Freelancing during Coronavirus: From Movies with Stallone to Freelance Writing | Inkwell Editorial
Publisher Note: The following is a guest post. It is the fifth in a series of posts about freelancing during the Coronavirus pandemic. It features stories of …
Those who have turned to freelancing, are thinking about it, or have had their existing freelance business impacted by COVID-19.
The goal of this series is to underscore that you’re not alone; that we’re all in this together.
Also, to offer help, hope and encouragement so that we all come out of this stronger than ever.
I hope you enjoy these accounts. BTW, you can view all of them in the series at the end of this post.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Here’s the site’s full affiliate disclosure policy.
Freelancing: A Family Affair
Whether you’re a freelancer, or you work in corporate, this is not a time to rest on your laurels. Why not?
It’s not for the reasons you’re thinking. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
My parents were freelancers: commercial artists. As I was growing up, most of the adults I interacted with on any regular basis worked as freelancers. It was my normal.
In fact, here’s how I envisioned my first career as an adult: I would work as a freelancer in the motion picture industry as a camera assistant in order to fund my writing destiny. It sounded pretty reasonable to me at the time.
I had a great career for a decade. I was earning $70,000 while working maybe seven months out of the year in film. Then 2008 came along.
A Global Financial Crisis Crashes a Hollywood Career
That’s when our perfect tsunami hit — when reality tv and the new digital media, photobombed by the writer’s strike, brought our industry to a screeching halt.
You know the rest: that same year, the global economy took a long walk off a short cliff.
To be honest though, I was already pretty much over it by then. The film industry is a greedy mistress: she doesn’t like it when you do anything else.
Working 15 to 18-hour days is the norm. In the industry, we call Friday ‘Fraturday’. Why?
Because inevitably, due to union regulations on turnarounds, if we start work at 6 am on Monday, by Friday, we’re starting around 4 in the afternoon.
We work until dawn or just past on Saturday.
That means you sleep until Saturday evening, and have one day to recover before you start all over again at 6am on Monday.
It’s not particularly safe, either. You may have heard of Sarah Jones.
Debt & Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
So what’s a girl to do when a dream career comes with a generous helping of death wish à la carte?
I knew I could do anything I decided to do. I could work forty hours straight. I’d done it working with Stallone on ‘The Expendables.’
I could keep going indefinitely, as long as I felt my environment was safe.
At 35, I downsized. I moved in with my parents. I used up my savings (mostly paying for $450/month health insurance). I went into debt.
I wrote and taught an Italian post-secondary course online, accredited with the University of Wyoming.
I worked full-time as a professional baker in New Orleans.
I co-produced and shot a documentary on the how musicians from Minnesota to California are living in the age of Spotify.
I taught Kundalini Yoga and Meditation classes.
I owned and operated a tax strategy and preparation business.
I worked as a rural mail carrier for the United States Postal Service.
Freelancing by Any Other Name …
Here’s the point:I did freelance. I did (juggling many) part-time gigs. I did entrepreneurship. I did corporate. I did government.
Another Disaster, Another Job, Another Life Change
Then came the Thomas Fire, in early December 2017. I gave up a hard-won job with retirement potential because by 42, my health had become a greedier mistress than the film industry ever was.
The result: I evacuated to a new city. I took the first job offer I received: by mid-January, I was working full-time in a Walmart, commuting 90 minutes each way.
I’m not there anymore.
I’m in corporate again. I’ve fought hard for my forty-hour limit per week after 18 months of 90- to 100-hour pay periods, because I know something now that it took the last decade to glean.
Here it is: my offering to you, free of charge.
Career Advice It Took Me a Decade to Learn (Yours for Free)
That job where you work for someone else? That’s just to keep you under a roof and to pay for food and essentials while you build your own business, diversifying your cash flow in ways that were unprecedented before the advent of the internet.
Bonus: It’s also social. I missed working with colleagues when I was running my business all by myself.
It’s hard to run a business. It’s hard to stay in business. There’s a reason the IRS gives us three out of five years to claim business losses.
Fifty percent of small businesses fail after five years; 70% fail by year ten.
My first business lasted three years.
My next business will be writing, and it will last me the rest of my life.
So what does all of this have to do with the ‘Rona?
It’s true that disasters seem to be increasing in frequency, wherever we live in the world.
Whether it’s Coronavirus today, fires in California or Australia, an earthquake in Indonesia, or a dive in the global economy, we are all impacted.
It’s a smart move to invest some quality time in creating a way to earn a living virtually.
I’m single, an only child, and it’s time for me to keep an eye on my parents. Sometimes daily. Sometimes weekly.
I’m lucky: as of this writing, my employer plans to pay all of us full-time for a few weeks while we work from home.
If we are let go, we’ll be eligible for up to $450/week in unemployment for up to six months here in the state of California.
Why Freelance Writing Will Be My “Forever” Career
My intention is to remain with this company. I continue to build my writing business whether I am working 40 hours per week in corporate or not.
Because this is what I was getting at in the beginning of this post. You see how quickly life can change. You’re living it right now. Wherever you are in the world.
This is a time of action. It’s not because “there’s no corporate loyalty anymore.” It’s not because “you can’t count on freelance work.”
It’s because we are living in a time where making a living doing what you love to do is more possible than it has ever been before.
Thank you, personal computers. Thank you, internet.
Related: Freelance Success Stories
Conclusion
This is your opportunity to shine. Share with the world what only you can do in your special way — whether it’s writing, doing taxes, or underwater basket weaving.
And for those of us who have aspirations in the arts (I’m looking at you, closet writers!) — take a look at what you see trending right now online.
What are people reaching for? The arts. Entertainment. These are the things we’re living for, in times of uncertainty.
What are you waiting for?
About the Author: Michaele Shapiro is an aspiring freelance writer. She can be found on her blog, on Facebook and on IMDB’s site here.
P.S.: Make Money Blogging (Learn from a Million $/Year Blogger)
Originally published at https://inkwelleditorial.com on May 1, 2020.
