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Coping with the dread of slow months

The order book empties, and your mind races. Slow periods are part of freelance life. Anticipating them doesn't make them disappear, but it takes away a good part of the anxiety.

Why slow spells are scary

When you're an employee, the salary lands whether there's a lot of work or not. As a freelancer, income follows activity, and activity comes in waves. One full month, two quiet ones. That's the normal rhythm of the job, not a sign that you're doing something wrong. What hurts is enduring the slow spell without having seen it coming.

The safety cushion

The best protection against anxiety is money set aside. Aim little by little for the equivalent of 3 to 6 months of your fixed costs: rent, insurance, everyday expenses. You won't get there in a month. Start by setting aside a small percentage of every payment, automatically, as soon as you're paid.

Also think about putting money aside for taxes and AVS. Set money aside with every invoice you collect, rather than discovering the bill all at once at year-end. A separate account you don't touch keeps you from ending up with a slow spell and a tax instalment at the same time.

Smoothing your income

Slow spells are often predictable. Summer, the year-end holidays. If you know August will be quiet, you can prepare for it as early as June: prospect earlier, keep a project up your sleeve, or simply have set money aside. Looking at your turnover month by month over the year helps you spot your own seasons.

Putting the slow spell to good use

A slow spell is above all time, the kind you never have when you're overloaded. You might as well use it:

• Prospect: reach out to former clients, update your portfolio, write to leads.
• Train yourself on the skill you keep putting off.
• Tidy up the admin: template quotes, up-to-date rates, up-to-date bookkeeping.
• Take a breather. A chosen slow spell is also the holiday you never take.

When the anxiety takes up too much space

Setting money aside calms the mind, but sometimes the anxiety goes beyond the numbers. Hard nights, a sense of failure, the feeling that it will never pick up again. It's common, and you're not alone in living it. The isolation of freelancing amplifies everything.

Talking about it really helps. To other freelancers who know it, to someone close, or to a professional if the weight settles in. Keeping a framework helps too: set hours, getting out of the house, separating work from the rest. Slow spells end up filling back in. Your job, meanwhile, is to hold on, and you don't have to do it alone.