Category: FEU Training Blog

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place"
George Bernard Shaw

WE OFTEN take language for granted and assume a level of communication and understanding that, in reality, is not being conveyed. I was recently working with a Danish colleague who appeared to keep swearing for no good reason. The relief in the group was palpable when we realised she was actually talking about a factsheet she had brought with her (you try saying factsheet with a Danish accent). What was even funnier was seeing her trying to work out why we were so shocked that she had produced and brought such a thing.

You can see how these random misunderstandings can cause real trouble especially when you add multiple cultures to the mix. Speaking the same language doesn’t even stop this, as Winston Churchill once remarked about the UK and USA: “Two nations divided by a common language.”

I’m sure we can all think of examples where we have been confused or have caused confusion with our American cousins. For example, American pants are UK trousers, gas is petrol and a faucet is a tap.

Such dual meanings that could lead to misunderstanding are much wider than just the words we speak. All of us live in our own bubble of experience, which no one else has access to. So if you just received bad news and then don’t laugh at someone’s joke, they may think you have no sense of humour. You may think them insensitive. It’s not possible to keep everyone updated with what is happening to us all of the time, so this is bound to happen occasionally.

Sometimes within our own bubble we think that we are experiencing ‘reality’, and not just one perspective on it. When that happens we expect other people to understand what we do and to know what we know and to behave as we would expect them to. When more than one person is working from this position you can expect some outrage and incredulity of what they have to deal with in others lack of understanding and stupidity.

There’s a good illustration of this here in a sketch from Fawlty Towers. It’s the layers of misunderstanding, which make it so funny, but also demonstrate so beautifully how easily we get our wires crossed.

In this sketch the Major thinks the moose head is some new fangled gadget that has been programmed to speak because he never saw Manuel crouched behind the desk. When he then asked Basil where the moose head had come from, what he said made perfect sense if you were aware of the experience he had just had, but as Basil was unaware of this, he dismissed the Major’s words as nonsense.

How many times a day do you think this happens between people? It’s a common gag in films but is a daily occurrence in all our lives. If you want a master class in miscommunication, get hold of the entire Fawlty Towers series, sit back and enjoy!

Other forms of miscommunication arise when there are too many differences in our life experiences or values. Our core values drive most of our behaviours so when we try to live or work closely with someone who’s values are too different from our own, it can be impossible to find enough common ground to build a sound relationship.

The title of this blog comes from a song by Jim Reeves singing about a relationship break up, which really captures this mis-alignment: “Both aiming for heaven(s), but ours weren’t the same”. It’s a sad song but a lovely illustration of this incompatibility. You can imagine that when they got together they used a common language that led them both to believe that each meant what the other thought it meant, but over time realised it wasn’t the same thing at all.

So how can we reduce some of these misunderstandings in our own lives? The first step is to let go of the illusion that you have a good grip on reality. There is no such thing. We are all having our own individually tailored experience of reality, no one is enjoying the definitive version.

The second step is when we notice someone looking puzzled, outraged or amused by something we said, be curious about what they might have understood by it, rather than dismiss them as idiots. Conversely when someone says something outrageous to you, explore with them what they really meant.

The third step is perhaps the most difficult, which is to embrace the fact that people interpret things differently and have different beliefs about how the world works. With some people, the best you can hope for is to exchange viewpoints - changing them is a much bigger job that you are unlikely to achieve in a passing conversation.

Understanding all this is extremely useful for us creative freelances who have to communicate with a wide range of people, often with disparate objectives to our own. For example, when it comes to negotiating contracts, or finding collaborators or obtaining funding. Not everyone is going to think like you. So the more flexibility, tolerance and curiosity you can develop when talking to people, the more you will be able to forge a common path of understanding between you that will put you and your business in a stronger position.

So good luck as you continue to navigate through the wonderful world of communication or miscommunication, and may all your misunderstandings be funny ones.

SOMETIMES positive or negative change is forced upon us and we have no choice but to react to circumstances. For example, we land an unexpected commission (yippee) and need to work 24/7 to get it done or we lose a contract and have to find a new source of income PDQ.

However, in many instances, we want to make changes but do nothing about it. For example, we sit on an idea for ages and kick ourselves when somebody else has a similar idea but successfully puts it into action before we do.

