About a month ago, I lost $3K a month in income. (I talk about it a little on the blog here). That’s a pretty serious blow for pretty much any freelancer, and it was huge for me.

Trust…it sent me into a panic (the fact that I was literally in the process of buying a car when I found out didn’t help much), but that panic passed. That’s because I’ve learned a really important lesson from other, more experienced freelancers…when push comes to shove and money falls apart, you really can make up income in a hurry.

This month, we’re going to cover what that looks like. Make sure to take notes, because not only do these points work (I used them myself to replace the bulk of that income in less than 2 weeks) you will need them again…as scary as losing that much income is, it happens to all of us, but you can get yourself ready to survive it (and even capitalize off it) before it even becomes a problem.

The best way to come back from an emergency is to never have one in the first place.

I’m not going to tell you to have an emergency fund of 6 months worth of cash…of course you should be focusing on that, but we all know that isn’t always possible.

What’s almost as good as an emergency fund though? A contract that gives you a buffer.

In my case, my retainer contract specified that I have to be given 30 days notice before termination. That meant that I had one month to get another client lined up while still being paid to wrap everything up with my previous client.

That might not sound like a ton of time, and while it isn’t forever, it is enough time for you to get into some hardcore marketing and maybe even tighten up some spending if necessary. So if your contract for repeat services doesn’t specify a termination notice, consider adding one in.

I can’t tell you how big of a difference knowing that I had a whole month to regroup made. Since I know even my cold-contact contracts take 4-6 weeks before I see a check, that meant I was in minimal financial jeopardy.  

Next week, we’re going to get deeper into what my scramble over the last month has looked like, what exactly I did to find work fast, and the first step you should take if you ever suffer a major blow like that.

Megan