As previously mentioned in the end of year gathering and the freelance marketing during inflation blog, I think we’re in for some tough times ahead. We’re likely to slide into recession or walk in the murkier foothills of inflation for a while longer.

There’s already enough advice about updating to the new SEO, rethinking social media, and advocating for all kinds of courses, tips and techniques. I don’t want to be another voice that adds to that.

Instead, I am letting you into my brain and my fight back process.

What works for me is thinking like a hybrid between a research nerd and an old gumshoe detective. One that considers everything going on, industries, influences, and reporting and figures out the situation from there.

As freelancers, we stress out when the economic landscape shifts. We hustle to find jobs, throw the freelance towel in, start amping up the marketing, and avoid the pain without taking a moment to reflect.

It’s understandable. These moments are frightening. But now more than ever is to look at what you can offer the world as a talented creative in your field and as a member of the freelance industry and sell the benefit of what you do.

Now is the time to extol the virtues of the lower commitment, more nimble, better technically and technologically enabled, diversified skill set you offer as a freelancer.

That’s why I’m sharing my client research process with you. I want to help you get curious and a little fire back in your freelance tail. Plus, I’m offering the insights to help you.

Why researching client challenges benefits you

In really simple terms, this is the wider brushstrokes where:

  • You identify the challenges industries face
  • Look at how that influences freelancers
  • Identify the action points
  • Decide what is and isn’t worthwhile

I use this information to help me: 

  • Decide what niches to focus on
  • Build new products and service offerings
  • Create content marketing
  • Address challenges in what I say
  • Inform what networking events I go to
  • Speak the client’s language
  • Choose what to learn
  • Avoid marketing without a plan

What you’re about to read is likely different from what you’re used to. That’s why I’m setting up a Q&A session where you can ask me anything you want about this info, get my take on what you think is valuable, and get a better understanding of the approach and value.

Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer: 

I am not an economics major, a business brainiac or the owner of a crystal ball. I read, research, and try to make sense of the info. Take what’s mentioned here with a grain of salt and think about your own experience in these industries and challenges. Try it out on a small scale and see if it actually works.

And of course, don’t hesitate to share your insights in the comments, especially if you think it’ll benefit your fellow freelancers.

Just a heads up, “post-covid” is the term the economists and business leaders are using. Not many of you agree with our view that we’re post-covid, especially with cases going up right now (December 2023 to January 2024). I agree with you. But for the sake of clarity, I am using their terms. See it as a way of marking a period of major disruptions like lockdowns, high hospitalizations, and programs like JobKeeper.

This blog incorporates forecasts and data from multiple 2024 Australian forecast blogs released in December and January. I started linking things, and it did my head in. But if you Google the topics, you’ll see major forecast lists include at least the top ten topics here as standard.

It’s also designed to skim. I thought about doing them as a challenge per blog but that seemed like a lot of work. So, scroll and read as you need to.

Here are the client challenges and potential ways you can leverage them to your advantage 

Inflation

With inflation driven by a higher cost of food, shelter and energy, and Australia seemingly only playing one song in the fiscal management handbook (Raise those funky interest rates, raise those funky rates so high!), inflation will continue to be a royal pain in the freelance bum for some time to come.

Plus, a help-to-buy housing scheme is coming from the government. Traditionally, whenever we see schemes the house prices go up in Australia. Here’s hoping this is not one of those times. It will be interesting to see what happens.

What that means for freelancers

If you’re considering a price rise, sooner rather than later is better. Clients may understand it’s the rising cost of doing business. Just be smart about it (give ample notice), and be OK with negotiating if needs be.

Redundancies will continue throughout 2024. That sounds bad for us, but it’s not. As ghoulish as it sounds, six to eight weeks after any large-scale retrenchments, they notice the pressure. From then on, they’ll be lamenting their inability to hire someone in that role for another ten months. That can be an ideal time to put your CV out to these companies because the realisation they’re now understaffed and are stuck with an unmanageable workload may be dawning.

Focus on marketing yourself as temporary, low commitment, highly autonomous, hit-the-ground-running style talent.

