5 Freelance Lessons I Learned in 2008

Tomorrow’s the last day of 2008, and as I walked home today, I thought of the many things that happened to my career and my freelance work this year and the lessons they brought. I hope you learn something from this:

1. Learn how to say no. I’m the kind of person who finds it hard to say no, so sometimes I get shortchanged. I get relegated to the back seat. Saying no doesn’t come easily to anyone, and it’s something every freelance worker should learn. Say no when you’re being pushed to the wall. Say no when you’re shortchanged. It might be difficult at first, and you’ll probably lose sleep over it, but it’ll be good for your freelance career.

2. Work with the best people. If you’re new to freelancing, it helps to “ally” yourself, so to speak, with people who have built a good reputation in the industry. I’ve tried Elance and Guru alone in the past and found it difficult to build up my portfolio, but I was lucky to be taken in by a good friend, a freelance illustrator and designer, who has a good reputation on Elance. His experience helped us secure our first project. We’re now working on a comic book project together, with him doing the illustration and I writing the text. Freelance work can be scary at first, especially when you’re alone, so it helps to be with a solid team that will back you up.

3. Never shortchange yourself. I’ve mentioned that I often add a free service to first-time clients, and I still believe it’s a good practice. But when it comes to proposals, it’s always right to quote clients a price that you’re comfortable with. It might not be the cheapest, but prove that you’re worth every dollar.

4. Deliver the best quality on time. You want to be known as someone who gets the job done, fast, so be consistent. This will help you build a good reputation and is always good for your freelance career in the long run. On the subject of delivering on time, it’s always best to manage expectations, so if you think a deadline isn’t realistic, speak up.

5. Pay it forward. I never refuse a project if I can still accommodate it, but if I can’t, I make sure that a fellow writer/freelancer gets it. I believe there’s a lot of work for everyone, and if you’ve built a good reputation, I am sure freelance work will come in steadily. On that note, I also believe that by passing it on to someone who might also need the job more than you do, you not only strengthen a friendship but feel positive that you’ve done a good turn to someone, and that’s always good for the soul, isn’t it?

What are your freelance/career lessons for 2008?

Giving a Little Extra Can Help Your Freelance Work

We network. We ask around. We send out impressive portfolios. But if a potential client were to choose between two freelance writers who both wrote well, delivered on time, and charged the same rate, but the other one offered a free extra service on the side, which one would he most probably choose?

I would say he’d choose the one that offered the extra service. Like everyone else who likes something free thrown in, clients like a little extra on the side.

I always make it a point to give a free service, especially to first-time clients, because it’s a way of building what could be a long-term relationship with them. If I were a client and I was happy with an initial project with a writer/editor, why would I look for anyone else?

When I’m doing book editing work for an author, I throw in a free encoding service, because some authors do write by hand and they send in manuscripts in notebooks, sometimes several of them. I simply adjust my editing rate a bit to cover part of what would cost the encoding (so when you think about it, it really isn’t 100 percent free). Sometimes when I’m feeling generous, I give the service free. Either way, it helps me as a writer because while encoding, I read the manuscript and get an idea of its overall plot.

How about you? Do you offer extra services to clients and how has this practice helped grow your freelance work?

Getting Rid of a Bad Client, Finally

Last month, I finally put my foot down and ended my contract with an Australia-based Pakistani client whose sites I had been writing content for since February this year.

He had all the signs of a potential bad client–except I refused to read them:

1. He always paid late. Late payments are a big issue for me, especially as I am not the sort who feels comfortable sending billing statements and reminders to clients to process payments me. Being late once or twice is forgivable, but being late every month, or worse, putting payments off the next month just because the accountant comes over only once a month is unforgivable. We have bills to pay and families to feed! Any freelance worker who turns in quality work on the expected date should never have to go through the embarrassment of having to follow up with a client. It’s money that’s yours. Why should you beg for it?

2. He always asked for more than what was agreed on. I’m usually generous to first-time clients and throw in a free service,  but it’s too much when a client asks you to do an interview when all you have initially agreed on is simply rewriting. I remember when this client asked me to do a Q&A that I quoted him a special price because it would involve some research. His reaction? “That is not going to happen.”

3. He does not give clear instructions, yet expects you to  get things right the first time. This is my favorite part. For months, this client and I have been on a guessing game, with me always trying to second-guess what it is he wants. As a rule, I always send out follow-up questions to clarify his instructions, but he doesn’t reply or replies late, if at all. Four out of six times, I got his instructions right.

4. He doesn’t trust the people he works with.This applies especially for home-based full-time work. It takes a huge amount of trust to believe that your employees who are in a different country and are two hours ahead of your time are working at the hours they should be.

For some time I thought this over, playing around with the figures in the mind. The last thing I wanted to do was to upset my budget. Of course, that was some money that could go to my savings account, but I realized that I would rather sacrifice money than to be stressed by a bad client.

Highly recommended reading: Joel Falconer’s post, “How to Spot a Dud Client and Get Out While You Can”

Working from Home and Lonely?

Working from home doesn’t mean you don’t get any social interaction whatsover. With co-working spaces, you can work on your own and yet not work alone.

The new way to work on your own is to work alone together.

Across the country, spaces are springing up to meet the demands of a new workforce, made up of self-employed entrepreneurs or part-time employees for whom the freedom of padding down the hallway to their home office in slippers and pajamas has turned into a home-based version of solitary confinement.

It’s called coworking, and the places where it’s happening are as flexible as the hours of the people who use them.

