No-one plans for the death of a loved one
It’s unlikely that you’ve considered the death of someone close to you as part of your business planning.
Loss can come suddenly or even if you’re aware of its approach, it is often something we avoid thinking about or dealing with.
When the worst happens, it can almost be another full-time job if you’re deeply involved in the immediate arrangements after someone has passed.
Whilst focusing on work can sometimes help - it’s a useful distraction or escape from dealing with the emotions of grief - it’s fair to say that your emotional load will be higher, and your ability to focus on your work will be diminished.
It is important to recognise that this is not a failure, but simply part of the process, and giving yourself the space to process and find support those who are grieving, including yourself, is essential.
In addition to the emotional upheaval, there are often further common anxieties you’ll be experiencing: How will my clients react if I can’t deliver the work? How will I make money if I’m not able to work? How long will it take me to get back to my business? And even guilt attached to thinking about these things.
Key Recommendations
Be gentle with yourself
Recognise that you are going through a traumatic experience. Whilst everyone deals with grief and loss in different ways, it is an emotionally significant experience, and being kind to yourself is important.
Focus on what is essential, expect to do less
It is natural that you will not be able to be as productive as you are normally - there are likely additional tasks to be done, and your emotional load is higher. Try to priortise what is essential, and find ways of deferring or declining tasks which are less critical or can wait.
Decide whether you want to decrease or pause work
Try to make a decision of whether you want to reduce your workload, or put things on pause altogether. Creating some clear headspace so you’re not worrrying about work can allow you to focus on other things - but it might not be entirely possible for. Consider what will work best for you.
Communicate with your clients
Be clear, honest and open with your clients, and communicate with your clients as soon as possible. Try to agree how you will proceed (i.e. pausing a project, rescoping a smaller outcome, finding a replacement). 99% of the time, clients will be understanding, and have your best interests at heart. It’s possible that you might need to give up the contract, but recognise that trying to deliver work could lead to doing a bad job, which can damage your reputation. Be upfront and be transparent.
Lean upon your support network
Hopefully you have taken our frequent advice to build yourself a support network - call upon them. Find fellow frelancers who might be able to step in and take some of the workload. Take them up on their offer of a cup of tea or a ear to talk to. Don’t feel that you are a burden, give others the opportunity to offer their help.
Look into resources and support providers
There are some incredible resources and organisations who offer support lines, guidance and more. We’ve linked to a few below. Make good use of them. you may also be a member of a union or support organisation who offer direct support. Reach out to them, and see what support is on offer. Poppy’s offer a fantastic signposting page which is linked below.
Explore support funds
If you’re a limited company, you can continue to draw down your salary and funds from your business if they’re available, even if you’re not actively working. If you’re a sole-trader, it’s possible you’ve built up some buffer in your business bank account which you’re paying yourself a “salary” from. These can continue to be paid. There are some government funds for those who have been paying National Insurance, which you can understand via Turn2us, which is linked below.
Automate where possible
Set up automations where possible, such as chasing invoices, any marketing and social posts which were meant to go out, so you can leave them running in the background. Or if you’d prefer - just switch your automations off, and set your Out of Office on, to communicate that you might take longer to respond to inbound enquiries at the moment. You don’t have to explain why.
Give yourself time to process, and ramp back up gradually
There’s no set period of time you’ll need to process and be ready to return to work - but make sure you give yourself a fair amount of time, and when you feel you’re ready to return to work, consider adding work back in gradually, perhaps a half day to start, and build up over time. Bear in mind, that for many, greiving can take many months, and some reactions can be quite delayed. Continue to be kind to yourself, and consider more rest periods, once you’ve returned to work.
Using your emergency fund
It’s entirely possible that you might need to eat into your emergency fund in situations like this. We recommend that wherever possible, you have a minumum of three months as a buffer. If you’re dipping into your emergency fund, consider reducing your spend and outgoings wherever you can, keep an eye on how long your fund can sustain you for, and crucially, once you’re back to work, rememebr to top the fund back up again.
Planning ahead
Whilst it’s hard to plan ahead, and something no-one wants to think about, having to organise putting your business on hold, whilst you’re in the middle of dealing with a loss, is not the best time to be juggling both tasks.
Draw up an action plan
Having an action plan that you’ve prepared ahead can help you immensely. Write a one pager which helps you think about the tasks above: 1) What you’re deciding to do about work 2) How you’ll communicate to clients 3) How you can access support 4) How your finances will work. Having this one page plan means you can easily refer to it, should the worst happen, rather than having to draw something up in the moment.
Invest in the emergency fund
If you don’t already, consider building up an emergency fund, for situations where you’re not able to work. Consider taking a percentage of every invoice, and putting it in an interest bearing account, and don’t dip into it unless essential.
Find buddies
Start to build a network of collaborators who you can lean upon should you need to step away from work for a while. This can be hugely useful for sitautions like holidays, illness or even if you’re simply too busy to deliver all of your work. This level of trust can take a while to build, so start investing in these relationships early on, and have an agreement in place with your collborators around how you’ll pay for their time.
Explore insurance policies
Whilst there are income protection policies - most of them do not cover time off due to bereavement. It might be possible to speak to an insurance broker to find a policy which does cover this situation, if you feel there is a higher risk of this happening, but it is likely to come at a premium.
Build policies in to your contracts
Consider wording your contracts so that should you need to exit or break a contract due to bereavement, you are not heavily penalised. Whilst not every client will be willing to sign up to these terms, it can make things a little easier should there be an issue.
In Summary
Dealing with bereavement can be overwhelming, and you may feel anxious about your income or sustaining your business.
Before something happens: aim build up your emergency fund to cover any time not working, and put an action plan in place which you can call upon should there be a need.
When something happens: clearly communicate to your clients that you might not be available; lean upon your support network and look to trusted collaborators; and treat yourself with compassion.
