As a freelancer, I felt lucky that I didn’t have to deal with the hassle of setting up a home office in March like so many others did. The biggest disruption for me was suddenly having the whole family at home for weeks on end. The first week or so was frantic. I was trying to work, trying to help my kids with school, fighting my husband for bandwidth – but the business side was manageable.
Then, my work suddenly dropped off. Businesses and publishers delayed jobs, many of which were eventually cancelled or have only just popped up again. Safe to say, my bottom line for the first half of the year didn’t meet expectations.
On the bright side, this situation has forced me to focus on professionalising my working environment and future-proofing my business.
On the home front
The first step was to create space in the house for a proper office just for me. Previously, my husband and I shared a home office. It worked well because I could use it during the day and he could use it in the evenings and weekends. During the shutdown it became very clear that I needed a space of my own.
So, with a bit of rearranging in the house, and an eventual trip to Ikea, I now have my own space in a corner of the guest room. Crucially, I have a door!
Which leads me to managing my work while the children are around.
I am basically the default parent. Whenever something is wrong, something is missing, someone is hungry, the first call is to ‘Muuuum!’ To combat this during work hours, I drew up a traffic light system and stuck it on the door.
Red = Do not disturb
Orange = You can knock but I might not answer
Green = Come in, but only if your question is not answered below:
‘I’m hungry.’
You can have: a piece of fruit, a piece of cheese, some crackers, some nuts or a muesli bar.
‘I’m bored.’
You can: fold washing, empty the dishwasher, tidy your bedroom, read a book, practice your times tables, play outside, draw, or write a letter to your grandparents.
‘He/she is annoying me!’
Oh dear, you poor thing. If you can hand-on-your-heart say you didn’t do anything to deserve it, then come on in.
Amazingly, this actually worked about eighty per cent of the time.
I’ve also invested in a WIFI repeater, which extends the reach of the signal. This means both my husband and I can have a full-strength signal without having to wander about the house.
On the business front
One thing I realised, was that I’d been keeping too many eggs in a very small number of baskets, in terms of channels for finding work, which meant that when they stopped flowing, I was at a loss for where to look.
With that in mind, I’ve been drafting a more comprehensive marketing plan and have used some of that unexpected spare time to upskill.
Lastly, I’ve tweaked my terms and conditions to include a cancellation fee. Honestly, I should have done this ages ago, but I never had cause to.
These changes have been nothing but positive. I love having my own work space and I actually feel more focused and organised than I did before because everything is always set up how I like it. I’m also starting to see the fruits of my marketing labours with some new clients popping up. Now, we just have to hope that the coming winter won’t bring another lockdown with it.
Stay healthy!