Whether it’s a concierge suite at a Connecticut hotel, a small office on Chicago’s Northwest Side or a Silicon Valley company that combines day care for children and work space for parents, these shared work sites allow people to have a desk and an Internet connection without having to shush the kids during a conference call or hunt for a power outlet at a coffee shop so they can plug in their laptops. [Full article here.]

I heard about a group in Manila that did this a year ago, although am not really sure whether it’s a regular thing now. Certainly, it sounds like a good idea, and it’s helpful to be around people who do the same thing that you do. No one else can be as understanding, surely.

Slow Down, Crazy Child

I promised myself, after reading this article, that I would care more about my health: Sleep a little more. Eat healthy. Not worry if I miss a weekday of blogging. Jog and do my weights.

Ah, the life of a Web worker.

I’m actually starting to feel my age. It’s been stressful keeping a full-time job, maintaining a blog, and doing freelance work, but I also know, having come from a life when I didn’t do anything after office, I would die if I stopped writing.

Why an Online Presence Is Important for Writers

If it were difficult to penetrate the international literary scene a decade ago, today many young Filipino writers are getting published in international magazines all because of the Internet. Furthermore, with the advent of Guru, Elance, and other job markets, Filipino writers are able get projects and commissioned work abroad. That means a wider market and more jobs (and more money!) for writers.

Many years ago when I applied for admission at the University of the Philippines, I was weighing the pros and cons of taking creative writing as against journalism. My parents’ advice echoed in my mind: You can never get rich by writing.

Of course, these days, making money through writing is not altogether impossible and one can actually live comfortably by doing copywriting, manuscript editing, and Web content work. While this isn’t the type of creative work that most writers aspire for, it brings food to the table, and whoever said you couldn’t write a novel or a short story on your days off, eh?

A project fell onto my lap a few weeks ago, courtesy of a forgotten profile on Writers.net. Perhaps things like this don’t happen frequently, but it bolsters what I have always believed in: for you to break borders and find jobs elsewhere, you must have an online presence.

Work in the Office or BYOB*?

My office desk. Am I ready to say goodbye to an IT guy on standby?

I’ve been contemplating on working from home in the last couple of months mainly because I’ve started to love freelance work. I thought I was ready to make the shift from 9-hour office worker to independent Web worker who gets to do some cooking while she writes.

(I kid. I always burn the rice when I cook while writing.)

So I came up with a list of advantages and disadvantages for working in an office and being my own boss:

Working from home is good because I can be around more often for my little boy and it will enable me to be more productive without the distraction of casual office conversations (which run for 30 minutes without your noticing). It will also save me on cab fare to work, the energy of reporting to a brick-and-mortar office, and commuting time.

On the other hand, what I love about working in an office is that a part of me is comforted by the idea that there are people around (okay, I admit, I am afraid of being alone–sometimes) and that when I get bored I can sneak downstairs with a friend and watch people smoke or try to climb over the barricade to get to the commercial district across the street.

I also like the idea that I have IT guys in the office whose only responsibility is to make sure the Internet and the entire network is running fine. At home, the mere act of picking up the phone and reporting that my Internet connection is slow or nonexistent irritates me no end and sometimes interferes with my writing mood.

And yes, the idea that there’s someone who does the accounting is also comforting, because I honestly do not want to be bothered with contracts and billings. I like knowing that I can march off to the nearest ATM twice a month and get my pay, and not have to remind my client that it’s time to issue me a cheque.

But the nice thing about working from home is that, if you are able to snag a number of well-paying projects, you actually stand to earn more than if you do office work. (And you don’t have to pay taxes!–okay, I’m kidding: I’m not encouraging you to renege on what you owe the government.) There’s also the fact that you can work when you want to or as long as you want, and if you’re sleepy, you can sneak in an hour’s nap and nobody will raise the roof. As long as you get the job delivered on time and in fine condition, who complains, right?

Am still weighing things for now. My freelance work isn’t enough to pay all the bills for a month yet, so there’s no way I’m giving up my full-time job. But who knows? I believe that whether I work in the office or or at home, there always will be something to pick on. It’s only a matter of living with the situation. Maybe in six months, we’ll see.

*In case you didn’t know: Be your own boss

Freelance Tip: Why a Contract Is Necessary

Now that I am revving up on freelance work, I’m starting to understand the importance of contracts. I’ve never liked contracts, believe me, and I always feel uncomfortable perusing one in front of a client or an employer, as though I didn’t trust him, that he’d insert a clause for his own convenience while I wasn’t looking.But recently something happened that made me realize how important contracts are and why one should study them very well before signing.

One client I used to edit a manuscript for recently terminated our contract after a year’s work. No explanation was offered, although I had an inkling why they decided to end it.

I don’t want to go into details, but let’s just say I was doing editing work for a client who is related to someone whom I once considered family. I gave this client a good “family” price, which was almost 50 percent less than what I would normally charge an author seeking my editing services. The contract included many freebies, including free encoding of the manuscript, which I don’t normally do.

Basically, I thought I was doing business with “family,” and thus, I left out that clause that stipulates what the client should pay should he decide to end the contract because I honestly wanted to see this manuscript through, you know? I always have this special attachment to every manuscript I edit (I usually check how they do at the best-sellers’ list; more on this next week).

I must admit I didn’t see it coming, so I was shocked. I panicked, worried that they would not pay me, and that is the lesson of this story: Treat everyone the same. In business, there are no friends or family.

And yes, don’t forget that termination clause.

Kristen Fischer has a more concise article about contracts here.

Photo credit: Vjik86