This month has been a ride and not a good one. I realize we’re only 5 days into March, but for me, March started the 22nd of February. I had finished all my work for the month and was looking forward to slamming out Little Bitey 21s audio. And I was on a roll. I did three chapters on the 22nd. By about 8PM on the 22nd, I realized that a payment didn’t go through. That’s not a payment I owed to somebody. It was a payment owed to me, and I needed it to pay rent. Needless to say, by the 23rd, I was hanging out on all the freelancing job boards and clicking refresh obsessively, but the work is a little light these days, esp in Feb, and especially at the end of the month, so here’s the story and why I’m going to be over a week late getting Little Bitey 21 out.
If You’re Not Diversified, You Need to Be
This is a little bit of a rant and a little bit about the state of the authoring/freelancing industries, but what I want to remind you today is to be diversified. Do many things. I’m an author and a freelancer. This is because the authoring industry is tenuous at best. Only the top 1 percent of the top one percent make any real money. And I mean real money. I’m not talking 10, 20, 50 or even 2,000 a month. I’m talking those guys who say you can make 100,000, one million dollars a year writing books. It’s not you, and it’s not me, and you’re not going to be that 6 figure freelancer either. Again, this is the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent making that kind of money. So, make sure you are diversified. Write your books. Write articles, make jewelry, crochet. Drive for a delivery service. Work your day job. Do it all.
The State of the Freelance Industry and the Economy
I just wrote an article on the state of the freelancing industry. It’s not good. And writing books? Well, it looks like March is going to be slow for that too. Probably because we all got hammered in February. The month was short. It’s also the worst month of the year for getting work. There’s just not a lot of time in February. I was even paid late by two different clients. I can count on one hand the times that’s happened to me in the last 10 years. Yet, here we are. It’s the 5th. Rent is due, and no one paid on time. I had triple the amount of rent owed to me. I wasn’t worried UNTIL . . . no one paid in a timely manner. I wasn’t worried until the rental due date moved from the 8th to the 5th with 1 day notice. That’s illegal, but here we are. And actually, I didn’t even get one day notice.
The Rental Market - Yes, it’s as Bad as You’re Hearing on the News and Youtube and Everywhere Else. Horrible, Nasty Investors Really Are Going After Everything, Even Trailer Parks
This park was purchased on Dec 28. No one was informed until the 6th or 7th of January. I was forced to sign a 27 page lease with 0 days notice on Feb 28. It was dated for the day I got it, and the start of this lease was backdated until January 1st. That’s right. Apparently, this lease started 2 months ago before I ever new the place I was living sold. We were not notified. Most people didn’t even figure this out until they went to pay January’s rent and couldn’t. This happened to me. It was Jan 3. Rent is due on the 8th, but I wanted to pay it early. I go to the portal. It’s down. I walk to the office. No one is there. A neighbor tells me this place was sold. The previous manager was fired. No notice. No way to pay January’s rent. Wonderful. I ended up calling the office line and someone miraculously answered. We could pay by check. But anyone who paid their rent early in Dec got screwed. The company said they didn’t pay January’s rent. So, now they owed this company again. I have no idea how that worked out for those guys. I just got lucky that I didn't get around to it until Jan 3. I normally pay the last week of the month.
And it’s been this kind of battle since this park was bought with no one knowing until it was too late.
Be Diversified! Be Diversified! Be Diversified! Be Diversified! GET DIVERSIFIED if You Aren’t
When I say be diversified, I mean it. I make jewelry. I also crochet. I write articles and novels, and I’m telling you right now that with the state of the economy right now, I’m not diversified enough. This has led me to walking to the couple of retail stores in the area to see if they’re hiring. They’re not. Folks, it’s getting bad. If you’re working 1 job, get another one. If you’re working 2, get a third. If you do 4 different things like I do, find a 5th.
No one wants to work anymore. Well, maybe they need to reevaluate. Most of the people I know have 2 or 3 or 4 income streams. I have more than that and still got shafted because two clients paid very very late. Now, I did learn that there's some grace period this month beyond the 5th. I can make the second grace period, but it’s bad folks. Get ready. Get prepared. Get your cash in line now.
And this is why I'm still working on Little Bitey 21s audio. Aparently, paying rent is optional in some circles, or maybe I'm supposed to have some rich husband that pays all my bills so I can pay around with this writing thing and just ladeda my way through life without a care in the world!
