My business is mostly designing brands for small companies as well as designs that get screen printed for apparel. My screen printing clients are usually big conventions and organizations that have all had to cancel their events. I’ve had almost nothing to do this whole week aside from jobs that needed to be finished before non-essential shutdown 2020.
Anyone else hurting… yet?
We build/print for those tradeshows and took a hit. Some are being rescheduled, so don’t lose hope. When the economy starts back up, you might be busier than you can handle.
We learned our lesson back in the economy crash of 2008 and diversified. Just enough other work outside the large-venue stuff to pay the bills.
i cant stop drawing ideas, im busy!
but no one is paying for these!
I’ve always struggled, so not much new is going on here. Currently, existing clients need work done, and I just received a new musical client this week looking to promote their new single.
Diversifying is so important, now more than ever. New Zealand has been on lockdown for 11 days now. All non-essential businesses are closed for a minimum of 4 weeks. We are all grounded at home. I have a lot of freelance clients in the food industry for both design and photography.
There is absolutely no photography work for me right now.
For graphic design, my larger clients have put everything on hold, but the smaller self-employed clients are keeping me busy. I think because they have always worked from home and now have some time to think strategically about their business. Small companies are going to keep me afloat.
I also have 1 client who sells cleaning products, including hand sanitisers and wipes. They need packaging, catalogues, shipping containers etc for all their new products. I’m super grateful that I’m basically working full time for them at the moment.
If I had some time, I would update my portfolio. Perhaps that is something you could do?
I’ve had a few bits and pieces in, but generally it’s been much quieter than usual - for obvious reasons. Biggest issue I’m having at the moment is getting outstanding invoices paid from the larger clients, which make up the bulk of my usual work - there’s just nobody there to pay me!
But, it’s the same for most people now. In the first week of ‘lockdown’ here, I spent ages torturing myself thinking I should update this, start that etc - but in reality got nothing done at all because it seemed overwhelming. Not helped by having to homeschool, and the inevitable distraction of following the news.
In the last few days I decided to just ‘go with the flow’, not pressure myself to make the most of this ‘free time’ and simply have some downtime. That has helped and I now feel more able to actually get something done, having relieved myself of the psychological pressure.
I’m glad you got yourself into a better place.
The newsfeed is a major problem and causing people more anxiety than they need. I read the top feeds for my area in the morning along with a check on the latest federal stuff, then forget about it for the rest of the day. The news media is in it for the clicks. Don’t fall into the abyss.
seems to me the mainstream news and these Governors are confusing a viral pandemic with a nuclear accident.
“stay indoors” “no contact” “don’t breathe” “vote” “wait” “stay informed”
and only shops that sell lottery ticket are open in our area.
with too many used latex gloves on the streets and sidewalks
There are a surprisingly large number of small businesses still open here.
And people are slobs. Just hope they aren’t flushing those gloves into the sewer.
But this is straying off topic.
I had a huge issue getting anything done around the house the first week I was out too. Mostly because people from work kept calling me (they were working remotely too.) Had to set some boundaries the second week when I was using up my own vacay time. I told them I’d charge their project 1 hour every time they called me and 2 hours if I had to turn on the computer. That sorta worked.
I can’t say when the last time was I’ve really had a vacation. I believe it was 2010 – and I had to leave the country to do it.