If you’ve wondered if there is a right time to use that money you’ve dutifully socked away to study, this maybe it. Freshening up your brain with new ideas while making new contacts is a good way to get a jump on sectors once inflation recedes. As long as your living circumstances are relatively stable (e.g. no big jumps in rent etc)

Or prepare for homeownership. Get ready to jump in early on that help-to-buy housing scheme and save for the deposit while also making sure you’ll have the required 24 months proof of stable freelance earnings. Talent agencies (like the ones listed in the Hug a Freelancer client eBook) could be a great way to get there.

The changing Australian working profile

The working profile in Australia has changed, influenced by:

  • The resumption of economic activities in the post-Covid recovery
  • The rapid expansion of AI and other technologies
  • Inflation reducing budgets
  • Lowering of skilled migration re: pause during Covid and via new policies
  • Increasing demand for health and mental health services via post-Covid recovery
  • Boomers ageing in place or entering support services
  • University sector recovery post workforce shedding
  • Dispersal of population after people moved to regional Australia

What that points to is a labour fragmentation, desperate need for skills update, and skilled labour shortage.

What this means for freelancers

If you’re middle to senior tier, this is a great time to review all your social media profiles and marketing efforts to focus on bridging the gap. Be the contractor to lead the upskilling until organisations can increase their head count.

That means talking about qualities like independence and autonomy, promoting yourself as a ‘plug and play’ worker, flexibility, teamwork and your knowledge in tips, blogs, social media, webinars, video, etc.

Price-wise, address the cost of recruitment ($7 to 14K on average per full-time or part-time employee), and how much of you they can get for that outlay instead. And how you can start strongly with minimal training. Lower risk (not stuck with you if it doesn’t work out) also reduces their fears and objections.

Digging deeper on the following sectors will likely work to your advantage:

  • AI – teaching others to use it, working as a prompt generation specialist;
  • AI’s influence on search and the web through mashing up User Generated Content;
  • Mental health and health writing (places like Health Writer Hub can help with that);
  • Aged care, ageing in place, and the information from the Royal Commission gaps to implementation;

Workforce supply and demand issues

Aussie companies are freaking out about recruiting, keeping, and training staff for a digital future. With technology constantly changing, many workplaces feel pressured to send their staff to courses, hire more people, and are completely overwhelmed.

That includes technology such as:

  • Social media video;
  • Project management software;
  • AI;
  • Social media platforms;
  • SEO and Google changes and Google alternatives;
  • IT security and hack protection;

And that’s not all. Just check out the LinkedIn roles for marketing professionals – they have to do it all, from answering phones to designing leaflets and writing annual reports. It’s like they’re expected to be superheroes.

What this means for freelancers

Any new skills or knowledge you’ve gained in the past year can be used to create marketable services or products.

Also, don’t forget to showcase your skills (or change direction) to areas like:

  • CRM management (very under-supported in the wild but quite lucrative, considering a Hubspot setup and basic training starts at 20K+ in Australia);
  • Project management software – think your Atlassian based software, Clickup, Monday etc;
  • Social media strategy – this is more than “post 3 times a week” – get to really know the platforms and go deep into strategy and challenging the issues on Facebook and X, maximising LinkedIn, and exploring new technologies;
  • Social media video – from doing this work on retainer to teaching organisations how to strategise and maximise, there is a lot of opportunity here;
  • EEAT style SEO skills, including offering website reviews, microsites, training, etc;
  • Showing clients how to handle changes, tech, instability, disasters, and all that jazz. Especially if you’re in communications, tech, policy, customer service, education, or come from a IT, law or accounting background;
  • Trauma-informed content education – this field is huge in the UK, gaining traction in the USA, and is sorely needed here in Australia to deal with everything from customer service workplace policy to community management

Compliance and regulation

2024 is the year of oversight implementation with compliance to regulatory changes and meeting reporting requirements absolutely essential part of many industries. And it’s hitting a lot of fields hard as they scramble, advocate against, and eventually comply.

Notable fields that are feeling the pinch are:

  • Property development, construction, and real estate
  • Aged care
  • Insurance
  • Superannuation
  • Financing and non-banking products (especially with used cars and $0 interest free loan retail products)

What this means for freelancers

Learn as much as you can about best practices, regulations and regulatory processes. Look for specific funding and grants that are available across the sectors to meet these changes head on and market yourself as the opportunity to win the grant (preparation, writing, organisational change etc) and then safeguard the change.

