Posts filed under 'This freelance life'
My email pal Ian Sanders and I are running simultaneous interviews with each other this week on how men and women approach the self-employed life differently and what we can learn from each other. Ian owns a creative agency in London and is author of LEAP! Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free and Juggle! Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life. He’s also a dad to two toddlers. Part 1 of my interview with Ian follows; part 2 headed your way tomorrow. You can read Ian’s interview with me on his blog.
Q. Do you think men and women are driven by different factors in business?
A. Essentially I think men and women are both driven by being enterprising; they may have different approaches but they want the same goal: success.
Q. What do you think self-employed women can learn from men?
A. As soon as we start talking about gender differences we are of course generalising! With that caveat, I would say women can learn something about having guts to “just do it,” which sometimes men posses to a greater extent. Having that self-belief to be bold. I think women are better team players than men, so when they are working for themselves it can be tougher if they are not part of a team.
Q. What do you think self-employed men can learn from women?
A. Self-employed men can learn a few things from women, as I think women can be more adept at juggling a mixed portfolio and have the bandwidth to handle the varied tasks. Men are better at one thing at a time (apart from me of course!). I think blokes can be good at going out and winning business but sometimes lack the ability to simultaneously be across everything, the trivial and the detail. Women can also be better team players – personally, I find working relationships with women co-workers can be more stimulating and fruitful than with men.
Q. Do you think either men or women are better (in general) at separating work and play and keeping a balance between the two?
A. I think men are better at separating work and play; women are used to mixing it all up. Incidentally I think that mixing it all up is the way forward, and I’m no good at separation.
Q. What is your single most important survival tip for freelancers and people making the leap to self-employment?
A. My single most important survival tip is Focus. Focus on building revenues; focus on one area of business at a time, then diversify and build once you have foundations in place; focus on delivery of a project. Because a project not executed is just an idea.
December 15th, 2008
My Global Career ran a short excerpt from My So-Called Freelance Life last week. Here’s the start of it…
Clients who don’t know what they want can chew up countless hours of your time with exploratory emails, phone calls, meetings, and requests for more details if you let them. Ditto for blood-sucking zombies who milk you for free advice but have no intention of ever hiring you. Here are some suggestions for “training” indecisive clients and weeding out the bloodsuckers:
Cap getting-to-know-me meetings. Bloodsuckers are fans of meetings with agendas like “let’s spend the next four hours talking about how you’d execute our project were we to actually offer it to you.” For this reason, I have a rule about complimentary getting-to-know-me meetings: One hour max is all you get — by bat phone, webcam, or in the flesh — and then I’m billing you for it. Likewise, I don’t dress, drive, and give up my morning for just anyone. Unless there’s big money, repeat business, or real PIE potential, I phone it in.
Use templates. Although I have a bio and work samples on my website, I still need to email interested clients my references, additional samples, and a more detailed bio or resume from time to time. The materials I send vary wildly, depending on whether I’m talking to an arts organization that wants me to teach, a potential copywriting client, or a news website that wants an article written. Rather than reinvent the wheel each time, I have a nice collection of templates I employ: ShamelessInstructorPromo.doc, Fortune500Bait.doc, and MediaWhore.doc.
You can read the rest of the excerpt here.
December 9th, 2008
I have a guest post on Marci Alboher’s Shifting Careers blog in the online version of today’s New York Times. The intro follows. You can read the rest here.
Despite the fact that I’ve gone from greenhorn to grizzled veteran in my 16 years as a freelancer, I receive calls and e-mails like the following at least once a month:
“We really love your work. And we have a great opportunity for you at our exciting new media venture.”
Translation:
“We’re launching a new Web site/magazine/start-up and we’d love to have you do some consulting work for us. For free.”
My hopeful client will then explain that his or her company is poised to be the next Google or that some former “Apprentice” contestant who’s long since faded into oblivion is on the advisory board. All this is meant to butter me up for the next line, which happens to be the sentence in the self-employment lexicon that I hate the most:
“It will be great exposure for you.”
No one ever filled a gas tank or bought groceries with exposure. The 20.9 million Americans working as consultants, freelancers, small-business owners and independent contractors are not keeping a roof overhead by getting paid in exposure, or “PIE,” as I’ve taken to calling it.
But writers, illustrators and other creative types aren’t the only ones who routinely get asked to donate their time and talents to clients devoid of outsourcing budgets. Business consultants, virtual assistants, bookkeepers, programmers, publicists and all other manner of self-employed professionals get offered platefuls of PIE, too.
Sometimes the PIE — with all its promise of fame and fortune at some vague date on the horizon — will sound pretty delicious, especially if the economy’s in the gutter like it is now. Sometimes you’ll convince yourself that a little sliver of PIE couldn’t possibly hurt your bottom line. But usually these gigs are as empty as the calories at your favorite bakery counter.