As a freelance, the ability to create new opportunities through instigating change is a huge plus, perhaps even a necessity, so why do we stop ourselves taking action even when we have the potential to do so? Consider the following reasons:

It’s unclear. If you have vague ideas but haven’t defined exactly what you want to do, you’re unlikely to do anything. To get yourself off the starting blocks, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, i.e., your goal, and then you can work out how to get there.

It’s scary. There are no guarantees that you’ll get the result that you’re aiming for and fear of failure and/or the unknown are common reasons why people resist change.

However, while clinging to an ‘uncomfortable comfort zone’ may seem less frightening in the short run, it can lead to negative consequences in the long run especially if lack of action means that you cut off or avoid new experiences including exciting work opportunities.

It is perfectly normal to be scared in the face of change, but don’t let this put you off. Much of our fear is often in our imagination and it only subsides when we actually start doing and stop thinking. As writer Susan Jeffers says ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’.

It won’t work out for me. We can’t control everything in life but we can believe that we have just as much right to succeed as anyone else. Also, external factors will change even if we don’t, so it’s important that we take control where we can to give ourselves the best chance of moving forward in the direction that we want to go rather than a direction that someone else tells us to move in.

Some people are their own worst critic and talk themselves out of trying even before they’ve started. Any successful person will tell you that there is no such thing as failure so no matter what you do you can learn from the experience. As American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says: “There is a sense that things, if you keep positive and optimistic about what can be done, do work out.”

It’s hard work. Yes, most things worth doing are and will often come at a cost to other areas of your life – at least in the short run. This means that you need to value what you are about to do to ensure that you stay motivated until you achieve the change you’re aiming for.

Beware of doing things because you think you ‘should’, perhaps because of what others are doing. To test how much you want to change a particular area of your life, ask yourself: “What will happen if I do nothing?” and “What will happen if I do make that change?” Sometimes, you’ll find that you’re happy where you are for the moment (thank you very much) so can enjoy the present without stressing about what could, might or should happen next.

It’s too difficult. Some things may seem too difficult to achieve from a cursory glance but once you’ve looked into it more closely, you realise that it’s more straightforward than you think.

Even if the change you wish to make is going to be difficult – perhaps you will need to gain new skills and make other investments over time - it’s often the case that the more hard won something is, the more interesting the journey and more satisfying the result. So, rather than getting overwhelmed and stopping dead in your tracks, break down the intended change into more manageable steps and take the first leap of faith before you think yourself static.

More info

• Overcoming Freelance Challenges; FEU Training
• Why we do what we do; Tony Robbins; Ted Talks

ONE OF the most common discussion I have at workshops with creative freelances is about how to not take rejection personally. This is a tricky question when you are effectively ‘the product’, so being turned down can feel very personal. However, learning not to take things personally is a key skill that will save a lot of heartbreak over the years.

When you pick a birthday card for a friend, if you are like me, you’ll be looking for something ‘appropriate’, whatever that may mean for you, e.g., something that reflects how you feel about them, or something that will make them laugh.

Imagine if all the designers of the cards you didn’t choose sat weeping in the background, feeling personally slighted by your selection. Doesn’t make sense does it?

In exactly the same way, it doesn’t make sense to feel personally offended when a decision is made that effectively rejects you or your work, no matter how much love, care and attention you have put into it. By all means feel disappointed, sad even - we are all only human after all, but offended? No, these decisions are rarely truly personal.

How to do it!

Let’s look at the two main ways we perceive and remember events:

• We either see or replay the event as if we are looking out of our own eyes, which I’ll call the ‘Player’ mode or:
• We see or replay them from the position of a bystander, actually seeing ourselves in the action as a fly on the wall. I’ll call this the ‘Watcher’ mode.

It’s not just how we perceive and remember events, it’s also how we imagine things happening in the future, in daydreams, or dreams. It’s a big part of how we make ourselves feel good or bad, motivated or demotivated. It’s a great one to be aware of and start using more consciously.

Try it out

Imagine a situation where you are having a strong pleasurable experience. For example, eating a cream cake, playing with a pet, or something much more personal (if it’s very personal, keep it to yourself please.)

Whatever you choose, imagine doing it now in ‘player’ mode - looking out from your own eyes: see what you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel. Take a bit of time to fully experience it.

