August will look like your business is failing.
Messages stop, quotes go unanswered, invoices sit, and a creator in their first or second year concludes that something has gone wrong with them. Almost nothing has. The month is doing what it does here every year.
Nothing disappeared, it moved
The work is not cancelled. It is waiting for somebody to come back and approve it, which they will, in September, in a rush.
The approval chain empties before the client does
This is the part worth knowing, because it explains the timing.
Your contact is often still at their desk. What has gone is everybody around them: the person who signs, the person who checks, the person whose one comment unlocks the brief. A quote sent in the first week of August lands in a queue where somebody is always missing, and it stays there, not because anyone disliked it.
That is why a August silence tells you nothing about the quality of your proposal, and why chasing it harder produces no movement at all.
Discounting in August is the expensive mistake
Around the third quiet week the temptation arrives: lower the price, run an offer, take something below your rate just to have work.
It is the worst month to do it. You are discounting to clients who were coming back anyway, in a market small enough that the number travels, and you have taught a lower rate to somebody who would have paid the higher one in September. The month ends either way. The rate does not.
| What you see in August | What it actually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No replies to quotes | The approver is away, not the contact | Send it again in the first week of September |
| An invoice unpaid | Payment runs are thin this month | Ask the date, not for the money |
| A brand goes quiet mid job | Somebody in the chain is on holiday | Ask who else can approve, once |
| A new enquiry, oddly urgent | Somebody covering, with a deadline | Take it, and price it normally |
| Nothing at all for two weeks | The month, not you | Nothing, and this is the hard part |
The fourth row is the one people miss. August produces a small number of genuinely urgent jobs from whoever is covering, and those are worth being available for.
What August is actually good for
Two things, and both are the work you never have time for.
The first is your own material: the portfolio pieces, the spec video for a company you want, the profile you have not touched since you wrote it. That work has no deadline all year, which is why it never happens, and August is the only month when nothing is competing with it.
The second is the admin you keep deferring. Records, invoices filed properly, the accountant conversation you have been putting off. Doing it now costs you nothing, because the alternative was staring at a quiet inbox.
Then be ready for September, which arrives without warning and asks for everything at once.
Keep reading
- In Portugal, Your Price Is Public
- The Only Thing You Cannot Fix Afterwards
- Building a First Portfolio Before Anybody Hires You
- In Portugal Your Video Competes With the Calendar
- The complete UGC guide for Portugal
Publish your creator profile →
Frequently asked questions
Should I take a holiday too?
Yes, and take it in August rather than resenting the silence. A month with no work is a bad time to be resting badly, and September does not leave room for it.
What if a client really has gone silent for good?
You will know in the second week of September, not before. Anything you conclude in August is a guess made with no information.
Is it the same everywhere in Portugal?
The pattern is national, and it is sharper wherever your clients are companies with several approvers. If you work mostly with owner run businesses, the month is quieter but less absolute, because there is nobody to wait for.