Read the rest of this post here.
November 10th, 2008
I posted about freelancing during a recession last month. Then I wrote an ABC News column about it, did a podcast on it, and gave some advice on mediabistro’s GalleyCat blog about what freelancers can do to stay afloat right now. Some of my top tips follow, all of which I discuss at length in my new book:
Diversify your markets. Have your two or three niches, sure. But make sure that if you’re a health and fitness writer, you’re not just relying on the health magazines and lifestyle section of newspapers. Worm your way into online media outlets like AOL or iVillage. Write for trade and alumni publications. And don’t turn you nose up at writing newsletters for the wellness and medical industries or writing marketing copy for companies selling vitamins, fitness equipment, or any other products in your area of expertise. Even if you just do one trade publication article or copywriting gig a quarter, it’s a foot in the door with another type of revenue stream should the bottom fall out and you lose the bulk of your preferred work.
Diversify your skills. Adopt or beef up any peripheral skills you can. If a writer can edit, project manage, broadcast, podcast, design, code, or teach, she’s just greatly expanded her marketability and income-earning potential. Ditto for the illustrator who also does web coding and design. Or the bookkeeper who prepares taxes.
Stay in touch with all clients you value, past and present. An editor or manager who jumps ship or gets forced out of her current job may very well be willing introduce you to her interim replacement (if there is one) and ”take you with her” to the next company she works for.
If you can’t name at least 10 other freelancers you know, it’s time to make some new friends. Yes, even in your own line of work. As I’ve said before, your fellow freelancers are one of your best sources of referrals. If someone offers me a job I’m not interested in or available for and a trusted freelance pal (note the word “trusted”) is looking for work, you bet your hide I’m going to refer her. Only a scrooge wouldn’t.
For the record, in the past three weeks I’ve had one client close their doors to freelancers, another lay off 10 percent of their staff (no news yet on what, if anything, this means for their freelance budget), a couple projects that were supposed to start early November get delayed indefinitely, one of those delayed projects come back to life with a vengeance (supposedly with three to four times the workload than originally anticipated), two former clients offer me a fair amount of new work, a couple periodic clients say they didn’t have any work for me at this time (I’d called to check), and a three new contacts say, “Yes, yes, yes! Please send me your bio/samples. I need to increase my freelance pool.”
I could have written the above paragraph two years ago, pre-recession. This is the way it always is for freelancers. Clients come, clients go, and the self-employed soldier on. They key to not going hungry is to keep as many pans in the fire as you can and never get too comfortable.
November 9th, 2008
That’s the name of a thread on a writing discussion list I subscribe to. The proof that papers ain’t dead yet? The fact that the New York Times had to print 75,000 additional copies of the paper on Tuesday. Here’s a photo of a line of paper buyers at a New York bodega.
Sure, this tick in print media sales was temporary. But the reminder that people like to keep hard copy artifacts of historic events put an extra spring in my step yesterday (as if that were even possible; I was already walking on air after Tuesday’s stellar news*).
It was especially great to receive this reminder after being asked at my last Seattle book reading, “I’d like to break into freelancing for one of the city’s daily newspapers. Is this even possible? Or wise?”** and after our beloved Seattle Times laid off 10 percent of its workforce last week.
*Except for that hideous gay-hating stuff. Geez, people. Get a life. Worry about something that actually matters instead of making a stink about who’s doing who.
**My answer, which I might add, was given before this new round of Seattle Times layoffs, before the Christian Science Monitor killed its print edition, and before the Los Angeles Times announced another round of layoffs itself: “Sort of, but not really. And even if you do get in, budgets are so strained that you might not find the pay worth it. Try the weeklies first (easier to get into, if you don’t mind the paltry pay). Look to papers throughout the country if you can’t crack the local market. And rather than hanging all your hopes on freelancing for those purveyors of newsprint, think magazines and websites too.”
November 6th, 2008
Like much of America, I have been mad at insurance companies for a long time. I was doubly mad when I turned 40 and my rates went up 35 percent. Like many self-employed professionals, I raised my deductible so I could afford to pay the monthly premiums.
I was triply mad when I went to the ER this summer after having chest pains and palpitations for days (anxiety from overwork between the books and my regular freelance workload; there, I admitted it) and my $2,000 bill was not at all covered, thanks to my newly raised deductible. (In an attempt to highlight what other single freelancers and employees were doing to get around the insurance question, I wrote an article about marrying for health insurance for ABC News.)
Well, yesterday’s New York Times article about how U.S. women who buy individual health insurance often pay significantly higher rates than their male counterparts has my blood boiling all over again. (Thanks to Gwynneth for the heads up on the piece.) Apparently, we cost more because (a) we have babies, and (b) we tend to go to the doctor more than men when we’re sick.
