Struggling in your freelance business? Really, you have four options

One big risk in a turbulent time: emotional flailing (I’m pursuing this…no, this…no, this) and spiraling (This one bad thing happened, which is inevitably going to lead to other bad things, and pretty soon I’m homeless, then I’m dead in a ditch and no one cares).

On the call, I noted a helpful strategy: put a container around the flailing and spiraling.

Really, you have four options 

Remind yourself that despite the 632 what-ifs swirling in your head, unless you have both the desire and the ability to stop working, there are really only four big-picture career options:

1. Keep doing what you’re doing; dial up your marketing and aim for more and/or better-paying clients
2. Stick with freelancing, but pursue different types of work
3. Look for an in-house job that uses your current skills
4. Retrain and do something else entirely

 

Narrowing the options=a semblance of clarity 

Narrowing the options from 632 to four can give you some clarity. Then, take the key factors in your business and life right now, and align them with the four options. Here’s how this looks for me. 

–I love translation and interpreting. They’re part of my identity and I’m not giving them up. This means I don’t need to think about option 4.

-Certified translations and high-end direct client translations are holding steady. There’s not much room for me in the high-volume translation market anymore, because I don’t do MTPE. So option 1 is a “Yes, but with some asterisks.”

-I wouldn’t consider an in-house job unless it paid really well and was really flexible; I’m too addicted to the “free” in freelancing. Option 3 is likely a “no” unless something really amazing falls into my lap.

-I honestly don’t mind selling if it’s a service I believe in; in the past two years I branched out into content marketing writing which pays well and I enjoy it. This is a “yes” for option 2.

-I’m a little twitchy about conference interpreting right now, having recently lost a couple of clients who switched to AI captioning (this happened a lot faster than I thought it would). An asterisk for option 1.

-I love court interpreting and there aren’t many court-certified French interpreters in the U.S.; I work in Colorado and remotely for three other states, but that leaves 46 states that should know about me. Time to go down the Alabama to Wyoming list! A yes for option 1.

The result: Option 1 is a yes with some caveats but also some untapped possibilities. Option 2 is a strong yes. Options 3 and 4: don’t need to think about them any more.

What this means for you

Your assessment is going to be different from mine, and perhaps totally different. 

Freelancing is all over the map right now. Lately I’ve talked to people who:

• Are making excellent money doing MTPE for high-end direct clients 
• Say that they almost never capitalize on the “free” in freelancing. “I barely ever take a full weekend off, or go on vacation without working close to my normal amount of hours. May as well get a full-time job and at least get health insurance and paid vacation.” 
• Say that their work is basically untouched by AI 
• Are trying freelance work completely outside the language business

That’s why you need to rate the four options for *your* situation. 

The “if everything goes to heck” plan 

I’m an optimist, almost to a fault, but I think this is really important: think about what you would do if everything fell apart. 

Example: my husband works at a government climate research job (a very precarious job right now). The day after the 2024 election, we had a conversation about what we would do if he lost his job and AI ate most of my work. 

Our answer: rent our house, run away to an inexpensive country in Southeast Asia (Philippines, Vietnam) and spend a year there, pondering our options. Life could be worse, right? Thankfully, everything hasn’t gone to heck. My husband still has a job and work for me is going well, although a lot different than even a year ago. 

Your answer may be totally different: maybe your parents would love for you to move in with them, or you’d become a cruise-ship yoga teacher, or your best friend has been nagging you to move to Morocco together. The important thing is to have that ultimate backup plan as an anti-spiraling tool. 

Y’all already know that I’m a big James Clear fan, so let’s close with a quote from his most recent newsletter.

It’s from Julia Child, kind of the O.G. celebrity chef, who said “The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” That’s true of freelancing as well. Put the four options out there, and start categorizing them Yes/No/Maybe. 

Thanks and have a great week!