I don\u2019t have time to market my business when I have a ton of clients, but then I don\u2019t get any more clients because I\u2019m not marketing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve seen this statement and problem among freelancers, even when they\u2019ve been at it for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You put a lot of effort into marketing, then get a bunch of clients and don\u2019t have time to do any marketing. Then the clients drop off because you haven\u2019t been marketing and you start the process again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what we call the feast and famine cycle. This is what you want to avoid.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketing your business needs to be a constant. Although the ways and intensity of your marketing can adjust, especially during busy client times, it should never stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although I shared with you a few strategies to\u00a0get your very first clients<\/a>\u00a0last week, you need to put a plan in place and choose specific marketing strategies that you commit to doing for the long-haul, regardless of how busy you are at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things like blogging, social media and email marketing (all topics I cover in\u00a0The FTFP\u00a0School<\/a>!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know how hard this is because I have this problem myself. When someone is interested in giving you money \u2014 you want it as soon as possible. But there are only so many hours in the day, and if you over-book yourself, the first thing to go will be your marketing. Especially because you\u2019re so busy with client work, it\u2019s easy to assume these big pay-days are going to keep coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not until they stop coming that you realize, \u201cCrap, I made a lot in a short period but now I have nothing in the pipeline\u201d<\/em>. We never expect<\/em> it to happen but it does.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Be okay with booking clients at different intervals. You might lose a client if you tell them you\u2019re not available for 3 months, but you won\u2019t lose them if you tell them you can get started in two weeks. Don\u2019t assume they\u2019ll go to someone else just because you can\u2019t start tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m no financial planner, but I did see a big difference in the stress of uneven monthly income when I started setting aside a chunk of my income to go to the next month\u2019s expenses. I use and love\u00a0You Need a Budget<\/a>\u00a0to help me track this. I make sure that what comes into my business bank account, doesn\u2019t leave to my personal checking until my expenses for the next month are accounted and saved for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This ensures I always have my bills taken care of in advance and never experience a \u201cfamine\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick one day of the week where you commit to working on marketing. Don\u2019t work on client stuff, don\u2019t work on admin stuff. Choose a chunk of time that you dedicate to writing blog posts, sending your newsletter, and creating social media posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can even go so far as to let your clients know you are not available on that day for client work so you don\u2019t feel guilty not responding to emails or getting client work done on that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick a day and stick to it.<\/strong>\u00a0Whether it\u2019s once a week in the morning, or every other week all day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of blogging when the inspiration strikes or when you \u201chave time\u201d,<\/strong> spend one of your designated marketing days focused on writing several posts. (This post is the second of three I\u2019m writing all in one afternoon!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of sending your newsletter only when you have a blog post<\/strong>, spend one of your designated marketing days batch-writing several newsletters that are unrelated to blog posts. The easiest way to do this is come up with some random quick tips that will help your subscribers solve a problem. Something that you don\u2019t have enough to say about for a full blog post, but will still be helpful to your audience. Write 5 of these emails that are ready to send in case you don\u2019t have a blog post scheduled one week and would normally skip sending your newsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of being a roller-coaster social poster<\/strong>\u00a0(ya\u2019 know, one day you\u2019re sharing everything you find and then the next two you\u2019re not posting anything), spend one of your designated marketing days batch writing interesting stuff to share on your social channels. This way you can be sure your feeds will stay fresh and updated even if you aren\u2019t in a share frenzy mood one week. This is also a great way to ensure you\u2019re sharing a balance of types of posts (and not just other people\u2019s content or your own) because you can be more strategic in your planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is never a better time than right now to put these strategies in place. Don\u2019t wait until you get on the feast or famine rollercoaster and then have to try and get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I recently saw a post in freelance group I\u2019m a part of that said: I don\u2019t have time to market my business when I have a ton of clients, but then I don\u2019t get any more clients because I\u2019m not marketing. This isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve seen this statement and problem among freelancers, even … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}So what can you do to keep your income steady?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/feast-or-famine-684x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nDON\u2019T OVERBOOK YOURSELF AT ANY GIVEN TIME<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
GET A CONTROL OF YOUR BUDGET<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
CHOOSE ONE DAY<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
BATCH YOUR MARKETING<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Start Now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freelancetofreedomproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Leah-Signature.png\")
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