The "Free" in "Freelancing"

Lately it’s been crazy.  But isn’t that the case with everyone these days?  I honestly can’t discern heads from tails sometimes and this past several weeks has very much been like that. So in the spirit of how life has been for me lately, I thought it’d be useful to put together a few words about knowing when to pull back – and using the “free” in “freelance” when you need it. 

This blog post is about slowing down when life dictates the need for it – and understanding that “it’s ok” to slow down, chill out and opt for a steadier pace. 

So yes – the sky’s the limit.  I understand that.  But no one ever said you have to go skyROCKETING all at once!  So, I’ve consciously decided to set a few rules.  With a few weeks of practice implementing these rules, I can honestly say it’s been doing me (and my family) some good.

Rule Number 1

Family First.

Yep. It’s sad that I even have to PUT this down as a rule, but very quickly and equally as easily; freelance work can devour your days (and nights).  Not that the fam isn’t your first priority – that will never change.  But I can’t tell you how easy it is to put other things off so that you can ‘get just one more project out of the way’ or get a ‘few emails sent out’.  These past several weeks, I’ve vowed to put work second – and boy has it changed things. For the better. 

Rule Number 2

Weekends are Weekends for Freelancers Too.

Whoever decided that people working for themselves must work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all the freaking time?  As I was slowly and steadily climbing up that ladder on Elance, I was waaaayyy to quick to accept projects with ridiculous deadlines and insane amounts of communications required by the client – at all times of day and night.  The thing is, in almost each case, there was no regard to my time.  My time is valuable.  And aside from an occasional urgent assignment that must be done immediately, I have decided to (semi) strictly adhere to the rule of weekends being down time for me.  I say semi-strictly because old habits die-hard and even though this rule has been in place for a few weeks now, I still find myself working on Saturdays and Sundays.  But things have changed.

Rule Number 3

Establish Clear Parameters.

Right about when I was having this epiphany that “Hey! Freelance is supposed to be fun, liberating and somewhat, well for lack of a better word, free – I started getting ridiculous requests from some existing clients.  Clients that were feeling very free to help themselves to anything and everything under the sun that they could get away with, in terms of additional work done on their projects.  I had to draw the line.  So from now on, whenever I begin a project with a client, new or established, I always outline exactly what services will be rendered in exchange for what exact price.  Not only that – I have also started outlining exactly what they’ll be charged for possible additional work.  Basically, leaving no stone unturned.  In this business – there is NO room for gray areas.  It’s all black and white. 

Rule Number 4

Charge What You Are Worth.

I undersold my worth one time – and one time only.  Since then, I’ve been tempted time and again to lower my price(s) to accommodate a project I really, really wanted, or to gain some additional experience in a fairly new field.  But the bottom line is this:  I am good at what I do.  And no amount of bargaining on the part of a client (existing or potential) is going to change the value I can provide to their business/organization/task.  So, to lowball on any project, no matter what the reason is and how badly I feel it can be justified, I simply don’t do it.  In fact, I’m actively looking at areas where I can charge what I’m really worth.  As it is, freelancing shaves off a bit from the regular old ‘brick and mortar’ business rates I would have otherwise charged.

So there you have it folks.  Yet another set of rules.  Well, they’re for me but you can feel free to use them if they make sense to you.

In the interim, anytime the work starts bogging you down, try to remember that there is something to the word ‘Free’ in ‘Freelancing’.

Six Tips To Help You Manage Clients’ Expectations

Well there’s good news and there’s bad news.

I’ll start with the good.  I have been SWAMPED with work.  I know, I know – there are people reading this right now wondering “Who considers being swamped with work ‘good news’?”  Well, if you’re on the freelance bandwagon, trying hard to achieve success on a daily basis and in the long run, then being swamped is definitely a good thing. 

Which brings me to the bad news.  I simply haven’t had a single moment to write on this blog.  So, folks – here I am.  I had to schedule this into my work.

I thought it might be useful to share a few tips on how to manage clients’ expectations:

Do not EVER promise what you can’t deliver.  That is simply bad business.  If you know you can’t write a 4000-word dissertation in 2 days, don’t promise to do it 48 hours!  DON’T!

Always, ALWAYS tell the truth.  Whether you are pitching for a job that is beyond your skills set or if you are pretending to have a master’s degree from DUKE when in actuality you got that Liberal Arts degree from DRAKE in Iowa -  (what’s two letters’ difference, right?  WRONG).  You cannot.  I repeat CANnot just fabricate things like this.  If not now, then later – it WILL come back to bite you and eat you whole.  Mom knew what she was talking about.  Always tell the truth.

If you don’t understand something, ask.  This is something that has helped me plenty.  Instead of being so sure of yourself as to not ask or not asking for fear of appearing stupid, set all inhibitions aside, try to ask and clarify (as many times necessary).  I’m not saying don’t use the information.  You will need to process what your clients are telling you and put thought and effort into it making sense but if you don’t understand what they need, how on earth could you possibly be successful at it?

