How to Maintain Your Freelance Business in Bad Times

The US launched a tariff-based trade war that caused the stock market to record its worst week since the height of the Covid pandemic. Economists have predicted that unless the powers that be make a U-turn, there’s a strong chance we’re headed for a recession. I’m afraid to look  at my retirement savings account.

As troubling as everything seems, if you’ve been in the independent contractor business for long enough, you’ve seen this before. When the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, in 2008 during the Great Recession, and during the quarantine days of the pandemic.

So what can a freelancer to do?

Turns out, plenty.

I dug through the archives of my long-neglected WordCount blog on making a living freelancing for advice I collected and shared during recessions of yore about making it through tough times.

The suggestions boil down to a few simple maxims: cultivate relationships with existing and new clients, specialize, learn new skills, and network.

Here are strategies that have worked in the past, refreshed for 2025:

Keep regular clients happy.

Attend to your core clients by working hard to keep them happy. The best way to do that is to deliver what you promised. Sounds basic, but basics matter! That hit home the other week when a ghostwriting agency I subcontract with sent around a client’s style guide because the client had complained that some of the agency’s ghostwriters hadn’t been following it and it was making the agency look bad. Like I said, basics matter. Even better, go above and beyond what’s expected. Also, let clients know you’re available for additional work. Ask clients if they have projects that need doing or colleagues in other departments that might need writing or editing help.

Reach out to former clients. 

If you’ve already worked with someone – and the work went well – you’re a known entity, and people would rather work with someone they’re familiar with and can trust to get the job done than take a flyer on someone they don’t know. Reconnecting after months or years have gone by might feel weird. But it doesn’t have to. Keep it low-key. Reach out to say hi and see how they’re doing. The idea is to remind them you’re around. Who knows – they might be on the verge of starting a project and need someone with your skills.

Market yourself as an alternative to a full-time hire.

Down times can be good times for independent contractors because publications or agencies may be more amenable to using freelancers over adding someone to the payroll. Just be careful not to end up working like a W2 employee while getting paid as a 1099 freelancer. If you see LinkedIn job listings for full-time in-house positions, contact the organization to offer to do the work as a contractor – the worst thing that could happen is they say no thanks.

Change your thinking about where work comes from.

Short, quick-turn, or otherwise small assignments might not be career builders. But they help pay the bills. And they can establish your bona fides with a client that could lead to recurring work or bigger projects. Look for gig work in freelance work resources such as Kaitlyn Arford’s 100 freelance opportunities weekly newsletter; the Freelance Writing Jobs page of Jennifer Mattern’s All Freelance Writing site; or the subscription-based FreelanceSuccess.com site, which features Arford’s listings among other opportunities. Search social channels like LinkedIn and X for posts from editors and content agencies looking for contributors.

Think in terms of hourly rates, not per word fees.

Freelancers sometimes pass up work because the per-word rate is low. But projects should be judged on their merits, not per-word rates. $1 a word for a 1,000-word story sounds great – until the editor asks for the eighth revision. On the other hand, a $800 project you can polish off in a few hours can pencil out to a decent hourly rate. This is a staple of the advice espoused by content marketing writing expert and ASJA member Jennifer Goforth Gregory. She spells out her philosophy in this recent LinkedIn post.

Specialize.

If you’ve been a generalist, it could be time to focus on a specific niche, which could be a topic you cover, such as pediatric health care or sustainability, or a service you provide, such as copyediting academic journal articles or doing content marketing for law firms. I outlined a number of options for specializing in this WordCount post. It’s old, but the primary advice is still relevant: decide on a specialty that suits you, get training, start out small, and use a steady gig to get started or jump from one niche to another.

SWOT.

Pinpoint where you could improve your freelance business by doing a SWOT analysis. Look at your strengths, as a writer and business operator. Do the same for your weaknesses. Examine opportunities with present or potential clients. Determine threats to existing client relationships and whether the services you provide represent a value that exceeds their cost. Use what you learn to make changes to what you offer and how you market yourself.

Learn a new skill.

A SWOT analysis may determine that you could differentiate yourself by picking up skills that other freelancers don’t have. It could be learning Canva, ChatGPT, SEO, content strategy management, developmental editing, book coaching, writing podcast scripts, or speechwriting. Look through recordings of past ASJA webinars for short courses on personal essay writing, Canva, and optimizing LinkedIn. Take advantage of free classes offered by writing training programs such as Poynter.

Connect with other independent writers.

The recent ASJA conference in New York attested to the power of getting together in person with colleagues old and new to feel rejuvenated and excited about writing. Aside from the good vibes, networking is great for finding story ideas, outlets to pitch, and other opportunities. It’s also great for crowdsourcing solutions to freelance-related problems, whether it’s chasing a late payment or crafting a better book proposal. And it doesn’t have to be in person. ASJA hosts an hour-long virtual coffee chat on Google Meet every Tuesday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. (Coffee chats are members-only.)

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Michelle Rafter is a business reporter turned ghostwriter based in Portland, Oregon. She’s ASJA’s publications chair and has been a member since 2010.