I was asked about this just last week

Last Wednesday afternoon, I was revising a proposal in a café when my phone buzzed—my friend Xiaolin sent a link saying 'Meta is cutting 8,000 people, what can we get ?' My first reaction was: what does this have to do with me ? But after five minutes of thinking, I realized this is closer than I thought.

Big companies cutting staff doesn't mean their projects stop. On the contrary, many projects keep running, but with fewer internal hands, they need to look outside. This is when freelancers and small teams are the easiest to remember.

This isn't the first time, some have already positioned themselves

During the 202 3 tech lay off wave , I knew a designer named A wen ( doing brand design solo in Shanghai ) who landed two contracts from mid-sized companies that 'just cut their internal design teams,' each lasting six months. He said he did nothing special—just updated his service page during that period, clearly stating 'can quickly respond to short -term projects.'

The laid-off people themselves are potential clients too. They get severance, want side gigs, want to take on projects themselves—what they need most now is: help building a personal showcase site, simple personal branding, or teaching them tools to work efficiently. These are all things we can do.

What you can do today, and what it costs

No money needed, no technical background required, time cost about 2 hours max.

  • Step 1: Open wherever you introduce yourself now —WeChat profile signature, Xiaohongshu bio, pinned Moments—add one line: 'Available for short-term outsourcing / quick response.' Just that.
  • Step 2: Search LinkedIn or Maimai for ' ex-Meta,' ' ex-ByteDance,' 'ex-big tech,' see if anyone recently is job-seeking or looking for collaboration, leave a genuine comment or DM, no mass templates.
  • Step 3: If you have past case studies, post one today about 'how I helped a certain type of client solve a certain problem.' Timing is more sensitive now, reach will be slightly higher.

My own past mistake: waiting until opportunities fully matured before moving. Result: that wave of demand got absorbed in two months, I caught none of it.

By audience: what fits you right now

If you 're just starting , no stable clients yet: I'd suggest don't rush for 'big tech projects ,' focus on those just laid off individually—they have limited budgets but real needs, good for practice and building reputation . Doing nothing now is completely fine too , this is just one more direction .

If you already have 1-2 clients, running projects: I'd suggest spend 20 minutes updating your external introduction, highlight ' fast response speed,' 'available for short-term collaboration.' Big companies outsourcing fear slow communication, complex processes—your small size is actually an advantage.

If you're scaling up, want bigger contracts: This time window suits proactively contacting mid-sized companies that just downsized internal teams, proposals emphasizing 'we can serve as your external team for long -term collaboration.' Once established, these relationships tend to be much more stable than one-off projects. These tools and approaches aren 't needed by everyone right now, but if you're already looking for new client sources, now is a good timing point.