Highlight what ASIC and other bodies are open about targeting:

  1. Compliance
  2. Accountability
  3. Deterrence

Leverage this to focus on:

  • Grant writing;
  • Education and communication within organisations;
  • Organisational change management (e.g. training, HR, policy etc);
  • Risk mitigation strategies – especially in relation to legal and bottom-line requirements;
  • Automating the compliance and management process;
  • Consumer education and communication across social media, marketing literature etc;
  • Acquittal and reporting – data management through to report design and writing;
  • Infographic, animation and video-based marketing and summations;
  • PR and image management;
  • Contingency planning;
  • Legal and financial advisory services and coaching;

Cyber threats and risks including hack recovery and security

The geeks will inherit the earth (or at least, Australia) in 2024. Our data collection policies are seriously lacking compared to the EU and UK (hello, GDPR), our cybersecurity is super weak, and we’re a total mess when it comes to dealing with hacks.

Meanwhile, companies are griping about the cost to upgrade and meet the requirements.

And that means freelance consultant, project manager, contractor, teacher and trainer opportunities.

What that means for freelancers

It’s fairly obvious that for tech savvy freelancers, if you can market yourself as a data security specialist or data security content creator (writer, video, podcast, etc), you’ll benefit here.

Related fields that organisations and freelancers forget about are:

  • Web developers, IT managers who can help with disaster recovery;
  • IT forensics specialists to figure out what happened;
  • Project managers to implement the moving parts;
  • Policy designers, implementation specialists, and writers;
  • Crisis management specialists – from data and tech through to PR and communications, workplace training and workplace recovery strategies;
  • Agitators wanting to chew on the lax attitudes of government and business alike could become influencers and much needed changemakers;
  • Recruitment agencies – most recruiters don’t even know this is a trend. Bringing attention to it may help get you on their roster and a nice education gig;
  • Insurance specialists – they’re trying to reduce both pay out and liability in this sector- so education and comms are going to be popular;

Waning consumer confidence

Even though the rate rises have stopped for the moment, and they’ve updated to a less brutal Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meeting cycle (down from eleven to eight meetings to discuss rate rises) we’re all looking at the horizon with nervous anticipation. This means a slow in spending across consumers and it’s one that’s hit hospitality, small business,  and discretionary spending (goods and services) hard.

Now, it seems, it’s also hurting corporates, with a shock -8 dip in December making news. Companies are skittish about spending on headcount and marketing. They’re also reluctant to try new things. Thankfully, Australia’s economy is rebounding, but I still think we’ll see a conservative start to business spending in 2024 that may even carry through to the May budget. Especially seeing the top earners feel cranky about changes to individual stage three tax cuts.

Beyond the reductions in spending and overall pain already mentioned in previous sections, certain sectors need image rehabilitation:

  • The real estate, construction, and home loan product sector desperately need image reform and to communicate well with the consumers out there;
  • Aged care can’t seem to shake the lingering damage of the abuse scandals that has been prolonged by a slower than anticipated quality assurance standards implementation;
  • The school cant movement, teacher burnout, the widening funding and resource gaps between private and public schools;
  • The increasing negative perceptions and press dogging universities aren’t helping education any;

What that means for freelancers

Usually, when consumer confidence wanes, freelancers can get a little experimental and cheeky with things. The reasons is the ‘business as usual’ and risk averse marketing is unlikely to attract business. People need extra oomph to get them to make a commitment.

This is across the board with all industries. Consumer confidence waning means businesses lose their confidence. So, it’s up to freelancers to reintroduce optimism and hope into the business ecosystem.

