The feast and famine of this solo illustration life
Coming from a world of employment and a regular paycheck, into the sphere of freelance illustration, you quickly learn that there’s a feast or famine kind of pattern that you live within. The feast side of things means you are busy and ticking along nicely in your creative vocation.... Happy days. However, in the famine part of this pattern, you can find yourself with no work and your bank balance looking dangerously low…. Shit!
Feast but avoid the gorging on the hustle
Day-in / day-out I’m constantly fighting against the famine side of things. Admittedly though feasting and gorging on loads and loads of work at once has its pitfalls too. I think the in-vogue, constant ‘hustle culture’ is overrated. You don’t want to hit the wall of exhaustion after all. However, I do like to be busy and very much enjoy what I do. I like food and a roof over my head too. So does my partner and dependents for that matter… ha!
Don’t just promote yourself when you’re quiet
In order to keep myself in a reasonably constant stream of work, and reduce the amount of unpaid time that I have, I promote myself. For me, this looks like writing blogs, sharing work on social media, sending out email newsletters and even many many cold-call emails to contacts that I have worked with previously. My favourite thing to do is to update my showreel a couple of times a year. The showreel is a great way to compile all different types of work, add some nice music and send it away!
With any type of promotion there’s a trick when you’re working for yourself. The trick is to not wait until you’re super quiet. Do it instead when a project or two are nearly finished and your calendar is looking a bit light in a week or so. That way then it gives you time to do follow up emails and leads and in turn give your contacts time to get back to you. Hopefully, with a bit of luck and determination you won’t experience too much famine before your next commission kicks in.
Whether you’re feasting or famished right now it’s important to realise where you're at and if you’re panicking have yourself a bit of plan. It’s about balance. Don’t take too much on for too long so you end up in a burnout coma with overworking (eating). Equally, don’t let yourself get too famished or quiet. The ebb and flow of commissions comes in waves. Sometimes you’re busy and sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you need to get yourself out there with promotion. Sometimes you don’t. Just try and recognise whether you’re up or down and adjust your approach accordingly to keep your business on an even flow.
Thanks for reading. Pete :)