How to take advantage of the holidays with your freelancing

The holidays may be the time to relax and enjoy, but for someone who is engaged in freelancing, it’s the season where opportunities open. So, what are these and how do you take advantage of it? We’ll answer that in this article.

Take the time to learn new skills

Projects might be lower than usual since everyone is in holiday mode, including your clients. It also means that you might have more time in your hands, so you can take this opportunity to improve your skills or learn new ones. You can read books, watch tutorials on YouTube, or enroll in free online classes.

Greet your clients

Although everyone is in vacation mode, you can still get in touch with your client and keep the working relationship warm by sending him/her a holiday greeting. You can also take this opportunity to offer them promos like discounts or extra service if you want to have additional job orders during the holidays. If you’re feeling generous, you can also provide them with pro bono work that they can use after the holidays. These acts will be much appreciated and will surely help them remember you for future projects.

Upgrade your gear

Funds are usually higher during the holiday season due to bonuses and gifts. Instead of using these funds on useless things, why not invest in your equipment that can help your freelancing. It can be a new and more powerful laptop, better cameras, more books on for self-development, or faster internet subscription. Since it’s also the time for gift-giving, if possible, you can send a wish list of things that you can use for your freelancing work. Aside from saving some cash, you’ll get a better appreciation of these gifts as you can use it to make a living.

Upgrade your payments system

If you’re mostly relying on bank-to-bank transfers or local remittance services, now’s the time to upgrade. Worldwide online payments systems like PayPal makes it easier for you to receive payments from clients virtually from almost anywhere in the world. It’s also an indication that your services can are available globally. You can sign up to PayPal’s services here.

Update your portfolio or rate card

Since you’re already preparing for the holidays of the year, why not take this time to update your portfolio and your rate card. Review the projects you have handled during the previous year and put them in your portfolio. If you still have time, why not update the look of your website. You might also want to upgrade your rate card and adjust fees to accommodate your financial needs better.

Create a new strategy or action plan

It’s wise to plan the whole year if possible. Write down your goals and objectives for the rest of the year. Plan your vacation by checking out the dates of other holidays and special events. The key is to plan by looking at your calendar and make sure they’re filled out with the things you want to accomplish.

Look back at the past year

It’s also an excellent time to look back at what happened to your freelancing work in the past year. Write down your milestones and achievements as they can be a source of encouragement to keep doing what you do best. If you made mistakes, don’t ignore them and instead learn from those incidents so it won’t happen again, or you’ll know what to do in case it does.

And that sums up our freelancing tips for this article. We hope that these can help you face your freelancing career with optimism. If you have your tips, feel free to share in the comments below.