Quiet Period... Don't Panic!

The phones are quiet and when you do get an email it's spam... as a freelancer or VA you'll have 'quiet' periods and that's when panic can set in!!

Don't... it's just the ebb and flow of business. Most, if not all, businesses have them - I don't imagine the deckchair rental businesses get much trade in England once the summer's only hot day has been and gone!

On the opposite side of the coin, there are those busy periods when you wish the phone would stop ringing and that the only mail you were getting was spam!! Accountants, for example, will probably find themselves snowed under as the date for paying the Taxman starts bearing down on us!!

That's the nature of our chosen work status - freelance, ad hoc. We're here to provide support when businesses are in their busy period and they have an overload of work. Of course, this is not the only nature of freelance work but I want to keep this post short..ish.

We seem to be experiencing a 'quietish' period at the moment with regard to new enquiries, and I have recently been receiving more enquiries from VAs and freelancers asking if we have any work to outsource... yes, it's a quiet period.

Settle in until the December rush, when everyone will suddenly want the projects they started at the beginning of the year completed - done and dusted, in the bag - before they get round to singing 'Auld Lang Syne'.

So, embrace the quiet periods (hoping they won't be too long!) and take the time to do those things you've be putting off - deleting all those sent mail messages still in the system from six months ago, getting rid of those bookmarks in your browser that lead to information you can't even remember why you needed... get your invoices/receipts ready for that taxman... learn something new that will enhance the services you already offer your clients... get in touch with old contacts, do some marketing, submit your website to directories...

Once you start to think about it, there will be all sorts you need to do... and then the quiet period will end while you're still making a check-list of things to do in the quiet period...!!!

I'd be interested to find out if these 'quiet' periods are universal, it would also be handy to build a calendar of these times - so that we can get our Quiet Period To Do lists done before they arrive!! :)

So when are your quieter times, let us know and we can build the first iQuietTimes Calendar TM!!