Keep on running

My working life could get very complicated at the moment. Having spent a year and a half rebuilding from an horrendous run in 2005, I'd reached the position a couple of months ago where I had two regular income streams and enough irregular project work to keep Leapfrog swimming with my head above water.

But of course I wanted a little jam on my bread, and used some quiet time to put out feelers for some extra work to fill in the gaps. The result? No gaps for the last two months, weekend and evening work - and I even had to knock back an interesting project from a consultancy I've worked with several times before.

Things are evening out a bit now, but for the first time in three years it looks as though I'll be flat our through the summer. It's strange how things come good - and generally in this business it's about being in the right place when someone in a client's team moves on, or when a client or acquaintance gets overloaded.

One client said on Friday 'You're name's popping up on everything at the moment' - and it really feels like that. That client works for a multi-headed corporate: I'm running comms on one of their change projects, am doing tactical comms for two other parts of the business and have been approached to look at another piece of work that builds on something I did for them more than a year ago.

But I can't get too reliant on them. This month I'm in favour: a few month's down the line it'll be someone else's turn. So, tomorrow I'm off to see the slowest burning client I've ever worked with. I think I first went to see them over two years ago. Three or four meetings later, I still haven't earned a penny - but it's a company worth persevering with. I'm told that tomorrow's meeting is around some real work - not just talking about future possibilities. I just hope I now have enough time to fulfil it!