“How To Survive During Slow Times”

Written by Doreen Dilger, The Home Based Business Coach

As a service provider or work-at-home provider who only gets paid when working, you're going to have times that are slow due to your clients' need to take a vacation. Everyone needs vacations, but you'll need to be able to fill the void while they're gone so that you still earn money even when your customers are on vacation. There are ways to fill the time and/or avoid the issue entirely.

Ask for Advance Notice

Put into your contract a request for a minimum of a 30-day notice if your client plans to take a vacation without continuing to pay you or provide work for you to do. Explain that you will fill the time with short-term work and projects. Most people are happy to provide notice because they understand that this is so that you can fill the income gap.

Have a Short-Term Sale

As soon as you have a client tell you they're going to take a vacation, arrange to have a short-term sale to fill the time. Make the sale limited, focused, and based on the time your client will be gone so that you don't end up overworked instead of just filling the space. You can create sale packages that you only send out to your contacts each time a client goes on vacation.

Build Your Passive Income

All service providers should consider building up their passive income so that when one client takes a vacation or some time off, it doesn't matter. Start a side blog with affiliate sales, create a paid eCourse or membership site, or write a book. There are many options to help you create side work that creates recurring income.

Avoid Anchor Clients

An Anchor client is any one client who pays you 40 percent or more of your monthly income. Anchor clients are tempting, but they are a bad idea because you are going to be too reliant on the income from that one client. If none of your clients comprises more than 10 to 15 percent of your income, you can easily cut back on expenses and use the free time to work on your own projects without worrying about money.

Work Only on Retainer

Another way to avoid issues with clients going on vacation is to require a contract that is based on a monthly retainer fee being paid by subscription on an automatic basis. The fee can be made so that it is a minimum amount with a minimum set of hours you make available to the client that does not roll over. Without the paying of the fee, your client can't request work from you.

By using these tips, or a combination of these tips, you can avoid losing money when your client goes on vacation. Create solid contracts, be ready to have a sale, build up your passive income, avoid anchor clients and if you are in high demand, consider working only on a paid in advance retainer basis.