I recently contacted an insurance agent to help me find the cheapest yet best coverage for me. She helped me save $1,000 a year by scrapping the maternity benefits I was paying for, as I’m not looking to get pregnant. Problem (a) averted. As for problem (b), I encourage you to join (free!) the Freelancers Union, a New York-based group that’s been lobbying elected officials for better healthcare solutions for independent professionals on a national level. And of course, vote on Tuesday.
October 30th, 2008
From today’s ABCNews.com column…
People keep asking me, “Isn’t it scary to not have an employer and steady paycheck in this economy?”
As a freelancer, I get paid by about half a dozen companies each month. So job security is not something I fret too much about. If one client dries up, as happens at least once a year (if not once a quarter), I have four or five other sources of income to rely on. And while my nine-to-five counterparts might spend the better part of a year looking for work in the wake of a layoff, my pavement-pounding phase usually lasts all of two to three weeks, if that.
I’ve been through financial fallouts before as a freelancer. OK, maybe not the “worst financial crisis since the Depression.” But I was self-employed when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, taking much of my freelance work with it, and after 9/11, when many staff and freelance budgets vanished seemingly overnight. Both times, I spit-polished my resume, hit the online highway and came up with a new set of clients and projects.
And while I know that the rapid-fire freelance job hunt can’t compare to the umpteen weeks and financial and emotional toll that looking for a staff position takes, I can’t help but think that full-time job hunters could learn a trick or two from their scrappier self-employed counterparts.
In an economic climate like this, you can’t entrust your fate to the employers and hiring managers. Not when you have a mortgage to pay and a family to feed. You have to be proactive, flexible, enterprising, even bootstrapping.
In short, you have to operate like a free agent.
Read the rest of this article on ABCNews.com.
October 23rd, 2008
Here’s another excerpt I wanted to share from my interview with the fabulous Mir on Work It, Mom! last week…
Mir/WIM! asks: You’re a huge proponent of life-balance as a matter of not just sanity, but better professional production. You’re a young, single woman with an immediate family consisting of one dog. Do people criticize any of your advice based upon your not having a spouse and/or kids and therefore the experience with those added demands? Do you think you’re qualified to speak to those sorts of issues without having gone through them, yourself?
I answer: No, no one has criticized, maybe because I’m 41 and have been working for myself for 16 years. But thank you for calling me young. That makes my day! I’m also not without responsibility. I have a mortgage on a house I bought and own by myself. I have a committed relationship with a guy I’ve been with for more than four years (we don’t live together or share expenses, but we’re talking about it). Negotiating my work schedule with him does come into play a lot, since I’m the one who’s often working longer hours, between my book stuff and my regular freelance workload, and he has a 9-to-5 job with four weeks of vacation time and incredibly predictable work hours. I also have a mom who lives a couple hours away and has some health concerns I’m increasingly becoming involved with. So I am not as footloose and fancy-free as I was when I was a young pup of 27 and could afford to just work 25 hours a week and make $25K a year.
For those reasons, I definitely think I’m qualified to speak for those with bigger financial and family responsibilities. But just to make sure I’m not talking out of my ass, I interviewed a number of freelancing moms and other caregivers for both my books. I kind of take issue (respectfully) with those who would say it’s easier for a single person to freelance than someone who’s married or shacked up and has a second income in their household as a cushion. I pay my own health insurance (which costs a fortune, even on my cheapskate plan). And if I have a particularly un-lucrative month because I decided to spend valuable working hours promoting one of my books, I have to work twice as hard (and often twice as long) the next month to make up for it financially. There’s no cavalry to call to chip in on my bills.
It’s of course much harder to juggle freelance deadlines with a baby on your boob or kids under your roof. But I do think that many things are easier on two incomes (my mortgage costs me at least twice what all my married friends pay per person). And while I went out of my way while working on my books to only interview freelancers who are the main, the sole, or an equal breadwinner in their household (many of them married with kids), I also know a lot of married freelancers, some with kids, some without, who just earn grocery money from their freelance work, if that. Some of them have even said to me, “I could never do what you do. Without my husband’s income, I couldn’t afford to live.” That’s all well and good, but I’m here to tell you that just like their single counterparts, plenty of freelance live-in girlfriends, wives, moms, and other caregivers make a handsome living working for themselves.
Want more of my Q&A with Mir? Here’s part 1, and here’s part 2.
October 21st, 2008
Last week, I had the pleasure of doing a two-part Q&A with Mir, freelance writer and mom extraordinaire, who writes an incredibly insightful freelancing blog on Work It, Mom! Here’s my favorite excerpt from part 1 of the interview. I’ll post an excerpt from part 2 tomorrow.
