When working on a freelance basis, the feast or famine cycle can be deadly. You work hard to bring in a project, get bombarded trying to execute, and then by the time you’re done you don’t have any new work to do and no prospects for new opportunities.

That’s why freelancers, or companies who work on a project basis in general, need to have the discipline to look for new opportunities while they’re already at capacity with ongoing work.

But that approach has its own problems.

While a contractor is over your house, you might ask her to do just another “small” job. It seems reasonable that she’d help to replace a light fixture if she’s already there, right?

But by taking on an extra half day of work, that pushes back the next project in the queue. Which in turn pushes back the next one, and so on.

There’s a similar impact if a customer cancels at the last minute or an emergency comes up.

So it’s a delicate balance, and it’s part of the reason why contractors are so notoriously terrible at customer service. If they want to stay busy, they have to fill up their queue. Which then puts their commitments at risk if things change.

So what’s the solution?

Do they take on less work and accept the inevitable downtime (and thus lost revenue)? Do they keep from making any timing commitments and risk losing customers?

Ultimately, I’m not really sure.

But amongst the best that I’ve seen, there are two values that come through time and time again:

Transparency and empathy.

-Brandon