Now stop that (if you can bear to) and imaging doing it again - only this time be the ‘watcher’, as if you are in an audience watching yourself doing it. It’s happening over there, while you are sat apart from all the action.

Feels quite different, doesn’t it? When you are the player, you can really engage in the experience and feel the pleasurable emotions. When you are the watcher, it feels detached and a lot less fun or a lot less intense.

Learning to step back from a bad experience, from player to watcher is one of the most effective and quickest steps to stop feeling bad in less pleasant situations, and is a very useful way to stop yourself taking things personally.

When something bad happens and you continuously replay it in your head in player mode, it’s hard not to sink into all the horrible feelings of the event, and even create some extra ones that didn’t come up at the time, but which emerge as we imagine all the other terrible consequences that could happen. To put it bluntly, we wallow. An important element of wallowing is being fully immersed as the player in the remembered experience(s). This is the perfect strategy to take things personally!

Being able to step back into watcher mode takes the emotional charge out of the situation and lets you be more rational about it. Both modes are important - learning to choose which you want to experience is the really useful life skill.

When you are having a romantic evening with someone you love, it’s going to be a much nicer experience if you are in player mode, often described as, ‘in the moment’. I’m sure you have all experienced situations where either you or the person you are with is not really present - perhaps so preoccupied with something that is not going on in the same room, or so busy worrying about saying the right thing, that they are mentally detached, i.e., in watcher mode. This rarely goes unnoticed by the other person, and generally impacts badly on the moment or conversation.

However, it’s sometimes very useful to be detached in watcher mode. For example, if you are dealing with an emergency, you will be much more focussed and constructive if you can step back and separate yourself from the emotions of the situation. Imagine working in a busy A&E department if you couldn’t do watcher mode? You would soon be overwhelmed by your own emotions, and the potential consequences for the future for the patients and their families of the more seriously ill or injured patients.

If you are one of those people who feels everyone else’s pain, emotional or physical, I’m talking about those of you who cry at adverts here, then being able to step into watcher mode sometimes would be a handy relief.

If you are habitually analytical, and let that stand back, assessing, watcher mode creep into your personal, relational, sociable moments, you might find more fun and joy in those situations when you learn to spend more time in player mode.

Some people are much better at just one, and would benefit from practicing the other mode. For a balanced, happy life, we need both, and practising allows you more choice and flexibility, especially if you want to learn how to not take rejection personally.

One of the biggest misapprehensions I come across when I run our ‘Tools for Goal Setting’ workshop is the belief that there are ‘goals’ people, and those who just bumble through.

Yet there are many successful people who don’t see themselves as ‘goals’ focused. However, anyone who is managing to run their lives reasonably well is setting and fulfilling goals. Whether they do this in a structured, conscious way or not is a matter of organisation not goal setting! Let’s face it, if you didn’t set any goals, you wouldn’t even make it out of bed in the morning.

Most of us have an internal depiction of where we are going. This can take the form of an idea, a picture, or deep sense of purpose which we often unconsciously refer to when making decisions. Very effective people who don’t ‘do’ goals, will often have such a compelling internal vision that is so motivating to them, they just keep ploughing through obstacles to get there. Many of us have this, but not clearly in our awareness, we just ‘instinctively’ know what we need to say yes and no to.

Whether we need structured goals and action plans or not, is a matter of personal preference, and both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, neither is wrong. What’s important is how effective the strategies are.

If what you are doing is working for you, great, keep doing it. If you struggle to get what you want, read on.

Setting your compass

The first and most important step is to work out what you want. I call it setting your compass because it’s not about intricately planning the next decade. You have no way of predicting what will happen over the next 10 years. You and your passions will evolve and the world is constantly changing.

When the first Harry Potter film came out, we smiled indulgently at the talking posters on the wall, and the newspapers with moving pictures in them. Now we walk around any major city in the world and see posters with movies advertising products, and people reading newspapers with embedded video on their hand held devices!

If you keep your long term plans vague and flexible, then as with any journey, when you have to go round the life equivalent of a mountain, or ocean, you’ll have the opportunity to explore new territory. You may even discover new passions that take you in an unexpected direction. It would be a shame to miss those because they weren’t on the plan you drew up years earlier! What does matter is that the direction you set is important to you.

