So much for a new entry every week. Almost seven weeks have passed since I wrote the last one. So much to do, so little time to do it. Projects to attract new customers, projects for those same customers once safely contracted (thank you for placing your trust in me), administrative backlogs, and more or less parallel to everything else a lovely little project I initiated myself, the translation of a recent biography of Johann Sebastian Bach into Dutch. I feel privileged that the author has kindly allowed me to touch his work on The Great Master. Heaven is: translating a well-written and interesting text while listening to any BWV number I can get my hands on. Not 565 or 538, of course. I deeply mistrust anyone who can concentrate on something else while those two thunder through the speakers like mighty rivers.
So, busy, busy. A good thing, for having nothing to do except writing out cheques to other companies makes me nervous. Being freelance has many advantages, but this drawback scares off many potential colleagues: you never know when your money will be coming in. You have to be able to ignore your financial situation from time to time. There is a trap lurking there, into which many a hapless freelancer has fallen: you panic, and blindly throw yourself on random tasks, racking your brains day and night, but everything you do is inefficient and not backed by solid strategy. Nothing comes out of it except being overworked and miserable – and not a penny richer. I know that trap: I’ve seen the inside of it a couple of times. It’s ugly.
One thing I calmly considered after looking at my bank account and then deliberately implemented, is raising my rates. I’m sorry, esteemed customers! But your servant’s poor cat has to eat, and so does the cat’s mistress. You may want to re-read the entry titled Money Matters; it is illuminating.
