Freelance Apple

In the case of any emergency we have become accustomed to rely on the trustworthy number ‘911′ in the USA and ‘999′ in the UK. Unfortunately there is no freelancer’s 911 or 999 for when disasters strikes your business, you have to pull through it without resuscitation or a rescue team. This thought is frightening for many freelancers and if dealt with in panic, it can be detrimental to the future of your freelancing career. There are things which we can do before an event to reduce the effects which a disaster may have on our business.

Born Ready

Before a disaster hits your business, you need to be fully prepared for it well in advance. This involves bracing your business for the disaster, but also being psychologically prepared. This is an important step, as many freelancers are finding out in the recession.

When disaster strikes, it can affect a range of areas in your business. Here are some things you may wish to consider:

Insurance

It can be useful to have home and content insurance even if you are not required to do so by law. If you have a burglary at your home and your computer is stolen, at least you can have your computer replaced. Some insurance companies ask for evidence, so it may be useful to retain your receipts for your expensive possessions (no, not Halo and COD!).

External Hard drive

A friend of mine recently lost everything on his computer without any warning. He hadn’t backed anything up due to his cocky nature and he ended up losing all his work and disappointing many clients. Imagine what it did to his reputation as a freelancer.

I really doubt that someone will steal your external hard drive and if they do I would start searching for a stalker more than a burglar! However there are websites which back up files for you, so you may wish to trust the world wide web.

Finance

The disaster which strikes your business may not necessarily be an event which destroys your possessions, rather it can be an event like the present global recession. The last recession taught people in that time to not be such consumerists and to actually have savings for the inevitably over expressed “rainy day”. That generation was that of our parents and our generation learnt naught from them and we made the same mistake and lo and behold! A rainy day came when the notorious stock market took a roller-coaster dip downward. It affected everyone, rich and poor but especially the self-employed.

There can be times when no matter how great your skill may be and no matter how well known you are as a reliable freelancers, when the economy takes a plunge, brace your business for a plunge too. If there are no clients and no new projects for you to do, you will start missing mortgage payments and times will become increasingly hard. Learn from criminals and have a secret stash of money and NEVER touch it until you have exhausted all options.

Happy and Sad

I recently became the father of the prettiest girl in the world and this was a positive event which effected my work. Late nights with the baby, and generally looking after my daughter especially while my wife was unwell meant that the business suffered. Part of my many projects online, FreelanceApple.com is only one and this is a perfect example for both of the scenarios I wish to discuss. When my daughter was born, there was no time for me to run my online businesses let alone write articles, and FreelanceApple suffered. I had initially thought that I would be able to work despite being a new father, this proved to be untrue. Once my wife started feeling better and we shared the work-load more evenly I started resuscitating my business but in my arrogance I thought nothing would happen without previous warning.

Unfortunately there was a bereavement in the family and this caused not only sorrow but the general inability to work once again. There was no freelancer’s 911 which I could call to take care of my business and bring it back to life, so I had to get through the thick of it the hard way.

Conclusion

Always be prepared for the worst. There can be events which occur causing your business to crash and burn. The best thing to do is to know that despite any disaster, you are fine and that means that you can do it all over again like you did before. Have faith and the courage to pick yourself up and tell yourself “I get knocked down, but I get up again!”

Have you had an event which effected your business? How did you deal with it? What advice would you give to your fellow freelancers on this site? Please tell us below.

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