Be open and honest.  I try to be real with my clients and for the most part they really appreciate it.  Whether I’m telling them that the concept needs to be matured more, or that my three kids ranked their mother very low on the “quality time scale” that week or that the logo for their business just doesn’t exude the right message; being open and honest goes so far and is absolutely necessary.  Obviously it builds trust, but it also demonstrates your integrity as a provider of services.  NOT doing so will only mean shooting yourself on your own foot.

Learn to say “no”.  I repeat.  You HAVE to be able to say “no” when saying “yes” is just not the right answer.  Yes, it’s really cool to have every single available music project on your belt – and yes the earnings pile up and yes your stats keep rising.  But at what expense?  I can guarantee, from personal experience, that it will later cause MUCH grief.  You will find yourself pulling your hair out trying to knock out just one more article for the night or do research for that 300-page eBook you accepted an editing job for – but what’s the point if you can’t love what you’re doing? 

Choose projects that you enjoy doing.  Projects are a dime a dozen – and the ones you have expertise on or that you genuinely enjoy doing, WILL come.  I find that the projects I’m working on begrudgingly almost always suffer at least somewhat.  Those that I’m really good at or that I truly love learning something new about – come out stellar!

I’d really love some feedback from you guys.  Were these helpful?  Too obvious?  Would you like to see tips in another area?  Tell me what you’d like to hear about in my next post.  And folks, comments please.  I’m a Leo.  I crave feedback.

Thanks

~F

Interview

My successful friend, Salma Jafri, is one who shoots for the stars and usually gets her aim spot on.  So for her to feature me in her blog is a true honor.

Please click on the link below, read the interview and then don't forget to bookmark her site.  She's always got something interesting going on.

http://wordpl.net/index.php/2011/01/get-into-the-mind-set-of-success-interview-with-writer-fareen-effendi/

As for me, on this blog you'll continue to see a journal of sorts of my freelancing experiences.  If you visit, pleeeeeease leave a comment.  (I LOVE comments!  Who doesn't?)

Happy January to you all.

~F

1 - 1 - 11

Don't they call this the GOLDEN something?

It must mean something super special then, and with that - I want to wish you a warm and resounding

Happy New Year!!

Here's to a FABULOUS 2011! Success, prosperity, new lessons learned, old habits buried - and nothing but good things in store for us.

~F

80 to 3. WOOHOO!!

Ok, to clarify what I’m talking about here:

Friends, I am 80 bucks away from $3000 earned on Elance.  Yayyyyyyyyyyy!  Hard work, perseverance and being true to myself – are paying off in the nice form of tangible greenbacks.  Clams, smackers, dough, bread, moolah – pick one, any one.  Because the bottom line is that it's coming in and it SURE is a good feeling to have a quantifiable way to measure this freelance success. 

(image courtesy of liz-green.com)

This hasn’t been without sheer determination and a TOTAL round-the-clock devotion to my clients and their respective projects. 

Sorry – just HAD to get this mini-rave out there.

By the way, if you are reading this and decide you want to join up – please do it through this link  That way, I get to enjoy a small reward for latching you onto Elance. 

~F

My 10% Policy

Striving to beat deadlines.

As I triumphantly hit the ‘send’ button, shooting off that assignment with the latest travel article I owe to the international travel agent I’m writing for these days, I had a smug smile on my face thinking of all the headache I’d just saved myself for the upcoming weekend.  Entering the word ‘DONE’ on my work plan spread sheet always gives me a liberating feeling and one that motivates me to continue operating in this way.  As a rule, since I’ve been freelancing on Elance, I tend to assign a deadline for myself that is 10% sooner than the actual deadline – hence the 10% Policy.  This has worked wonders for me so far and there’s no sign of my changing this fantastic formula thus far.  Here are a few reasons why I find it’s working so well:

Happy Clients

If you’ve read my website (yes, it’s simple I know but I have actually gained some business through this little old site, so I’m happy with it for now) then you will know that my mantra is “A Happy Client is the Best Client.  Plain and Simple.”  Well, folks – it truly is as simple as that.  Turning in work early, without a doubt, has resulted in happy clients, time and again.  And I, for one, am not ready to get off THAT boat anytime soon. 

Regular Work

Happy clients usually mean clients that want more.  So, in my quest to set up a regular and consistent stream of work (more on that in another post), when I get a repeat client it’s MY turn to be the happy one.  The thing is, (going on a slight tangent here) when you know you have work coming and in certain batches that you come to know of and expect, it makes it easier to live life and earn well at the same time.  For me, this translates into being able to plan well and actually BE a (reasonably) successful mother of three, wife of one (does polyandry even exist anymore?  I think not) and friend/colleague of countless more.  So yeah, regular work is good and if turning in work before the deadline makes it more likely to happen, then more power to you.

