This is one of those point/counterpoint things, although it is kind of dumb because I’m the only author and I have a point of view. However, I am going to try to share what I think is popular sentiment … and what I am experiencing myself.
How has the econmy affected freelance writers or writers, like myself, who run a communications business? You might think that this is the end. I’ve heard writers gripe about their financial miseries in good times and bad, and it seems like the gripers have just adopted the world’s current economic crisis into their litany of negativity. However, some are genuinely worried that as businesses slump, some collapsing, work for writers will dry up. After all, when making budget cuts, aren’t the easiest cuts the payments to outside consultants? And how urgent is written material, really? Many writers can see the handwriting on the wall–when times get tough, freelance writers are just hot hired or retained.
On the other hand, many other freelancers continue to do well, even in the midst of financial jeremiads. This is what I think is happening: many businesses are feeling the squeeze but not to the point that their enterprises are in jeopardy. They just have to count their pennies, keep their eye on the ball, and economize whenever possible. Work, for many companies, hasn’t been reduced at all, but tensions have increased. Now the company faces its usual work issues: how can we produce a software manual? How are we going to prepare ads for our new products? Who will handle the launch? How can we write our annual report?
In more robust economic times, confident businesses hired people to do these tasks. They hired writers and designers and marketing coordinators to tackle these problems. Today, these businesses are not as robust and certainly not as confident. Hiring people is risky business. When you hire a person, you take on a potential liability. If your new hire doesn’t work out, it’s a long, painful process to get rid of that person and one fraught with potential lawsuits. If you hire somebody and need to lay that person off because the business goes south, you may incur severence costs and the messy business of having to get rid of a new person, not to mention the guilt that comes from messing up somebody’s life and career.
Businesses aren’t hiring. That’s the truth. But all that work has to go somewhere, and much of the writing work is being farmed out. Here’s why freelancers make sense:
- Businesses can hire us by the project; permanent hires are open-ended contracts.
- Businesses can control the costs–if they know a project will cost $3,000 to complete they can decide if and when they want to do it.
- Businesses can “try it before they buy it” by vetting freelancers on small projects and moving up if we prove our worth. That’s not always possible with a permanent hire.
- Most freelancers are very focused and client-oriented. People who get hired by companies often find they have more than one boss (de facto, if not on paper), multiple priorities, and sometimes conflicting obligations–not to mention the distractions of the water color, coffee bar, and office romance and politics. In short, freelancers are often faster.
- Freelancers rarely disrupt the office. Most employees don’t, either, but a bad hire can have repercussions for the whole department. We’ve all known employees who were troublemakers or otherwise gotten people off-track. Freelancers can’t do that.
Without wanting to minimize the pain of those caught in the crunch of this economic downturn, my attitude is that for most freelancers, it’s business as usual or better.
