Freelancing: Striking a balance in a frenemy’s paradise

I have diligently been trying to keep up my weekly blog posts and have made it past entry No.10. Four months in and now they’re starting to slip. I do admire people who manage to update their blogs while holding down a full-time job, of which I’m doing neither. 

But neither am I breezing from one café to another, bar hopping or being a lady who lunches. Instead, I’ve been cooped in my office/dining room in freelancing heaven, hell or somewhere in between.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh

When we decided to move to Buenos Aires, a blog seemed ideal to give me some focus while meeting people, finding my feet, and importantly looking for work.

However, not having a national identity card when we first arrived in BA meant I couldn’t work in an official capacity. Too bad, but at the same time I was relieved. Although we had moved here primarily for my husband’s work, having come this far, I didn’t want to work in an office if I could help it. Also that would mean working over the summer while Alistair, who is a teacher, could take off and see the country for almost three months.    

My Spanish was ok before we arrived so that was a bonus, maybe. Nonetheless, I had no idea where to start, who to ask, where to look…

Contacts, contacts and more contacts

First came the English lessons, providing extra tuition to pupils at St George’s College, the school where Alistair teaches. I was worried that it would interfere with my social life, but with little cash of my own, I guess a heaving social life was not on the agenda. Besides the kids are entertaining, and expanding my education in turn. I have read two new novels, Disgrace and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, because one of students is reading them for English.      

Next, by chance I met a guy at the swimming pool in our previous apartment complex and it turned out that he works in the medtech industry. This is very close to my previous line of work, as I was a journalist and then later for a communications/public relations firm focused on life sciences. 

I've told almost anyone I meet that I’m looking for contacts. In general, people have been very kind, including my swimming pool friend sent me lots of contacts on LinkedIn.

Be brave. Since then I have approached so many people on LinkedIn I have lost track. Out of a 100 invitations and messages, I might receive five replies but I’ve consoled myself that’s ok and I just have to push on. 

I’ve managed to pitch one story on the pharmaceutical industry in Latin America and Argentina to my previous employer, Scrip, a news and intelligence service focused on the biopharmaceutical industry.

Since then, a friend in England who works for an international pharmaceutical consultancy service has asked me to transcribe and translate audio interviews in Spanish into English from a field-trip in Colombia. My brain is slightly frazzled, but I have to say it’s great for improving my Spanish. 

I was worried I might not have enough to do (besides planning a wedding from abroad), so I’m also contending with my Chartered Institute of Marketing digital marketing course in marketing communications. 

From nowhere I’ve ended up biting off a bit more than I can chew, drowning with all my multiple deadlines. 

Alistair and my good friend Francesco have told me several times to say NO. But I don’t feel I can, not yet anyway. This is about my reputation, building up skills and ultimately selling me. So until then I may be flitting from freelancing being my friend to it being my foe...? But a worker’s paradise is none other than what you make it – mine just happens to be a dining room in BA.