It will influence what you offer and how you market it. Consider:

  • Pitching honest, ‘by-the-fireside’ chats as a basis for consumer communication strategies;
  • Leaning in on humour and optimism, and even a little escapism with your marketing to counter the downer vibes;
  • Encouraging guarantee, try-before-you-buy, and pitch-based experiments- for the client and you;
  • Crafting your own anti-campaigns. Poke a little fun at what’s going on, utilise theatre of the absurd, a take a leaf from the “everything’s fine” dog in the house on fire meme;
  • Highlight examples of return on investment in the marketing;
  • Documenting examples of successful stories where you or others have reinvented, taken bold actions, or undertaken change-related projects;
  • Doing research – if you own the research in a sector, you can often own the consumer sentiment while building a tool or lead gen report in the process;
  • Up your customer service – and encourage clients to do the same. Real CRM strategies, video content, script writing, FAQs, AI chat bots (useful ones though, not the ones we often get) can all make a difference here;
  • Trade testimonials for case studies;

It may also see opportunities to:

  • Sell PR, image rehab, and crisis communication services;
  • Upskill and speak to the regulations in the aged care, building and construction industries;
  • Teach construction and building how to market themselves;
  • Advocate for better educational resourcing and make yourself appealing to unions, advocates, academics and anyone else who is fighting the good fight;
  • Learn about accessibility and meet the growing wave of non-neurotypical people in educational environments where they live;
  • Promoting your own courses and classes as the alternative educational source to more traditional learning arenas;

High adaptability and agility expectations

As budgets get tighter, we need freelancers will be pressured to be very adaptable and move quickly to meet rapid changes. We’ve all seen it in the job boards and how flibbertigibbet working on projects can be. This year, that need will increase.

What that means for freelancers

Multipotentialites thrive doing economic downturn because they can cut the time and money management out of doing projects. If you are someone who can successfully offer two sides of a freelance talent coin – e.g. art and copy, acting and video editing, etc, it’s a good time to talk about it.

Talk about it in such a way that revels in that connectedness. For example:

  • Advertising the entire website across development, copy, and design as a packaged offering;
  • Creating the strategy and doing the implementation or project management for campaigns;
  • Scoring music for your own videos to avoid additional royalties on video and TVC productions;
  • Shooting the photography and refreshing the brand;

Be vocal about it in your marketing, web copy, and initial pitches to clients;

If you don’t want to be a creative octopus

You can also look at like-minded skills and advocate for their abilities. For example:

  • Pitch illustration and design together as the correct answer to AI generic brand identities;
  • Building the community management strategy and then executing the customer relationship management training or even day-to-day management;
  • Managing the grant writing and coaching them through to a successful acquittal

Impaired cashflow through later payments and stricter lending

Stricter lending regulations are hitting places like:

  • Real estate, construction;
  • pay-day loan businesses;
  • Peer-to-peer lending;
  • “Mom and Pop” style businesses;

Non-bank lending will tighten, and that means issues for:

  • Startup;
  • Financial products (and possibly credit unions);
  • Housing related funding and investment;

As funds management, investment, and private equity firms respond.

Crowdfunding and micro funding will also suffer as it’s part of the ecosystem (FML).

What this means for freelancers

Anything to do with regulation means freelancers can bridge the communication gaps. If you can offer reviews, updates and edits across legal and financial documents, websites, products and so forth, there could be money to be made here.

Some ideas include:

  • Lowering the scope of your client projects and package them as off-the-rack offerings. Offer a website page update over an entire website. Prioritise and categorise marketing assets for design to quickly conduct low commitment tests, instead of a full brand refresh or redesign;
  • Address the need for regulation explanation to consumers, troops, etc. Offer communication assets, training, social media, literacy campaigns, how to videos, case studies, etc. as services and product offerings;
  • Use LinkedIn to showcase understanding of sectors with tips, visuals, and videos;
  • Acknowledge the pain they are going through. Share their advocacy posts and help them navigate the changes with information and insights, set-by-step content, and showing your knowledge of the industry moves beyond regulation into the challenges;

Increased labour costs

Labour costs are biting. In Australia, government administration at the state level commands the largest budget at $172.5 billion, followed by health services with $105.6 billion. Public general hospitals come in third with $57.8 billion, while community services and finance sectors follow closely with $51.8 billion and $42.1 billion, respectively. Consumer goods retailing makes up a substantial portion of the economy with a budget of $28.1 billion. Higher education, including universities, receives $21.8 billion, and personal welfare services are going to cost $20.0 billion. The road freight transport industry will hit $17.9 billion and will also face increased running costs with fuel and maintenance. Finally, police and firefighting services cost $17.0 billion.

