Freelance Year in Review 2024/25

Its time for my second full year review of freelance life. I work my year alongside the tax year so this relates to April 2024 to March 2025. And what a year it has been. I am so blessed to have been busy with a wide range of clients and types of work again, as the vision for my freelance work has really taken shape.

This year, I have had the privilege to work alongside 14 direct clients, plus 11 through associate roles. I hold 4 voluntary roles (trustee or similar) and also volunteer with 2 radio stations. This has taken me around a wide variety of places mostly in Scotland, but I have ventured south of the border a couple of times! You can see where I've been over at https://wanderlog.com/u/CommunityDan or summarised in the image below:

A map of Scotland showing places I've worked this year

Some have asked how I juggle so many different projects and that's a good question! But actually, the multiple clients brings learning for me that I can use with others. The variety is wonderful and means that if I am getting bogged down in a particular piece of work, I can switch to something else to help my brain. Or just take the dog for a walk! Variety is great and my brain thrives in this kind of working environment. A train journey to one client may enable work for another client on the way. Flexibility is the key and whilst my body has become less flexible, my brain is still going strong!

I have got better at my own work/play time management and have added some voluntary activities into my time for some fun and/or local benefit. This includes enhancing my broadcast ministry with a regular programme on another radio station, plus I've appeared on a couple of podcasts. This is good for my mind and soul and provides a meaningful break from the paid work. I've also become a trustee for a local canal based charity which included being able to undertake my Helmsman's training, meaning I can take groups of people out on canal boats. I may love speed, but 4mph on the canal is one of the best stress relievers I've found.

Ahead of all this work stuff has been my focus on family. Being able to juggle work around family time has been a high priority. There has been plenty of family stuff to deal with over the last year so the flexibility of freelance life has been very welcome and certainly not taken for granted. I know I don't always get it right, and the perils of working with churches and community groups means that there is a fair amount of evening or weekend work, but I have got better at taking time out in the week, including being there for school runs most of the time.

So to the detail. And firstly, a fancy pie chart!

A Pie Chart summarising the types of work I've undertaken this year

Because of the variety of support I've delivered, this pie chart is getting a bit complicated, so if you prefer bar graph, I can help. I'll unpack all this a bit more below.

A Bar Graph summarising the types of work I've undertaken this year

Okay, now I've procrastinated with some pretty graphs, here's more of the detail.

The bulk of my work remains around funding, but this has moved more to providing guidance, training, and sense checking support, with there being only a few clients that I've actually completed funding applications on their behalf. This is not out of laziness, but I think there is a real strength if the organisation can write the applications themselves to maintain ownership of the project. I will simply walk alongside them during the process and support as needed.

I have undertaken a lot of community surveys, consultations, and engagement processes this year, and I love them! With most of these surveys, I've been able to piggy back community events - usually involving cake - and actually go and speak with real people. I know its radical, but this is where the real power lies within development projects. Taking the time to listen to what people need in their community. Gathering their views and opinions. Eating cake. Giving people opportunities to get involved. Bringing organisations together within communities. Eating more cake. Developing plans either for activity or for buildings. Helping new teams form by facilitating new connections. Walking alongside people then stepping back and letting them run with the new plans for their area. And taking a doggy bag of cake home for the family!

Coaching is something I've developed since lockdown, and is actually hilarious for me to be doing as deep down, I'm a fixer. And coaching is about completely the opposite! But I love walking alongside people (yes, that's a rolling theme here) to help them find the answers to the questions that they didn't even know they needed to be asking.

I won't go through every category, but I will just highlight church building development. There is a plan for a decimation of the church building estate especially within the Church of Scotland at the moment. This is not the blog to delve into this or even unpack my full feelings on this, but let's just say I don't agree with a lot of the proposals. I accept that the national churches are not heritage organisations, but there are some beautiful and really locally important buildings that are potentially going to be lost to goodness knows what. So a lot of my work has been about developing new plans for church buildings - either with the church community themselves, or with community groups that want to maintain a meaningful community facility in their community through these buildings. This is really fulfilling work as I often delve into the history of the building and how it has played an important part in the community and across the nation. With the way things are going, I should be kept quite busy on this category in the year ahead.

So there you have it. That's my year. And I know already from the current case load and things in the diary, that this next year is going to be just as much fun. Busy - but fun!

If you think that I could help you with any of the above categories or anything vaguely similar, then please do get in touch. I'd love to grab a chat with you and, if you're relatively nearby to me in Central Scotland, let's grab a coffee and, yes you guessed it, some more cake!

Until next time......