I fell off a freelance cliff, but built a parachute before I hit the ground.
Or, the danger of having too many eggs in one basket, and how to bounce back when that basket disappears.
June 2016. I had been working as a remote contractor — and the primary designer — for a small web dev shop for about 8 years. It was a long, fruitful, and comfortable situation for everyone involved. I was never an employee, but was embedded so deep into their processes and successes that I felt like a permanent, part-time, remote member of their team. My design work impressed their clients and helped them grow their business and reputation substantially over our partnership. I had little worries about where my next clients were coming from because this safety net of new projects reliably filled half my schedule, or even more if I needed it to.
Freelance life was good.
The cliff
Monday morning. I check my emails:
Dear Benek,
We just hired a full time designer to join our team. He starts this morning. We won’t be requiring your services for any new projects, although we may call on you to service existing clients who will expect to be working with you.
