Comments on: 5 Ways Freelance Writing is Like Black Friday

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:24:51 +0000

I’m not always right, this is just something I’ve written about…don’t care about credit in this case either, just wanted to mention it.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:24:08 +0000

There’s another way freelance careers are like Black Friday–sometimes, you just wind up with more work than you can easily handle and wind up working ’round the clock, in a mad rush, to get it all done. I’ve worked Black Fridays in retail and managed multiple deadlines in different niche markets… dollar for dollar, retail is MUCH harder. But that doesn’t mean deadline times are a piece of cake either.

Similarly, those dreary days in January when stores are a ghost town — freelancers have those sometimes, too. Where stores take advantage of the downtime to do inventory and merchandise, freelancers can use the time to revamp their marketing plan, spruce up their website, and reach out to contacts they don’t get enough time to talk with when they’re busy.

of course, a good freelance will manage their work flow so the dead times aren’t that dead, and the busy times are manageable. But, life happens!

By: Allena

Allena — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:12:57 +0000

I lean heavily on #1 when I’m looking for new gigs.

I once worked 12 hours of black friday at an outlet mall when I was 17. Picture busses and busses of elderly shoppers being dropped off by tour companies. Yup. I like sitting on my bum using just my digits.

By: Anne Wayman

Anne Wayman — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:26:19 +0000

Hi Deb, fortunately my brief stints at retail didn’t happen in a mall nor over black Friday… I sure learned to hold clerks in high esteem ’cause I can’t do it.

Seems like there’s more than one reason it’s called black Friday… an article I read said cops in Philadelphia named it that because of traffic jams.

Urban myths abound.

By: Deb

Deb — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:20:15 +0000

Right, as always, Philip. I thought I added that in up above but obviously didn’t. I was then going to remark about how it was a black day for me as a mall worker. Heh. I’m going to tweak but leave your remarks here so to give credit where it’s due.

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:14:59 +0000

I’d like to offer a correction: The term Black Friday actually refers to retail merchants going into the black for the year — the idea when the term first developed is that retailers were in the hole until this day of the calendar year. Picked this up when writing one of several articles about this day.