Other impacts are the rising cost of hospitality and construction labour, driven by shortages and a bit of the ye olde supply and demand, together with long overdue minimum wage rate rises and lower immigration offering smaller talent pools.

What this means for freelancers

If you work in any of these sectors, now is the perfect time to offer yourself as an alternative to hiring full-time. You can help train people and implement strategies with existing staff. Or take on the workload with less commitment and expense. This includes any marketing, communications, community management, customer service, policy, backfill, legal or financial oversight, and project management services.

Another way to attract attention is to be the freelancer who can help them understand how to get their costs lower. With high-profile scandals rocking KPMG and Deloitte, now is the time for far more nimble individuals and smaller agencies to talk turkey about workplace productivity, economic rationalisation, fiscal management, resource management, change management, policy, and to really push the contractors as a viable middle to top tier management strategy.

But it’s not all opportunity based. It may also mean:

  • Longer paying cycles;
  • Lower budgets;
  • Shorter contracts;
  • Hybrid training and implementation roles;
  • Other cash-flow related antics (e.g. you’re hired with less resources, software and tools)

Cover your butts by:

  • Saving for contingencies;
  • Diversifying your client portfolio and services;
  • Sharpening debt collection skills;
  • Customising and strengthening contracts that outline where your responsibilities begin and end rather than relying on boilerplate terms and conditions or service level agreements

Managing growth in recession circumstances

It’s likely we’re heading for a recession. The economy is slowing, inflation is still too high, and the financial papers have been banging on about recession since August 2023 in earnest, which is usually enough to get us close enough – or maybe even over the edge.

Organisations focussed on growth will likely lean in on:

  • Diversification (and with it, likely R&D;
  • Strategic marketing;
  • Cost-saving measures (maybe even changes in production they’ll need to address and explain);
  • Customer and employee retention to save acquisition costs;
  • Strategic partnerships to weather the storms.

What this means for freelancers

Beyond marketing yourself as the lower recruitment cost choice, there are also specific benefits if you look after:

  • CRM software and customer retention strategy;
  • Workplace wellbeing and/or internal communications;
  • Business development and sponsorship brokering;
  • IT, product management, service design or anything in the R&D or new idea development space

As well as working in fields that typically boom during recession such as:

  • At home and low-cost entertainment;
  • Bulk and discount shopping;
  • Alcohol and tobacco;
  • Healthcare and mental health;
  • Education and retraining;
  • Repair and maintenance services;
  • Anything that helps people save money – thrifting, repair, DIY food growing, upcyling, freecycling, etc
  • Renewable energy and other products that address the cost of living with technology;
  • Comparison websites, financial literacy, budgeting tracking management and reduction related education and products;
  • eCommerce shopping as customers lean in more to online retailers to secure deals

Changes to taxation

Stage three tax cut changes, lower write-offs, changes to how we claim for things drive by the 67 cents an hour working from home rule all land this year.

There’s potential here for this to see May (budget time) through some curly changes. And I have questions:

  • Will regulation and reduced cash flow catch businesses up so much that they’ll lose their inventive edge?
  • Will the government do something in the May budget to jumpstart the business sector again?
  • Will there be a decline in spending and freelance work until businesses regain momentum or get something to jumpstart them in May?
  • How much do we have to earn in real terms to see stage three tax cuts giving us more money to spend?
  • Are the top income earners going get a sweet deal later on after today’s crying fest that will take any business budget advantage away?

As I mentioned before, economics and answering this sort of stuff is not my forte. But Holly will join us in February to talk it through.

What this means for freelancers

I’m too chicken to predict how the clients will fall on taxation. Anecdotally, I know clients are conservative after-tax changes, even if they recover or it’s in their favour. So they may need a little adjustment.

Saving whatever you can from the first quarter of 2024 to cover off bases like taxation, changes during the budget not in our favour, and potential loss of work and income probably isn’t a bad idea.

Natural disasters

Unfortunately, changeable weather patterns and more frequent natural disasters are our new normal. That means contingency planning if you live in bushfire and flood-prone areas. Or if you’re living somewhere with tea bag weather (hot then cold) or sideways rain (hello coastal Australia, I see you baby, shaking that brolly, shaking that brolly).

