interruption cover in the past you might want to build this into your business model going forward)

IPSE also lists some creative industries hardships funds. As does the Freelance Artist Resource

Shout about yourself

Get out there on your networks. LinkedIn is pretty active for the cultural sector at the moment, make sure your profile is up to date. Let people know what you offer and what you are looking for. Think about initiating projects that will raise awareness of your work. This is not comfortable territory for a lot of freelancers but at the moment, with all the noise that is going on, it is a necessity. Make videos, start a podcast, communicate regularly.

Developing your work

What do you need to do that is not client focused?

  • Catch up on admin
  • Do your archiving
  • Sort out your social media or website
  • Think about people you’d like to work for and projects you want to do
  • Try and do some forward planning but keep it manageable
  • Work on your development needs, there are a lot of free online training offers at the moment

This is all moving you towards the next stage so don’t worry that it doesn’t feel like doing your normal work. This is exactly what we both did when the 2008 recession hit, and have been doing over the last few months. Notice when you need to pause though, don’t overwhelm yourself.

Alternatives

Think about alternative work, at least for the short term. We know that is not what people want and there is a lot of lobbying to save the sector as a whole, but waiting it out is not going to be an option for everyone. What skills do you have that could be utilised in other ways? Be positive about your strengths and look at where the gaps are in any sector. We know this is painful if you have trained for years and work in an area you love but you might surprise yourself. We know plenty of people that have crossed into other fields and not looked back, or kept that as a side hussle when they do return.

Think about what you might take online to create passive income (income while you sleep!), it is a crowded field, but you may have something distinctive to make you stand out. If you’re a designer or photographer it could be stock images, if you read a lot of scripts it could be proofreading or copy writing. If you are a great storyteller see if you can team up with someone in games production. We suspect you might be rolling your eyes by now, but we are all having to find ways to adapt to the crisis and its implications. What are your options?

 A new personal business model

I know we might seem a bit canvas mad, but we can recommend the Business Model You approach as a way to help you think about what next. Not all freelancers think of themselves as a business, but that’s what you are – a business of one. The reality is all our business models, small or large, are broken now so we need to think afresh. Start with a completely blank canvas and imagine what business you might create from scratch; you might be surprised by the insights that emerge.

We appreciate all this may be easier said than done when you have bills to pay and families to care for. Losing your work at a moment’s notice through no fault of your own is incredibly stressful, especially when it’s part of a wider sector collapse. The biggest part of our challenge at the moment is how to keep going when things feel stacked against us. Some days you probably need to step back from it and give yourself permission to have a breather, but starting to have a new plan and taking small steps towards it can help you to rebuild your confidence and find a way through.

Tomorrow’s post is mainly about individuals facing redundancy, but you may find some of that resonates too in terms of the emotional and physiological strain that losing your work can cause.

We wish you well through this period of intense change and if there is any support we can provide let us know. If you have a story to share about what has helped you please get in touch.

Dawn & Susan

Related posts

Many of the tools we have shared to date can equally be applied to a business of one, feel free to adapt them: