





































 V37 N4 / 2022 

©2022 American Medical Writers Association. All rights reserved.  
ISSN 2163-5315

AMWAJournal.org     37

Q1: How can I prepare my freelance business for the 
recession?

Although recessions are a natural part of the business cycle, 

it’s still scary to be freelancing during one. This recession 

may have more impact on freelancers than past recessions 

because more people began freelancing during the COVID-

19 pandemic, and we’re living with staggering inflation. 

We’re facing increased competition for freelance work, and 

most of us can’t afford to make less money if our clients stop 

or reduce their use of freelancers.

 Fortunately, health care is more stable than most indus-

tries in a recession, so freelance medical writers and editors 

will see less impact than freelancers in other industries. But 

even freelance medical writers and editors need to develop 

the right mindset and take the right actions to thrive in the 

recession.

 What you think—your mindset—is just as important in 

what happens to your freelance business during a reces-

sion as what you do. Thriving takes a growth mindset, grit, 

and resilience. If you have a growth mindset, you believe 

that you can change your freelance future by learning new 

things, being persistent, and taking the right actions. You’ll 

be willing to work hard to reach your goals.

 Grit is having the perseverance and passion to stick with 

your long-term goals until you reach them. Resilience is 

the ability to meet adversity head-on, adapt, bounce back, 

and keep trying. Research shows that we can all develop a 

growth mindset and build grit and resilience.

 Next, you need a LinkedIn profile and website that focus 

on the needs of your target clients and how you meet their 

needs. Your LinkedIn profile headline and About section 

must clearly say what you do, how you help your clients, and 

use the keywords your clients use when they search for free-

lancers. Also, your profile needs to be complete. Your web-

site needs content that’s compelling, clear, and focused on 

client needs and a design that’s visually engaging, clear, fast 

loading, and easy to navigate.

 Because there’s more competition for freelance work, 

you need to do more active marketing, especially network-

ing through AMWA and other professional associations. On 

LinkedIn, you need to be active enough to rank high when 

clients search for freelancers.

— Lori De Milto

I’m implementing 3 strategies to protect my business for 

this recession. All 3 strategies are actually general rules for 

my business. However, like most freelancers, during busy 

periods or times when I need to focus more energy on other 

areas of my life, I sometimes let my rules for successfully 

running my business slide. A recession is a great time to 

step back, assess, and reestablish practices to strengthen my 

business. The strategies are

1. Increase cash flow. Cash flow can be increased 

by earning more money and spending less money. 

Earning more may be challenging in the current envi-

ronment, aside from rate increases dictated by infla-

tion (see my answer to question 2). I plan to spend less 

money by comparison shopping for business travel 

and office supplies (and using coupons and sales 

where possible), and by being smarter about meal 

expenses to my business. However, I feel it’s critical to 

maintain my membership in professional organiza-

tions, attend conferences, and invest in professional 

development opportunities to keep my business 

strong, so I will not be cutting back in those areas.

2. Keep my current clients. To keep my favorite clients, 

I plan to ensure I continue to deliver my best work, 

return emails promptly, and let them know how much 

I appreciate them.

3. Find new clients. At the same time, every good free-

lancer knows that relying on just a few clients can be 

risky. My client list shrank during the past 2 pandemic 

years; now, I plan to diversify and consider new clients.

— Gail V. Flores

* * *

FREELANCE FOCUS

Brian Bass Gail V. FloresLori De Milto

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     38Freelance Focus

Q2: Did you freeze or increase your pricing/rates at the 
beginning of the pandemic? If you did, are you making 
any further changes to those rates now?

Yes, I froze my rates during the COVID-19 pandemic and 

recession. I’m doing the same now during this recession. 

This shows my clients that I understand how the recession 

impacts them, and that I am a team player.

— Lori De Milto

I did not change my rates when the pandemic came upon 

us because I have always offered a kind of “sliding scale,” 

so to speak, depending on the types of clients and their 

resources. For instance, I charge a certain hourly rate when I 

work directly with pharmaceutical/biotech companies, and 

a slightly decreased rate for contract research organizations 

and other agencies representing such companies—this, so 

that the agency will be able to mark up my rate and realize 

a profit. Because I feel profit is essential for agencies like 

these, it seems fair to modify my hourly rate for them, that 

is, I will reduce my rate by 20%–25% for medical writing, 

editorial review/critique, editing, or quality assurance/qual-

ity control. However, if a client does not have a competent 

project manager and requires me to fill that role, I increase 

my rate by 25%–50% for that function.

 Likewise, for nonprofit companies, I offer a reduced 

rate for writing grant proposals, patient education materi-

als, website copy, standard operating procedures, and other 

documents—but if they ask me to develop and write their 

operational plan, (essentially, to think out and write their 

entire business plan) then my rate is increased by a mini-

mum of 150%.

 As of 2022, I have increased my base hourly rate by 10% 

for all types of clients. So far, no push-back.

— Cathryn D. Evans

I charge by the project and don’t ever consciously increase 

or decrease my rates. I strive to always make the most 

money I can while delivering a product and a partnership 

experience for my clients that makes them say, “Wow, let’s 

do this again!”

 At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I enjoyed about 

2 weeks of quiet because clients were fumbling to figure 

out how to work from home. It was wonderful. I was able 

to work without constant interruption and caught up on 

paperwork and organizing my office. But things didn’t stay 

peaceful for long. By the end of the first month, it seemed 

everyone had gotten to work at home. Unfortunately, it 

quickly became clear they didn’t know how to get home 

from work. My workload exploded like never before, and it 

hasn’t really calmed down since. I’m not complaining!