Identify key steps

Once you’ve set your compass, what has to happen to get you there? Identify the smaller goals and key steps that need to happen for this to become your future reality. Put them in order and identify what has to happen first.

For some this will be enough to take action, others will need to spend a bit more time working out the detail, and scheduling in more specific activities. Before you start though, take these goals through the workout below.

The goal workout

As Steven Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People said, “It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall.”

Do this goal workout and make sure your ladder is in exactly the right place! Ask yourself the following questions about each goal:

What do you want?

I mean what specifically do you want? If you want to earn more money, how much more exactly, when do you want to earn it by and what are you going to do with it? The more detail you can add, the more refined and compelling your goal will become.

Sometimes when you go into the detail, your goal can change. Take the goal of wanting to earn more money. Maybe when you’re more specific, you realise that what you actually want is more free time with your friends and family and you have been working on the assumption that the only way to get that is to earn more.

Once you realise that what you thought was the goal was actually the enabler, you can brain storm around your real goal and see if you can come up with an alternative range of solutions and options.

It’s important to state your goal positively. “I want to stop smoking,” or “I want to lose weight,” are examples of negatively set goals, they are stating what you want less of, not more. It’s a bit like jumping into a taxi and saying, “I want to be somewhere else!” You can imagine the response you would get.

Just as the taxi driver has no way of following that instruction, you can’t make a plan or actively ‘stop’ or ‘lose’ something, they are not activities, they are non-activities.

These alternative versions would give you something to aim for:

“I’m going to put the £5 a day I normally spend on cigarettes in a tin box, so in nine months I will have the money I need to book a holiday in Spain.”

“I’m going to follow these eating recommendations and walk four miles every day, and in six months I will have lost four inches off my waistline, and be feeling more energetic.”

The more specific you can be about your goals, the more they come to life in the present, and the more you will feel drawn to putting in the effort to make them happen. 

How will you know when you’ve got it?

How will you measure your success? What evidence will you use to check you’ve achieved your goal? What is enough? What is too much?

This sounds obvious, but you’ve probably met people who’ve strived to attain a position that they thought they wanted, but find that it takes them away from the activities that play to their strengths and that they really enjoy. For example, journalists who become editors sometimes realise that much of their time is taken up by managing people, budgets and schedules as opposed to chasing and writing stories - which is what they are best at and thrive on.

How will other people know you have achieved this goal? What evidence will they use to know you’ve got this goal?

When do you want it?

If your goal is to be really enthusiastic and motivated, do you want this all the time, in every area of your life? Or do you want to be able to switch off sometimes and relax? Being enthusiastic and motivated 24/7 would be exhausting, not to mention a bit challenging to live with, so think about where you want to be like this, and where in your life you don’t want it.

Is this goal right for you?

Perhaps you seek fame and fortune, but are terrified about the impact this might have on your friends and family. If you never address this, it will remain an unhelpful niggle in the background, stopping you from putting in the effort you need to. When you realise what is bothering you, you can address it, change your goal to accommodate it, or knowingly accept the risk.

Perhaps this goal isn’t yours, maybe a parent or teacher set this goal for you when they were trying to help or encourage you when you were younger, and you have been pursuing it trying to please them, ever since. It’s very hard to make a goal work if you don’t really care about it at a deep level.

To find out if your goal fits with who you are, ask the following questions.

• What will you gain if you get this?
• What will you lose if you get this?
• What will you gain if you don’t get this?
• What will you lose if you don’t get this?

The answers to these questions will start to weed out potential or imagined drawbacks to your goals that could be encouraging you to quietly self-sabotage.

Is it within your control?

There’s no point setting a goal that depends on someone else doing something. For example, if your goal was, “I’m going to be commissioned to write for television.” You have to ask yourself, how are you going to make that happen?

Instead, if you focus on what’s in your control, your goal could be, “I’m going to research where my style of writing is currently used in television, then I’m going to allocate one day a week to network, call, and find avenues where I can present my work to give myself the best chance of being commissioned to write for television.” That then becomes a goal you can action.

Ready for action

Once you’ve taken your goals through this workout, you will have highlighted, understood and dealt with any issues you have identified. If the issues you came across were deal breakers, you need to change your goal to accommodate them.

