hi there my name is Keith Wright I'm a video editor I'm Sarah Roberts I work as a video producer mainly on corporate projects hi martin McKim here I'm a freelance writer director I'm creative director I'm a sole trader so a freelancer what's known as schedule D a sole trader I'm not too badly off because I do fall under the government support grants for freelancers we function through a limited company set up myself or my partner who also works in the creative industries at this moment in time there's very little in terms of help from the government we pay ourselves a wage and then we pay the rest through dividends two weeks ago I got an email from one of my biggest clients and the email said during this time we're not gonna pay under normal terms we're gonna pee everybody at much quicker they then went on to say if anybody is suffering any financial hardship over the coming months to get in touch with them and they would see how that could help I tell you every freelancer who was on that list I bet they're gonna be really really loyal to my company I think it's tough for production companies right now their clients are to a certain extent in uproar they don't know they're coming or going they're looking at whether or not they can produce events and other material virtually and they're not really there with how they might do that a lot of company that I do a lot of work for invite me to the staff quiz so if someone has taken the time to consider that while many businesses are doing things to keep up staff morale a lot of them are excluding freelancers I've got some fantastic relationships with the people I've worked with I wouldn't even give a second thought if somebody needed me to you know drop my rates or defero PMON or if there were circumstances I was asked to do that I would do it in a flash I suppose in terms of advice it's kind of the obvious one really so you've got time now to really sit down and maybe put together a new show real make new connections you know using LinkedIn and connecting with more people production companies producers whatever it's quite nice to have that ability to just sort of take a step back and go okay what can I do when we come out the back end of this to help myself get more work you know and connect with more people I'm coping quite well really we have more time to consider what we're doing I have more time to cook I spend more time on hobbies I spend more time talking to friends I like a world where that's the case and I do wonder if we can't go come out of this to a slightly different way of living maybe we will very slightly slow down so I do wonder whether or not hey maybe he there's a benefit to it in terms of how I live my life coping up see finds not unusual for me to a quiet month or two every now and again or normally happens is you know you're quiet for a month or two and then boom you're chalk a block again for the truth of these things is that they always get better my wife's working from home my kids are off school and off nursery so we did loads of family stuff we got a walks where did was a cooking I'm doing water DIY we're just trying to use the time so sensibly I like the fact that we are giving each other more support both on a sort of peer-to-peer basis that a lot of people checked in with me to check that I'm okay I've been doing the same with people I work with them with friends I think an entity like I've come is quite well-placed to support both businesses and in fact freelancers there aren't a lot of forums where we can actually compare experience of how things are going and to discuss the best practice and again just things like what kind of simple support mechanisms and things we need I think we all need to admit to ourselves that occasionally we need support you know no man or indeed woman is no island