The Productive Path: Conquering the Summer Slump, Harnessing Success through Systems, and Unveiling the Age of Your Apple Computer

Are you in it? That miserable summer slump when work seems to be drying up faster than a grape in the sun. It can be scary, particularly if you’re new to freelancing. Here’s some productive ways to make use of that extra time you’ve got- remember, you’re still running a business!

Work on your website. Can you update it with samples of your work from that busy period you just finished?
Schedule social media posts in advance and update your LinkedIn profile.
Connect and engage with your clients and what they are posting on social media.
Take new classes or learn new skills related to your specialty.
Follow up with previous clients, and see if they need freelance help.
Watch educational YouTube videos from other freelancers in your field.
Join Facebook/LinkedIn groups for freelancers in your specialty and follow message threads.

Early on, I learned a hard lesson and got burned when a client hadn’t been paying their invoices, and I hadn’t been keeping on top of it. They took advantage of how young and naïve I was, and said I had waited too long to follow up on my invoices, so they wouldn’t be paying me (it had been a couple of months). I know now that kind of response is not acceptable. They were still responsible for paying me, but I didn’t know how or if I could actually collect it. That experience taught me an important lesson though: designate a particular day to send invoices (I always send invoices on Mondays, for any work done the previous week). And on that day, check to see what’s overdue, and if you need to follow up. Not every invoicing system does automatic reminders. It’s ultimately your responsibility. Because I’m also a video producer and manage multiple activities for a client and their project, this year, I’ve also been working with a new (to me) project management system, called ClickUp. I am still learning it, but it allows me to store documents, collaborate on documents, create tasks and assign them, and seems to do everything I need! I use Todoist.com to organize my day’s tasks and ensure I don’t get off track. I can use it for repetitive tasks such as “Send invoices every Monday”, and I can also assign tasks to others through Todoist, so I also use it with my virtual assistant. And she assigns tasks to me! I use a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) to keep track of my freelancer network (you’re in it, if you’re getting this!) as well as my clients, and to track communications with business contacts. It’s important to check on integrations with the systems that you use, before you commit. Does the invoicing system integrate with your bank? Does the newsletter creation tool integrate with your CRM? How easy is the product to use? If it’s too hard, you’re not going to want to use it, and it won’t do you any good.

Do you have an Apple computer older than 2018? I do. The news from Apple this past week says I better save up for a new computer. Macs pre-2018, with the Intel chip, will no longer be supported by new operating systems that Apple comes out with. New Macs will come equipped with the Apple designed M2 Ultra processor. (You may already have this in the Mac you have, so if you do, no worries.) So. This, of course, that means you have to also be concerned about your applications, and what operating system they will run on. If you’re running Premiere on Mac OS 12, and the newer version of Premiere requires Mac OS 13 or better, that means you’ll need to make some choices. How long will you run an older version of Premiere on your older operating system, to put off buying a newer computer that will run MacOS 13 or better? I’m a pretty positive person, so I’m trying to look on the bright side: I can replace my older Mac that I use for teleprompting with my 2017 Mac. Then that older Mac can be used as a backup, or by an intern or assistant that isn’t doing video work- desktop publishing, email, internet searching all still run fine on that older computer. And Apple financing offers a 24 month financing plan with no interest, if that helps.