 From a pricing standpoint, I’m still taking the same 

approach—charging as much as I can and doing everything 

possible to make sure my clients are happy because they’ve 

gotten a great value. But I have had to adjust my estimating 

to include a lot more phone and videoconference time, and 

that does affect my pricing. These days I find myself roped 

into everyone’s weekly status calls “just in case” someone 

mentions content, plus all the project-specific calls. I com-

pensate for that time, of course, but I’d much rather have my 

fingers on the keyboard being productive. I think clients so 

miss interacting with their colleagues every day at the office 

that they’re compensating by inviting everyone to these 

calls and having as many calls as they can.

— Brian Bass

I did not freeze my rates when the pandemic started. During 

the 2007–2008 financial crisis, I froze my rates because I 

wanted to be “nice” to my clients. Looking back, I wish I 

hadn’t because by doing so, I decreased my value. I saw 

something online recently that spelled it out really well: if 

you don’t increase your rates to at least match inflation, you 

are actually reducing your rates. Therefore, I’ll continue to 

raise my rates in alignment with inflation and my increased 

value because of experience. However, I can still help my 

clients during these volatile financial times by noting inef-

ficiencies and suggesting ways for them to streamline pro-

cesses and to assign less specialized tasks to junior writers.

— Gail V. Flores

* * *

Q3: How do you handle payments from international 
clients? Is there an optimal payment method that has 
worked for you?

Generally, I am very cautious about accepting work from 

a client outside the United States unless the company has 

been referred to me by another client or colleague I trust 

completely. Essentially, the referring person must have 

worked for the international client and can assure me 

that this client pays every invoice within 30 days of bill-

ing. Otherwise, I ask for $5,000 up-front, deposited into my 

account before I will begin working; thereafter, when I have 

used up the first $5,000, I ask for an additional advance and 

then work against that. Because we have little recourse to 

collect from an international client, it is prudent to receive 

an advance before putting in time. If it is a small project, one 

can adjust the amount of the advance requested.

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     39Freelance Focus

 Recently it was brought to my attention that the US 

government has embargoed certain countries—that is, that 

US citizens should not work for companies/clients within 

these countries—and that US banks are not allowed to 

accept money/deposits from such countries. So far, I have 

been unable to verify this properly, but AMWA’s Managing 

Editor, Rachel Mosher, provided two links to websites that 

may be useful in researching this topic further (Rachel 

Mosher, MA, e-mail communication, 5 August 2022). From 

Rachel: “The following information is provided by the Office 

of Foreign Assets Control within the US Department of the 

Treasury. This link details the countries that are currently 

sanctioned by the United States: https://home.treasury.

gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/sanctions-programs-

and-country-information. The complete list of sanctioned 

individuals and businesses that US nationals should avoid 

doing business with can be found here: https://home.

treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/specially-

designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-

human-readable-lists.”

 Additionally, I contacted my banker in person to inquire 

about this. She said that the tellers may not accept in-per-

son deposits of checks from Iraq. She was not certain about 

direct deposits from that country. I strongly suggest that 

anyone, before accepting assignments being paid by a com-

pany in Iraq (or other countries on the sanctions list pro-

vided above), telephone or meet with your own banker, 

who should be able to identify any countries from which the 

bank declines to accept deposits, whether they be electronic 

or in person.

— Cathryn D. Evans

 I’ve had the pleasure of working with a number of clients 

over the years that are outside the United States, and I’ve 

found that the financial arrangement varies with each one. 

Some have offices in the United States or US headquarters 

and issue checks or electronic payments in US dollars from 

those locations. That’s the easiest way to work. Clients with 

only locations outside the United States have always sent 

payments electronically as automated clearing house trans-

actions. I love it when my United States-based clients pay 

electronically, too. Nothing says, “you’ve got mail,” quite like 

an email from the bank that says, “you’ve got money!”

 In my opinion, the most important financial consider-

ation when working with clients based outside the coun-

try happens when I submit my estimate. This is where I 

stipulate that the estimate is in US dollars and that pay-

ment, if issued in another currency, must be equivalent to 

the invoiced amount in US dollars at the time payment is 

made. This way, I don’t have to worry about the exchange 

rate at the time of payment or about being paid less than the 

agreed and expected amount because of the exchange rate.

 There is the matter of currency exchange fees if the 

exchange happens at my bank (the receiving bank) rather 

than at the client’s bank (the sending bank). I don’t con-

cern myself with this cost for 2 reasons: first, it happens so 

infrequently; and second, I charge by the project rather than 

by the hour so I’m charging for value instead of time, and 

there’s almost always enough money in the job to cover the 

relatively nominal cost for currency exchange.

 I’m careful about the companies with whom I work, 

especially when they’re based outside the United States, 

and particularly if they have no presence in the United 

States. It makes good sense to always choose your clients 

wisely, and even more so when you have to worry about 

straddling oceans, governments, languages, and currencies.

— Brian Bass

http://www.amwajournal.org
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/sanctions-programs-and-country-information
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/sanctions-programs-and-country-information
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/sanctions-programs-and-country-information
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-human-readable-lists
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-human-readable-lists
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-human-readable-lists
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-human-readable-lists



