There’s a misconception in the world of international freelancing, a period in which the end of the calendar year becomes a dead zone. The budgets have all been spent; the clients are all unreachable, the entire planet is on holiday, and the holiday season work-life is at its lowest. But for the African freelancer with insight, this is by no means a quiet time. It is, in fact, a huge opportunity.

The truth is that while other teams in North America and Europe are closing down their laptops for a long break, their work does not stop. E-commerce sales go up, important projects have to be covered for, and businesses realize that they need capable hands to take care of things for them while the main staff members take a break. This is where you use your strategic advantage to make a difference for them with your presence as an African freelancer.

This isn’t just about finding filler work. This is about taking advantage of where you are, being steady, and being smart to lock down high-value holiday season work and to make the connections that will fuel your freelance career for the next twelve months of the new year.  

Holiday Season Work: Where Global Staff Leave Creates Local Demand

The holiday season work time offers tremendous opportunities for maximum earnings, but it can also be confusing, considering that it has two major demand areas.

1. When a global business has staff members out for holiday leave, the organization will require a skilled person to take care of the overflow of work and keep operations running smoothly. More often than not, these businesses would rather hire a good freelancer rather than put a burden on their current staff members.

2.  Many businesses struggle with closing the accounts and year-end business performance data at the end of the year. If you have experience in entering data, financial analysis, and designing reports, you can offer these services. 

3. There is always a need for a virtual assistant who can either manage administrative email communications, schedule meetings for the upcoming year, or organize files. It is important to have a virtual assistant who can take care of every single thing during the Christmas and New Year week.

4. Who’s going to fix the website if it breaks at 2 AM on Christmas Eve? Developers and IT personnel are required for immediate, emergency bug fixes and security patches, and also for ensuring the e-commerce website does not crash during a sale event. You can market yourself as the emergency IT cover. 

The African E-commerce Needs and Digital Skills 

The slowdown in Western markets is not relevant in Africa, where there is a massive increase in retail, conferences, and travel. It leads to a short-term demand for digital skills right on your doorstep. Some include: 

Festive Content Creations: It is always about creating flyers, banners, or video clips for festivals in a short span of time for local businesses, and video editing.

Logistics & Delivery Support: The companies providing holiday delivery services require an effective internal infrastructure. Do you have the capability to handle the customer service email box of the companies? Can you assist them in managing logistics data entry or coordinating drivers? Now, your customer service and administrative capabilities would serve as essential infrastructure to the companies.

Hospitality and Tourism: The most visited websites include hotels, resorts, and local tourism businesses. The services offered here require well-crafted text on the websites, up-to-date reservation sections, and well-managed social media services for handling inquiries and advertising last-minute offers.

 Tips to Land Holiday Season Work

These jobs are available, but how you can get them is the question. Try out the following to tap into the holiday season work opportunities around you as an African freelancer. 

1. Don’t wait for clients to ask: Tell them you’re available and, far more important, tell them why your availability matters to them specifically. This can be done with cold emailing or the proper use of your social media. 

2. The Message: Send a personalised message to your best past and current customers, especially the international ones, two to three weeks before your customers are most likely to go on holiday, to let them know that you are available. 

3. The Offer: Clearly specify your capacity. This could include: “For your projects not to get held up while your team is on leave, I have available 20 hours of my time per week for urgent and time-sensitive projects.”

4. Emphasise the operational reality: As an Africa-based freelancer, let them be aware of you and keep it consistent throughout the holiday closures around the world. 

5. Charge a reliable rate: This is not a time when you want to be the cheapest; this is a time when you must show that you are reliable. 

6. Package Your Services: Rather than billing clients an hourly rate, you could provide clients with a holiday service package or something similar. 

7. Over-Deliver on Organisation: Rather than doing a task to make some cool cash, try to leave an impression behind. For instance, if you had to organise their data, try to develop an SOP for that data. 

The January Proposal

Draft a follow-up proposal in the final week of December. Rather than presenting new pitches in January, send a thank-you note along with a brief report highlighting some things you noticed during your work there, and what you could do differently. This simple approach will transform a two-week holiday-season work engagement into a three-month, six-month, or twelve-month retainer engagement. By solving the client’s problem and planting the seed for growth, yours will flourish and expand through their referrals and recommendations. 

Conclusion

The holiday season work can be your ticket to more as an African freelancer. The global downtime is an opportunity to shine, an opportunity to demonstrate reliability, skill, and professionalism that most global companies will lack during their vacations. By adding holiday season work to your schedule, you are accomplishing much more than just generating supplemental income. You are investing in your brand, your reputation around the world, and laying the foundation for a new year of steady, high-paying contracts. Join us for more freelancing tips.