Once you have done this, you will probably find that it is hard not to work towards your goals because this process makes you focus on all the elements that make them more compelling for you. If you like structure, draw a chart, if not, then just by doing this process you will be clearer about your ultimate objectives and this will make your choices easier and your path clearer.

NEW YEAR is an interesting time - both embraced and dreaded. Embraced as a celebration of new starts, opportunities and progress, dreaded as it marks the passing of time, reminding us of lost opportunities, youth and loved ones. And both perspectives are true for us all. As I get older, finding the balance between the two has become harder, probably because we inevitable clock up more losses with age.

I generally embrace this time though as for me it symbolises a fresh start. It’s an opportunity to assess and review the previous year, allowing the laying to rest of old ghosts and regrets, and setting a new course for the year ahead.

If we can intercept and harness our end of year contemplations we can set ourselves up for a more enjoyable and constructive New Year.

Putting 2015 to rest

I love watching all those review programmes on TV at this time of year. I’m always amazed by how much has occurred that I have forgotten about. Did all that really happen this year? I have the same experience when I go through my diary. It’s a really great way to review your own personal highlights and ‘learning experiences’.

Set aside some time to go week by week through your diary for the year that’s ended. Make a list of all the great things you have done and what you learned. If you remember getting lovely feedback, search it out whether it was sent via e-mail or in a publication. Make sure you keep a copy.

I think we should all have an achievements file, where we keep a copy of every good thing anyone ever said about us including every great review and appreciative e-mail. Then, when one of the not so good days come along, we can pull it out and look through it to remind ourselves of what we can do.

For the less successful diary events, we can take a moment to think about what we learned from them, what we would do differently in future, identify any lessons or information that would be useful to hang onto from this experience - keeping the useful bits then discarding the rest, putting them behind us and making a decision to forget about them.

If you go through the whole year like this, you will be impressed with all you have learned and how far you have come. It is so easy to forget where you started from and this is a great way to remind yourself.

Setting yourself up for 2016

Once you have a sense of just how much can happen in one year, it’s good to turn your attention to what you’d like to happen in the year to come.

None of us has a crystal ball, so our plans for the year ahead have to be flexible, ideally a combination of vague directional long term important life goals, and some shorter term, more tangible goals for the next weeks, months and year ahead.

• What do you want more of?
• What do you want less of?
• What do you really care about?
• What did you really enjoy last year?
• Where did the money come from last year?
• What opportunities can you now explore?
• What calls do you need to make?
• Who do you need to get to know better?
• What experience do you need to gain?

Answering some of these questions will help you start to see what kind of goals you need to set for the year ahead.

Finding your balance

Dealing with past regrets and making plans for the future are a great way to allow you to focus more on what you are actually doing right now, and hopefully enjoy it more.

It’s worth mentioning here that the strategies most of us use to make ourselves miserable is to fret about things that have happened in the past, or which may happen in the future. When we are ‘in the moment’ we are experiencing what is happening around us and reacting to it, whether those experiences are good or bad, we don’t usually feel miserable at the time, we are too busy focusing on what to do.

Obviously, learning from the past and planning for the future are very important and unless you are planning a career change to Tibetan monk it’s not practical to imagine a life where you spend all of your time in the moment.

It is important however, to learn to step back from all the planning and worrying and to make sure that you do have an enjoyable present, finding a balance that works for you between all three time zones is your best chance of having a happy and prosperous New Year.

Happy New Year!

AT THE END of a recent workshop on negotiation someone asked the question: “It’s all very good talking about negotiating new work but what about trying to increase your rate to an existing client?” The room fell silent as everyone thought, good question and this got me mulling over how we think about ourselves when it comes to earning more money.

If you were selling apples, you would work out what it cost to grow them, pick them, package and transport them, add something for profit, compare that with what other people are charging, adjust if necessary, then just get on with it. When it comes to selling our own services, for many of us there is almost an embarrassment that we charge for what we do!

I blame Oliver Twist. Generations of us have sat in front of that film and empathised and absorbed that famous scene, so that as grown professionals, we still approach our clients, mentally with bowl in hand, and whisper, “Please sir, I’d like some more”, fully expecting our clients to turn into Harry Secombe screaming, “MORE?”

It’s not rational is it? If they didn’t want or need what we do, we, or others like us, wouldn’t be being paid to do any of this in the first place, would we? If you accept that, it’s really just a matter of degree regarding how much they pay.

