April is always a fairly quiet month in the freelance world – especially if you’re working with UK clients.
In Blighty, the financial year ends after the first week of April, so a downturn makes sense. In March, there’s plenty of budget still to toss around, as clients attempt to use up their remaining annual spend before it expires. The consequences of that for early April – and the fiscal blank slate it offers – are, naturally, a pause to recalibrate and reassess.
That said, (and being in my first year of full-time freelance, if you can call that a thing) the drop off from a big March still took me by surprise. That, along with my first real experience of having to chase down late-paying clients for cash, meant these last couple of months haven't necessarily been the smoothest.
May was also quiet for other reasons: namely, that I took some time off to visit family and friends in Wellington, New Zealand. Well...there was another reason. I flew over, in part, to watch my boyhood football club, the Wellington Phoenix, play the second leg of their semi-final against Melbourne Victory.
Though it wasn't the result we wanted on the night, it did see my first foray into the illustrious arena of football writing. (At least, my first published foray.) You can read that piece, which focuses on the first leg of the aforementioned match – a game I also attended, given it's in Melbourne, where I live – here, on Front Page Football. If you're at all interested in the Phoenix, and the incredible, record-breaking season they've just had, you can read some of my pieces about them right here on robbinns.com.
Despite a more sluggish influx of work in April and May, though – and the time I spent away from my desk – there were still plenty of projects for me to get stuck into.
I ghostwrote this article about partial authorization for Tom Martindell of Checkout.com, and penned a guide to the five key ways that payment modernization boosts profit for the payment service provider’s Solutions Engineering Director, Michael Taylor.
I’ve also seen cool stories of mine go live for ellenor – a hospice charity that provides care and support for patients with life-limiting conditions in Kent and Bexley – in April and May.
There’s my writeup of Healthcare Assistant Gina’s journey with ellenor, and an interview with Verity ‘Vee’ Owers that dives into the Legacy Giving Manager’s ethos and motivations.
ellenor also republished a guide to self-care for mental health – a topic particularly close to my heart – that I filed a couple of years ago, as well as a brand-new feature: an interview with ellenor’s IT volunteer, Ed Thomas, on why more men should volunteer. (Seriously, give this one a read – especially if you have a Y chromosome. Studies show that women consistently volunteer for, and give to, charities at a far greater rate than men. Let's do something about it, lads!)
Now that I think about it, actually, April and May were really busy months for content at ellenor. The hospice charity published a story I wrote for them all the way back in September 2022 about Caron, her cancer journey, and how counselling with ellenor opened the door to a new kind of understanding. My profile of local legend Baljinder “Tony” Rana also went live, as did my writeup of an interview with a trio of Dartford women who raised money for charity the best way they knew how: throwing a massive party!
It’s always fun to see my work go live, where it can be read by hundreds – and sometimes thousands – of people. But that feeling is even headier when it’s an article I wrote a year, or even two years, earlier. Reading work you wrote a while ago can act as a kind of time capsule: taking you back to where you were living, what you were interested in, and who you were spending a lot of time with at that stage of your life. I love it.
On a more poignant note, I wrote up an explainer for a new arm of ellenor’s education courses – ”End-of-Life Champions” – plus a tribute to a man named Donald Burge.
Here’s a quick extract – but I’d encourage you to get across the full article, which you can access on ellenor’s website: “A Life Embraced: Donald Burge’s Journey With Us.”
Donald is dying. But, thanks to ellenor, he was able to live again before doing so. To have his pain taken away. To enjoy fresh blueberries, slathered in honey, scattered liberally across the top of a steaming bowl of porridge. And to rediscover both his quality of – and zest for – life. When Donald’s time comes, it’ll be at home – not in an unfamiliar bed. When he looks around, he’ll see pictures of his loved ones, and the wife he’ll soon be reunited with.
“When he dies, it’ll be in strength. In comfort. And with the dignity he – the dignity all of us – deserves.”
This, for sure, is one of the reasons I got into writing. To tell the stories of people who wouldn’t otherwise have a voice, or a platform to speak through. To make memories through words and, through writing, pay tribute to people who deserve to be remembered.
That’s all for April and May news at Rob Binns Copywriting.
If you’d like to know more about how to leverage content to boost your business’s brand, readership, and bottom line, drop me a line at robdbinns@gmail.com for a free 15-minute consultation. Chat soon!
Comments