Leeway

Let’s face it – life has its ups and downs and quite unlike the real workplace where your boss can pretty much see that you’re not doing so hot, an online work place offers the slight challenge of needing to prove yourself remotely.  (Imagine the myriad of excuses most online employers must have to face when it comes to why deadlines haven’t been met or shoddy work was submitted.)  So when I suffer my newest migraine the only conversation I want to have is with my pillow and two fat Excedrins.  Knowing that the product descriptions I promised the newest beauty products entrepreneur in North American are done, is terrific!  AND if, for some reason, IDIDN’T get the chance to complete an assignment, the leeway I get from having tacked on an extra 10% of play time (in my mind, anyway) is paramount.

Flexibility

The more projects that pile up, the more flexibility I need.  Not only do I appreciate the ability to switch around what I’m working on, on any given day, but I also highly value the capability to offer that same flexibility to my clients.  In the short time thus far that I’ve been using Elance as a freelance platform, I’ve already been faced with several requests to do something on an urgent basis.  It was my planning and hindsight and this awesome 10% policy that paved the way for me to say “YES! I can take care of it for you in the next 24 hours!” or “Ok, we can go to the park to play today again.”

Now, THAT’s a GREAT feeling folks J

To publish or not to publish your earnings – THAT is the question

Well, now that I’ve been using Elance for just about three months now, I finally unveiled my earnings (Elance allows you to keep your earnings private for the world to keep guessing – even though you can finagle your way in and see the figures of another provider).  I knew my clients and potential clients were able to see the cash I’d already pocketed to date but I wasn’t ready to share with other service providers like me on the site.  Not until now.

Let’s go over the whys or why nots.

Zeros Are Not Attractive.  They Just Aren’t. 

For one thing, as a new member the last thing you want to do is attract attention to that blaring ‘EGG’ (another way of saying ZERO).  I even had one client answer me point blank when asked why he didn’t select me even though I was an expert on that subject.  His answer?  “You don’t have any projects on your belt”.  Granted, having no projects is one thing but even showing really low numbers is not a good indication of high quality.  The last thing *I* wanted to do was to appear to be a sell-out.  Even though I employed one questionable strategy (you can read more about that here) of doing a LOT of work for very little money as an ice-breaker, I didn’t want to expose that right way.  I got lucky and since that first insanely low bid many projects have been pouring in.

Your Freelance Colleagues Bidding on the Same Projects Are Your Competitors.  Simple As That.

Any way you cut it, a freelancer is looking for work.  Usually.  And if they are actively seeking out projects, including bidding on the same ones you are bidding on – well, genius – they are vying for the same job!  I’m not saying they are not sincere or awesome people or that they deserve to be ostracized.  No, nothing like that.  But at least until you are an established E-Lancer, I don’t see the value is devaluing yourself (some may disagree here) by exposing your amateur earnings.  Again, they can work their way into each project and figure out what they are up against – if that – but most people don’t have time to do that.  They’d rather be bidding on quality projects.  ;)

Earnings Per Client and Other Weird Metrics

Elance is funny like that.  They have this weird and nonsensical system of lumping in all your earnings into one pool and then pulling an average based on the number of corresponding clients you’ve had.  At first, I wasn’t bothered by it.  Not until the one client I had who paid me $30 for a short article to test the waters.  Yeah, he loved my work * I knew he would ;) * but that one $30 project threw everything else off.  Suddenly my ‘Earnings Per Client’ stat plummeted.  The same thing makes no sense the other way around either.  I have a friend in Texas (yes, that’s where Bush is from ~sigh) who did one really high-paying job, creating the false impression to buyers/clients that her average client was spending more than several thousand dollars on her work.  NOT true and a stupid metric of measurement at that.  SO, to keep this under wraps a bit, for a time I had a veil on my earnings.  There are other weird stats on Elance but they at least provide a snapshot of what you’ve put in to your online freelance business.  The ‘Level’ a person is at is an instant ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for some clients – so one way to combat being judged by your earnings is to work on that metric.  Once again, when you reach a respectable ‘Level’ feel free to bare your earnings, in my book, because they’re not as important anymore.

Money in the Bank Means You Did Something Right

Having said all that I said above, I recently made my earnings public.  Never mind the fools that don’t realize what they’re missing if they don’t hire me because I don’t have an $8000-per-client average.  I can no longer be bothered by what others on Elance are thinking either; I’ve pretty much established that my work is quality.  Clients know what I’m good for, they know I’m committed and that they can rely on me.  At THIS blissful stage, I find that they are more focused on the client feedback (more on that in another post)and job history rather than the numbers next to that little dollar sign on my profile.

~

The moral, folks?  There is none.  Just that you need to do what makes you feel comfortable.  MY two cents is that it’s a good idea to wait a while.  Establish yourself.  Expose that number once it’s no longer one of the first things people look at on your profile. 

And, as always, I wish you the best of everything!

F