Mir/WIM! asks: This recent post at FreelanceSwitch about freelancers sharing knowledge had me nodding all the way through. You’ve made a niche for yourself in the how-to’s of freelancing — so obviously you believe in that knowledge-sharing — but what about freelancers who aren’t in the business of helping others? Do you think it’s possible to thrive as a freelancer without being a supportive/helpful member of the freelance community?
I answer: The item in that post on shunning the “this town ain’t big enough for the two of us” mentality is the aspect of it I like the most. (As for the item on being psyched that someone copied your work because it’s flattering — WTF? Clearly that poster is not concerned about money and credibility lost over copyright infringement. That’s just bad advice, especially coming from a designer. Passing off someone’s work as your own is never cool and can get you in a lot of trouble, as it should. But reprinting someone’s work with permission — and, I would hope, compensation? Now that’s flattery. But I digress.)
I find that far more freelancers are willing to band together with their “competition” than shut them out (or rip them off). That’s not to say you have to share your entire contact list with everyone you meet or give away all your trade secrets or ideas. But a little mutual back scratching goes a long way. Help a freelance pal answer a burning question about how to handle a problem client and she’s likely to do the same for you later on down the line. Pass along a lead to a job you’re not interested in or able to take on and any freelance friend worth her salt will return the favor later.
To answer your question, no, I don’t think you have to be a sharer to get by as a freelancer. Not at all. But for the reasons I mention above, it’s to your advantage. Given the isolation so many at-home workers report, I’d think you’d want to cultivate as many mutually beneficial freelance friendships as possible. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself asking your cat for professional advice, which isn’t very useful.
This isn’t to say that all freelancers play fair in the world of share-and-share alike. I’ve met those solo workers who are all too happy to try to steal your gigs right out from under you or who exhibit a lack of gratitude upon receiving a referral so offensive that you vow to never lend them a hand again. Fortunately, these bottom-feeding opportunists are easy to spot. They’re all take and no give.
Want more of my Q&A with Mir? Here’s part 1, and here’s part 2.
October 20th, 2008
Last week I posted a link to the Biznik Live web radio interview I did on freelancing in a down economy. Since then, a number of people have asked me whether I think freelancers have more job security than nine-to-fivers. I do. Here’s why:
- Our checks come from multiple companies rather than just one. If one client tanks, we replace them with another. I just had a client dry up last week. Instead of crying in my coffee, I’m actually excited that I’ll have a bit more room in my schedule to find a bigger and better client to work with and already have a couple leads.
- We’re endlessly flexible. If one market dies off, we adapt. No more travel writing budget at your favorite media outlet? Then you write consumer reviews, or business tips, or pop culture trend pieces for them. And/or you start writing for travel trade publications and the hospitality/travel industry (as in, copywriting). Which any good freelancer would be doing anyway, as diversification is key, even when the economy isn’t taking a nosedive.
- We’re old pros at interviewing and selling ourselves. Especially compared to our nine-to-five friends, who may not have had a job interview in five years and, facing a layoff, may feel daunted at the prospect of having to get out there and market themselves. Freelancers, on the other hand, are constantly “interviewing” on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. Plus, we have the most up-to-date bios, resumes, and portfolios around.
- It’s still cheaper for companies to hire freelancers than employees. That’s not to say freelancers will replace all employees, or that some outsourcing budgets won’t be cut in this crummy economy. But someone has to do the work. And if a company has 100 hours of work that no one on staff has the time or expertise to complete, they’re going to outsource it.
For these reasons, I recommend interested nine-to-fivers hone their freelancing chops and pick up a moonlighting gig or two on top of their day job asap. Why?
- You need the money anyway. After all, gas costs $80 a gallon and a salad at your favorite deli is like $35. Besides, you want to be able to buy your sweetie something other than a lottery ticket for Chrismukkah, right?
- You need the interview practice. You need to get to the point where you no longer say, “Wah! I hate interviewing and looking for work. Woe is me. Wah!” Freelancing gives you that much-needed practice selling yourself. In time, the pain of “interviewing” pretty much dissipates. In fact, many full-time freelancers are so busy that we wish we had more free time so we could pitch for articles or woo more clients.
- You need a fallback case you get laid off. Freelancing might just be the lifeline that saves you financially if you lose your day job. Often, it pays a heck of a lot better than those meager unemployment checks. And, in case you didn’t know, to collect unemployment, you usually need to (a) prove that you’re looking for full-time work, and (b) attend some state-run “how to find a job” workshops. I’ve done it at the end of a full-time contract gig, and I could only keep it up a month. Freelancing is much more enjoyable, and better paying.
October 14th, 2008
Next Posts
Previous Posts