It may also mean:

  • Contingencies to manage clients delays better;
  • Changing your contracts to limit liability (check that force majeure clause, everyone!)
  • Increasing your understanding of disaster impacts to pass that knowledge onto your clients across communications, limitations, event management, etc.

The other side effects include:

  • Higher costs (like increased cost for infrastructure, reduced housing and workspaces insurance and repairs)
  • Lost productivity (power outages through to defending property and relocation)
  • Temporary or permanent business closures
  • Increased safety issues
  • Poor cashflow while waiting for business to resume or insurance pay outs
  • Road and transport disruption leading to supply chain breaks
  • Loss of phone and internet etc

All of which may influence pricing, availability, communication, training, contingency planning, equipment purchases, and many other things.

What this means for freelancers

Disaster work comes in a cycle that is preparedness, prevention, management, and recovery. Addressing each of these parts of the cycle, especially if you are in a disaster-prone area, is your best option.

Areas freelancers can service in the natural disaster sector include:

  • Comms – from events plans and social media strategies with pre-canned messages through to contingency plans;
  • Planning – boards are increasingly interested in annual reports and business plans that include disaster risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans;
  • Education – addressing communities, councils, organisations etc with safety education and contingency planning is paramount;
  • Youth education – many youth-related organisations and schools are invested in climate education. They’re now taking this to the next level by encouraging climate and disaster action;

Industries that face significant changes include:

  • Construction and trades (disruption followed by boom as places rebuild – communication, content and contingency might help here);
  • Real estate (high demand, low supply, so communication and customer service becomes key);
  • Hospitality, tourism, and accommodation (already hammered by inflation, so it’s a double whammy – marketing to deter lookyloos during management phase and get over negative public perception in recovery);
  • Retail (as consumer focus shifts to necessity and replacement after disruption and loss, so too do retail spending patterns change);
  • Internet and cloud reliant business (disaster communication, contingency planning, legal limitations and liability reduction – all this stuff needs to be communicated. And you can pitch low-tech diversification strategies);
  • Health and animal health (hospitals might have generators but a lot of doctors, specialists and other services do not for both human and animal health. They need the strategies, contingencies, comms and customer service to offset disruption and manage it);
  • Agriculture and wholesale, retail food related entities;
  • Aged care, Disability (increased risk of health problems, hospitalisation, and death);
  • Homelessness (increased risk of health problems, hospitalisation, and death);
  • Transportation related industries (so this is your freight, warehousing and logistics reliant or supplying industries needing help managing cranky clients);

For client management or clients to service their customers, this may include:

  • Generators and alternative power sources;
  • Satellite phones and internet;
  • Force majeure clauses in contracts;
  • Water and fireproof go bags packed specifically for a mobile office;
  • Entirely cloud-based storage;
  • Good income protection, business, and home and contents insurance;

General exhaustion and fatigue

If freelancers are sick of madly paddling from one crisis to another, chances are our clients and their customers are, too. People are showing general signs of fatigue in how they interact with the economy. And patterns like this are clear in:

  • Lower windows of tolerance for disruption, problems and challenges;
  • Reduced capacity for change;
  • Risk-averse spending;
  • Online grumpiness and fractiousness;
  • Turning away from social media and the news;
  • Less time and headspace for decision-making
  • Less excited by networking or meeting new suppliers;
  • Lower employee;
  • Swapping higher pay for less time at work

You get the picture. The world needs a bottle, a snack, and a nap. The trouble is, it’s overtired because it’s not getting it or doesn’t think it needs one.

What does this mean for freelancers?

There’s a genuine opportunity for anyone working in communication to help organisations navigate these changes by:

  • Highlighting the benefits of short form marketing content – like seven second social media video, social media carousels, micro copy, micro audio, illustration, infographics, etc;
  • Utilising mental health and trauma-informed content principles in marketing, customer service, dispute resolution policy, community management, and communication;
  • Creating social media, PR, and customer service disaster and contingency planning, training and reporting policy;
  • Encouraging businesses that work in stress relief to market themselves positively to reach their customer’s inner toddler effectively;
  • Developing strategies targeted at industries that increase our stress by being too high on demand – such as tech and software companies, products with high learning curves, and companies speaking legalese, business jargon and geek regularly;

Increased focus on inclusion and diversity

People who have faced exclusion for a long time are out in record numbers. The Pride movements are pushing for less underrepresentation, less marginalisation, and better access to equality.

