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The holiday season is almost upon us and I have to admit that this is the one time of the year that I actually miss my 9 to 5 job. When you are employed you take for granted the fact that you get two weeks paid holidays at Christmas and in most companies a nice Christmas bonus too. Being self employed, you don’t get any of the above. You have to work in order to pay your bills and your salary and you certainly don’t get paid holidays or a Christmas bonus, unless of course you have it to give to yourself.
The purpose of today’s article is to make all ghostwriters especially those who are new to freelancing and being self employed aware of the fact that if you want to take holidays at Christmas then you have to start planning for them in advance. In order to take 2 weeks off you need to have 2 weeks salary built up. For me this usually means that during the months of October and November I am extremely busy. The reason for this is so that I don’t have to work from the 20th December right through until the second week in January.
I love Christmas and if you have small children, you will definitely understand the need to take a complete break during this time. Your children will need your full attention, they will want to show you all the toys that Santa brought for them, and they want you to sit down and watch all the Christmas movies that are showing on TV with them. YOU CAN’T DO ALL THIS IF YOU HAVE TO WORK!
I want to share my experience with you. My very first year freelancing was a real eye opener and I think I made every mistake possible. I even ended up typing up articles on Christmas Day. When I look back now I can’t believe how stupid I was. I hadn’t planned for Christmas, in fact I hadn’t planned for anything. I just accepted work without fully assessing the consequences. The joys of being a beginner freelancer I suppose. Everything was money, and I was getting paid to write. That was all I was thinking about until the reality of the situation finally hit home when I ended up spending two hours typing up articles on Christmas Day. I promised myself that it would never happen again and it hasn’t. How do I ensure that I have enough money to take holidays? Simple:
At the start of October every year I start planning for my Christmas holidays. I sit down and work out exactly how much extra money I need to make during October and November and I put a note of it on my notice board. I inform all my clients that I will be unavailable from the 20th December until the 2nd week in January and to make sure that they have their writing requests in by the 2nd week in November at the latest. If you don’t have a client list then what I suggest you do is place additional bids for jobs for the month of October and November and try to get as much work as you can. You might find yourself working extra hard and for longer than you want during these two months but believe me it really is better than working over the Christmas holidays.
Planning is essential if you want holidays.
If you have a routine that you would like share please feel free to do so, I’d love to hear how everyone else plans for their holidays.
Until next time,
Keep writing,
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