Notes from a Hired Pen: I freelanced during the Great Recession. Here’s what I won’t do again

Readers!

 

How are we doing? Me? Not great! Things are looking pretty grim on the financial front, and I’m not hopeful that it’ll get better quick. I hope it does! But…well. I’ve been planning on a possible recession since that man was elected. It still hasn’t made this tariff-related news any easier.

I’ve been here before. I was still a new-ish freelancer during the Great Recession, which wiped out a big chunk of my work (and value in the house I’d just bought). Of course everything is different right now, but I’ve worked through a downturn before, and those lessons aren’t entirely wasted. So here are mistakes from the Great Recession that I won’t be repeating again.

1. Freeze. I’m scared. Are you scared? It’s natural if you’re paying any attention at all. But don’t freeze — at least not for a significant amount of time. If you haven’t been ramping up your marketing efforts, it’s time to do it now, even if it’s going to be in different areas than it was before. It’s not too late. It never is.
2. Hope a down freelance markets will go back up. In 2007-2009, most of my work was related to travel, one of the first things to go as soon as money gets tight. Despite seeing my clients roll back or disappear, I kept trying to writing in that space. Whoops. One good thing about being a freelancer is that we can quickly shift what we’re doing (and we also can’t entirely lose our jobs). Our skills as communicates are going to be of value in a lot of places. Back then, I made the shift to writing about personal finance, which set the course for some of what I still write today. Now, I’m hitting publications in that sector, but also pitching my supply chain and AI experience to sectors affected by both. I have the skills to meet the moment. I just have to showcase them (I sent one such LOI this morning and got an almost immediate response asking for a Zoom meeting. It might take a few tries, but it can work).
3. Spending as if nothing has changed. Phew that put me into a pretty big hole last time. Since January, I’ve cut my discretionary spending in half. There are better places to get advice on how to do that, but cleaning out my closets and my nail polish collection, and seeing how much I didn’t use anymore (or shamefully never used) really soured me on spending. I cancelled Amazon Prime too, which has made senseless/I’m bored spending much harder. I also cancelled a bunch of streaming services (or only buy a month) and am leaning into what the library offers, which includes streaming and physical DVDs. And (sigh) my fall trip to Italy is on hold until I see what happens. Maybe it’ll be OK! But if not, at least I’ll be in a better position by not pretending life is going to go on just the same.
4. Accept drastically lower fees. I expect budgets will get tight and I’ll need to take a haircut here and there, but I won’t accept some of the rates I was being offered last time, like $.10/word for the same work that a $2/word article pays now. That’s a quick path to burnout, which will just make everything worse.
5. Stick to previous expectations. Do I still want to make six figures this year? Yes. Do I think it’s likely? I don’t know. My first quarter was already down, and I’m worried about the rest of the year. Trimming back on spending means I will hopefully be OK financially in an economic slide, but mentally I need to be OK with that too. Letting that go for now is going to mean I’m not staying up at night ruminating as much as I would be otherwise.
6. Isolate. And I’m telling you all this because I don’t want to hide what’s going on. What’s the point, some people who don’t like me as a freelance advice giver will point and say “LOL!” Well, I don’t care about them anyway. I think it’s far more useful to you, dedicated readers, to see how I really feel, in case you’re feeling that way too.

So I’ll be here through this. And as always, the newsletter will stay free.

 

 

Recent Bylines

“Targeting biomedical research over ‘woke’ policies hurts all of New Jersey,” New Jersey Monitor

“Workers and managers are clashing on RTO. What can HR do?” HR Dive

“Unearthing energy solutions,” Mines Magazine

“Infinite opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts,” Mines Magazine

 

What I’m Watching

• National Gallery. When I told a friend that I was leaning on library stream services to fill in the gap from what paid services I cancelled, she said that I’d be able to watch all of Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries through Kanopy. Hooray! I started with National Gallery, about the museum in London. I put it on while doing marketing, and it was a nice, soothing thing to have on while I worked.
• Mid-century Modern (season 1). Three gay men and one Jewish mother living in a fabulous house in Palm Springs? Yes please! I zipped through this 10-eposide series, which is very silly, but in a way I liked. You have to be in the mood for a traditional sitcom, so if that’s not you, then this might be a pass. Linda Lavin, who plays said mother, was diagnosed with and died of lung cancer while they were filming, and they gave her a very lovely send off. I did agree with criticism from the podcast Little Gold Men that it needed more episodes. Something like this would benefit from a full traditional broadcast-like run.
• Mythic Quest (season 4) This gaming show that’s not really about gaming has been a fav, but this season felt a bit uneven. Still, big laughs (there’s a running joke about saying how great the pandemic was for the business….then yelling BUT OF COURSE THE PANDEMIC IS BAD) and gut punches, especially in episode 8, but it didn’t gel as well as other seasons did for me.
• At Witt’s End This four-part documentary follows the cold case of Melissa Witt, who disappeared on her way to into a bowling alley. I felt conflicted about law enforcement trying to do right here and now, but also how, at the time of her murder, the case was badly bungled. Her poor family.
• Argylle. Silly movie, great cast, about an adventure writer whose novels turn out to be true, but this is entirely too long. Why was this more than two hours? Fine was background while I worked on marketing, but this could have been better coming in around 90 minutes.

Nail Polish of the Week.

Alyssa by Zoya. It’s a brick red that might seem out of step for spring, but I appeared in WHYY’s Studio 2 last week, which is both live on air and on Youtube. Dark nails show up better on screen — you can see for yourself here!

 

Until next time!

Jen A. Miller (she/her)

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