Earning enough is one of the biggest worries for most freelances, and, if this includes you, then we have some suggestions that may help.

More of the same

The obvious place to start looking for more income is to find ways to increase what you are already doing. It may even be possible to get additional work from your existing clients. You don’t know unless you ask. Or they may know other people and be prepared to recommend you, again, don’t assume, ask them.

The advantage of doing more of the same is that you have a track record, contacts, and a body of work. It’s very easy to get lulled into thinking that you are doing all you can in any one area. So take a look at what you do with fresh eyes, imagine you are a candidate on The Apprentice with Sir Alan Sugar breathing down your neck, having set you the challenge to find 10 additional opportunities in your area of work. What would you come up with? Once you have your ideas, go speak to people and see if you can make them happen.

Other work for the same clients

Another area where we can become blinkered is to limit what we offer to existing clients to what they have always used us for. If you are hired regularly as a musician by someone, but are technically very skilled, you might be able to offer your services there as well. Or perhaps you teach for an organisation, where you could also perform. Or perform where you could also write.

It’s important to keep looking for opportunities that lie right in front of your nose. In marketing speak this is called ‘low hanging fruit’. Clients are likely to remain blissfully unaware of your many talents if you don’t enlighten them.

Diversify – what else?

What else do you do that you are the ‘go to’ person for your friends and family, but which you don’t actually charge anyone for? Most of us have hidden talents tucked away, some of them have the potential to be good earners. Look at those people who have such a passion for organisation and order, who have managed to create a lucrative business out of sorting out other people’s cupboards and lives. I’ll bet no school careers officer would have suggested that one.

The problem with these special skills that we all have is that they come so easily to us, we often don’t rate them and we harbour the belief that, if we can do them, anyone can, when the truth is quite the opposite. So start off by asking your friends and family what they think you are good at, and see if there is a money maker in there somewhere.

Stop giving it away

This is sticky point for many. While there are times when a foot in the door for no pay or expenses is a genuine opportunity, more often than not you should be charging for what you do. Agreeing to do work for nothing not only devalues your work, it undermines every other professional in your field who is trying to charge appropriately for what they do. Also on a practical level, signing up for unpaid work makes you unavailable to even look for paid work.

Increase your rate

We don’t live in a world where prices are static for us. Pretty much all of our expenses constantly creep upwards, e.g., food, travel, accommodation and power, so without an increase in our rates, we are actually taking a pay cut. When you think about it like that, it seems crazy not to keep this under regular review and periodically adjust your rate.

You’ll need to make a case that explains to your client why you are increasing your rates. Without sounding apologetic, present the facts - I have maintained the same rate for you for X years now, in the meantime, my costs have increased by X %, therefore, I have to increase my rate to £X. I would also suggest giving them some notice of one or two months, rather than saying, “Oh, I forgot to tell you my rates went up this month.”

Most people will recognise the necessity of this, and if they don’t, you have to be prepared to negotiate. You could suggest doing less time for the same money, or maybe there are other benefits you could barter. If they are really not interested in paying you more or making any concessions, you may want to consider walking away. Obviously this is an option you need to think through fully before you open the conversation. Decide what your minimum acceptable outcome is, and what your best alternative options are, then you can make some choices and plan your strategy.

So, forget all about Oliver Twist and get out there to see how you can use the many skills you have to earn more for what you do.

More info

• Effective negotiation e-course
• Diversify your portfolio e-course
• Pitching for work - quick tips

STARTING a career as a creative freelance is always a challenge, but restarting can be just as tough.

It’s not unusual for freelances to have a period of absence; maybe you’ve taken parental leave; or maybe you’re semi-retired and have decided to explore ways of earning extra income; or maybe, like me, you’ve had a permanent job for a few years and are now shifting back to freelancing. Whatever the reason, re-launching yourself as a stand-alone creative professional can be both an exciting and a daunting prospect.

I’m currently in the early stages of my third re-entry into self-employment and I am eager to turn my specialisms - journalism; copywriting; and professional training – into a viable portfolio career. My first re-launch was back in 1998. I had been out of the loop for a mere 12 months but it took me another 12 months to re-establish myself and earn a reasonable income. This was a very difficult year and I quickly learned that planning and forethought are essential.