This is a time where younger people, especially, are driving some great positive change. The LGBTQIA+, Blak and Indigenous, Disability and mental health communities have really pushed the pride envelope and momentum is gathering. Ageism and the Non-Neurotypical community will probably come into their own and similarly grab the Pride mantle in 2024 to 2025.

And we, as freelancers (and members of these wonderful communities), need to be ready by: 

  • Centreing inclusion in our work by understanding person-first language, person-centred design, accessible principles, and inclusive design;
  • Integrating mental health writing and trauma-informed content principles into marketing, customer service, product design, community management, strategy, etc;
  • Supporting the growing movement of architecture, interiors and building design figure out how to be less ableist and more disability, mental health and NNT inclusive;
  • Understanding the communication guidelines, government guidelines, and the movement of self-referencing – and the differences between them – that come with talking about the individual communities;
  • Understanding the specifics of challenges and how they influence people’s lives, especially considering the invisible knapsack of privilege;
  • Prepare for further social media, journalistic, and marketing changes diligently for our own promotion and for the work we do for clients;
  • Addressing our own bias while we work;

Working from home strain

Organisations (and city real estate owners, agents, and developers) want to end working from home. Workers want the option to work in hybrid models or not return at all. Besides creating endless bitchy stories for AFR and the like, the working from home battle is really showing the mismatch between the values of more traditional corporate organisations and today’s modern worker. And unfortunately, freelancers are stuck in the middle.

2024 will be the year we either cement working from home as a part of the corporate process, or find ourselves dragged back into the office despite our protests. The economic conditions will mean we (and our more traditional workers) might capitulate to the demands to work in the office to keep the work flowing. And this sadly may mean losing the much-needed traction we’ve gained.

In my opinion, we should be proactive in normalising working from home as part of our marketing messaging. It’s a win-win because it benefits us and breaks cycles of disadvantage caused by lack of workplace flexibility. Since this lack of workplace flexibility affects parents, people with disabilities, people with mental health conditions, carers, regional workers, digital nomads, the non-neurotypical community, and many others who are tired of presenteeism, we have enough people to make a big difference.

What this means for freelancers

Workwise, it is an opportunity to lend your lived experience of working from home effectively to the businesses trying to keep us here, such as:

  • Coworking joints and hot desk places;
  • Hospitality venues that welcome laptops and workers;
  • Virtual working and project management software companies;
  • IT services;
  • Accounting and finance;
  • Telehealth services;

It also means highlighting the benefits regularly like:

  • Greater variety in the talent pool;
  • The focus on work product quality, not how long you sat in the chair to do it;
  • Breaking the presenteeism and procrastination cycle that clock watching brings;
  • Enhanced productivity through greater happiness, less commute fatigue, and less office politics;
  • Reduction in middle management costs;
  • Improved morale and worker wellbeing;
  • Greater retention and loyalty from staff;
  • Saving the cost of floor space, equipment, and office perks;
  • Less resources spent managing personality problems;
  • Greater accessibility for people with chronic illness, disability and mental health conditions;
  • Not losing an entire day’s work if a parent’s child gets sick;
  • Less absenteeism;
  • Less impact from commutes or natural disasters;
  • Meeting time sensitive challenges quicker (less travel time to the office;
  • Not having to worry as much about racism, ableism, ageism, homophobia and exclusion;

We can also market our services to organisations to meet this challenge, such as:

  • Change management;
  • IT services and retainer updates to make remote work possible;
  • Policy writing;
  • HR and training fundamentals;
  • Recruitment strategies;
  • Client management strategies;
  • Marketing

That’s the end. Glad you made it here with me! I hope you’ve found this useful. Let’s get together and chat about it in a Q&A, shall we?

Want more information on business development, especially in tough times? Stay close to the Freelance Jungle blog.


The Freelance Jungle has a Facebook community, virtual catch-ups for stress reduction and networking, and a commitment to education via podcasts, blogs, and online learning.


 

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?

Mailing Address:
The Freelance Jungle
PO Box 68
Windang
NSW 2528