Support networks

To stay sane as a self-employed consultant I need two quite different support networks.

Firstly, there are the people who understand the work I do.  They work in and around the pharmaceutical industry, either client-side or or as consultancy, advertising or training vendors.  We keep in semi-regular informal contact to swap tips, contacts and industry gossip.

Secondly, I keep up a network of friendships with other self-employed people: actors, freelance writers, graphic and web designers, PR professionals, events organisers and the like.  Most have very little idea as to what my business actually does, and to be honest, they don't really care.  What we do have is the shared need to believe that we can make a decent living being self-employed in our chosen fields.

We talk about 'only being as good as your last job'.  We talk about the freelancer's need to never turn down work; which follows the same logic as the old actors' axiom of never letting your understudy on stage.  We bemoan the irony of never being able to take that holiday when you need it most.  In other words, we talk about always being present in the eyes of your client.

Best of all, we get to celebrate each other's successes and cushion each other's disappointments without the envy or schadenfreude that professional rivals experience in the same circumstances.