To ask for your help figuring out how I can get some income in fast

[Moneyproblemz]

Legal options only please 🫠
I'm really panicking. I've been a freelancer for two decades now but my industry is being destroyed 😭 I'm a translator, and before you suggest interpreting - don't bother. My languages don't have heavy interpreting demand in the UK.
Like many translators, I've been watching my profession slowly die for a while now. But this week my biggest client said they were shutting down.
I'm absolutely screwed. I only have two months of outgoings I can cover.
I live in a city which is helpful, but I just don't know what the hell to do. I know I need to think of a proper long term career pivot, but right now all I can feel is panic. I need to find something quickly, and I've applied for some jobs already, but I just feel like who the hell is going to hire me as a 40-something with zero experience of anything other than my own industry. I'm assuming anything to do with hospitality and retail they are just going to prefer someone 20 years younger than me.

I'm just asking on here in case anyone has a few off-piste ideas I might not have thought of other than "desperately trawl through Indeed". Like I said, I do have some ideas for a bigger picture plan, but right now I need an immediate solution.

Thanks all

Matched betting is very lucrative in the short term if you follow the steps correctly.

Care work?

Stop acting as though 40 something is the end of the world. Working as a self employed person you have experience in sales and marketing. How about Teaching Assistant, where I live there are loads of jobs going for them.

Do you drive? You can set up on ubereats/deliveroo fairly easily

Care work. Retail. Warehouse work anything like that for now. Plus places are looking for Xmas right now

What languages do you have?

Teacher of languages in a school

Customer services? Call centres etc.

I realise you say no to interpreting, but could you register with NHS interpreting services? Much of it is remote. Might provide a bit of work in the interim.

I would say if you know how to use a computer and can confidentially speak on a phone, I would go to an agency and see what office/administrative work you can get. If you live in a city it shouldn’t be an issue.
If you’ve been a freelancer and managed your own invoicing/admin work this shouldn’t be an issue - and will be nicer than hospitality/care work
I’d find some agencies online and see what they have and start registering tonight.

Thanks for your ideas guys. I guess I am just panicking because I'm currently away from home looking after a family member. I won't be back for another two weeks, so when I got the news today about my client shutting up shop, I felt really panicked. Maybe I'll feel more confident once I'm actually back in my city.

My languages are French and German. I had looked at some teaching assistant roles but they seemed to want prior experience.

I'll keep looking. I guess I just wanted some reassurance that it wouldn't be impossible for me to find some work. It's so depressing as I have some huge (for me) one-off payments coming up this month.

Get a job. Any job.

What have you been translating? Could you look at freelancing as a writer in any of those industries? For example if you ever translated pharma work, you'd probably be able to get work with some med comms agencies.

Tutoring. Learn the curriculum for Scotland, England and Wales and offer online tutoring.

Not instant but a job idea is International University Admission officer or French/German agent for UK universities or independent schools.

If it was as easy as this then there wouldn't be millions of people out of work 🙄

I see your logic, but many of my copywriter friends are struggling with a similar issue (companies using AI). I take your advice on board though, thank you!

One of the things I was considering doing long term is retraining as a speech and language therapist, so maybe I could find a job that would inform that.

Take a book in the public domain. Translate it. Stick it on Amazon.

It's what my friend started doing. She's not rolling in money but she makes a decent amount each year.

This is interesting, reading about it now. Obviously more of a kind of one shot solution but I guess that could cover a month if things get really dire..

Look at speech and therapy assistant, or therapy assistant jobs on NHS jobs website.

Short term - care work, delivery work, warehouse, hotel event staff etc. Not exactly glamorous or high paying, but might get you a job quickly.

Longer term - have you thought about cabin crew? Some airlines positively welcome people looking for career changes in mid-life, and your language skills may be an advantage.

I've just employed a freelance copywriter as a barista as she was finding the work was drying up...

Your age is nothing, I prefer to employ older people who can be more flexible, aren't tied by school hours etc, apart from our Saturday girl our youngest employee is late 30s so please don't feel like you won't find something! Good luck 🙂

Might be worth checking these two sites.

https://www.french-selection.co.uk/vacancies/

https://www.languagebusiness.co.uk/jobs-with-german/?__fromcaptcha=1

Always a need for French and German help. Diversify your translating business and get into gcse/a-level tutoring.

I worked for a big corp in a city and actually we had language teachers come in at lunch to teach lessons. Do that.

If you can’t find anything that uses your language skills then cleaning or taking in ironing are ways to make some money fairly quickly but it’s not highly paid of course.