I had foolishly assumed that the market would be the same as when I left. I expected the same key people would be in the same positions and they would commission work at the same rates. I also thought that my reputation – built over the previous six years – would be strong enough to carry me through the transition. Alas, none of these assumptions were correct.

Thankfully, I learned from my mistakes and am now taking a more structured approach. So far, the following five steps have allowed me to look forward with confidence.

Overlap and plan

Officially, I became freelance again on October 1^st 2015 but I’ve been preparing since January. At first my plan was a little more than a hazy dream, but over these nine months, I did plenty of market research, loads of calculations and slowly added detail to my ambitions. I gave myself the goal of becoming a self-sustaining freelance within twelve months and worked out how much money and approximately how many commissions I would need to be relatively secure.

This period of overlap with my previous job also allowed me to build up a contingency fund for the inevitable ‘rainy days’. Cash flow is always an issue for the self-employed and it is very risky to assume that you will immediately secure commissions and then receive prompt payment. It is clearly a good idea to restart a freelance career with your bank account firmly in the black.

Have a second string to your bow

My own contingency fund has been boosted by a hobby that I turned into a small business. Two years ago, I began trading in vintage maps and I now sell my products at weekly antique markets. Summer and pre-Christmas are the busiest periods but February to May is typically dismal. These seasonal undulations are not necessarily a bad thing, however, because journalism and copywriting tends to have the opposite pattern.

My two income streams are sufficiently diverse to give me a fighting chance of achieving a degree of income stability. The same could be true if I took a part-time job to help counter the unpredictable cash flow of freelancing. Many creative professionals take this route, and there is a lot to be said for devoting a few days a week to earning a guaranteed income even if it involves doing something totally divorced from your creative passions.

Create a digital presence

At the time of my second re-launch in 2008, social networking was still in its infancy and few people recognised the marketing potential of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. Back then, I relied on my website to provide a ‘shop window’ for my services but, in retrospect, it was rather bland, and merely featured a few examples of my articles and statements of my capabilities.

This time, I have revamped my website and it now includes podcasts, videos and links to some of my published work on client websites. I have also set up a Twitter account and follow various news organisations, research bodies and other journalists in my area, and engage in discussions and debates. This allows me to see what issues are on the agenda and, by also following editors, I know who might be receptive to a pitch. The marketing potential of Twitter also works in the other direction and some editors use it to invite bids for freelance work. Spending 20 minutes on Twitter every day is a surprisingly effective way of keeping tabs on your area of specialism.

Even life-long technophobes have the skills to set up Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. These platforms are very easy to use and totally free. You should, however, expect to pay a modest amount for your website, but the rudiments of web design are pretty straightforward, so think hard before commissioning a professional designer.

To design and publish your own multi-media website on WordPress, check out the digital learning centre for free step-by-step tutorials. You can also find examples and tutorials on www.moonfruit.com.

Write a list

Social media is very widely used by creative freelances for self-promotion these days but it has not replaced the tried-and-tested methods. Indeed, phone calls and face-to-face meetings are much more interactive and human than tweeting and sending impersonal emails. They can also be much more productive, if you do some research and carefully target your clients.

I have written numerous lists over recent months but the most important is my top twenty list of potential clients. These include organisations I have worked for in the past, and some that I aspire to work for. For the last few months, I have been catching up with old contacts and following prospective new ones on Twitter to familiarise myself with their publication’s editorial focus and the styles of writing. The next step is to contact these people individually with finely-tuned article proposals, point them at the examples of my work on my website and make myself available for future commissions.

Investigate your entitlements

Freelances are famously proud of their independence and few would expect to get financial help from the state. If, however, you are on a low income, even for a limited period, you have the same entitlement as people in employment. This help could be in the form of housing benefit, tax credits or council tax benefit, and although it might not amount to much on paper, it could be a useful supplement to your earned income.

To find out if you qualify for financial help, have a look at http://www.entitledto.co.uk/. You will need to fill in a few forms but it’s worth the effort and you might be surprised at the outcome.

As with all plans, there is no guarantee that mine will be effective. But it is certainly an improvement on my previous, somewhat disorganised re-launches. My next mission is to start phoning my top twenty potential clients with ideas for work and, with a bit of luck, my bank account will see the benefit of my industry some time in the New Year.