8 ways to thrive (during a recession)

When I got laid off during the Great Recession, I had a whopping 6 months of experience, a pile of credit card debt (thanks, grad school!), and $486 in my checking account.

Let me share 8 things that helped me, a brand-new freelancer, replace my 9-to-5 salary in less than 12 months in a “bad” economy.

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Solve your biggest freelance headaches

As satisfying as originality can be for freelancers, we increase our effective hourly rate through efficiency. And we increase both our efficiency and effectiveness through templates and other forms of well-defined process.

Now that I’m 15 years in, my freelance library has dozens of templates and templated processes. If you’d like to add to your own, grab my Freelance Business Toolkit, which includes the following:

• 1-Page Website Content Strategy
• My 12 Go-To Follow-Up Emails
• Juicy Offers Worksheet
• 5 Critical Discovery Questions + Proposal Sections
• Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your
• Marketing Plan Template, including Step-by-Step Guide

You can get the whole toolkit, templates included, for $49.

P.S.

I’m kicking around the idea of expanding this toolkit into a proper library that will eventually house all of my templates, cheat sheets, checklists, exercises, workbooks, SOPs, courses, playbooks, and other tools and resources I use with my own clients.

The idea would be to make that library available to you for a reasonable monthly price and add to the library based on which new things get the most upvotes.

Then, I’d start a private community to go with it, which you could join for a bit more. I’d probably cap the size of the community, too.

Anyway, if that piques your curiosity, I’d appreciate it if you answered 3 questions to help me sharpen my thinking: https://forms.gle/B6bCWU5KVghxV5Ff9.

About Austin L. Church

Hi, I'm Austin L. Church, a writer, marketing consultant, and business coach.

I started freelancing in 2009 after finishing my M.A. in Literature and getting laid off from a marketing agency. Freelancing led to a portfolio of mobile apps, tech startup, children's book, branding studio, and consulting practice.

Over the last 15 years, I've made north of $1.8 million as a creative entrepreneur, and looking back, I see so many missed opportunities.

That's why I'm so passionate about stacking up specific advantages and teaching freelancers, consultants, and creators how to do the same.

I want more of us to find our income-lifestyle sweet spot.

You can learn more at FreelanceCake.com.