“Go online and find some freelancer to design this thing, pronto.” “Call that designer we used last time. Maria or Marie, whatever.” “Call Maria, and have her handle all this.” “I keep reading about this Maria Rossi. See if we could get her for this.” “I’d recommend Maria Rossi. If […]
Let them see you sweat. At least a little.
Your client wants to know that you can do this. They expect you can figure it out, fix it, make it, deliver it. They don’t really care how you manage that, exactly. Only that it’s done and they look good and the project moves ahead. But when it comes to paying, it’s a different story. […]
What to put on your freelance website
It is easy to overthink this. And drive yourself crazy. I know, because I have been overthinking my own websites for ages. And I have merrily volunteered to help freelance friends overthink and overdo their own websites, to the point where they had to slap my hand away. “That’s enough, already.” Fortunately, I stumbled on […]
How to Be Irresistible
Make it so the conversation is always about them, not about you. That is your default mode when finding clients, when wooing clients, when dealing with clients. Or when dealing with humans, period. If you want the client to buy your proposal, make the whole thing about them. Don’t ramble on about what you plan […]
The difference between freelancers and entrepreneurs
You and me, as freelancers. Are we entrepreneurs? I say no. We’re different. In one important way, freelancers and entrepreneurs are carved from the same timber. We are both fiercely and genetically independent. We recoil at the thought of being someone’s employee. Richard Branson would no sooner take a ‘job’ than Pablo Picasso would. John […]
What we get paid for. Really.
Being a writer and all, I like to think that clients pay me for my silken prose, my clever insights, and my slightly irreverent yet endearing writing style. Not so. They don’t care that much about the writing per se. And they’re not paying for years of experience, either. And not for how many hours […]
Gutsy freelancer move: The Reverse Reference
Just for the record, I have never tried this, exactly. But ever since I heard it from a veteran freelancer ages ago, it has stuck in my head. When talking to a potential client, they always have plenty of questions for us. “Have you ever done any work with [biomedical, e-commerce, user interface, mens fashion […]
The Seesaw Rule
This idea seems vaguely unfair to me. Things shouldn’t work this way. But I have seen it hold true at least 264 times. Here it is: The person who cares less about a project, or cares less about a relationship, is the one who has control over it. They determine how it goes. Or when […]
Q&A: “How am I supposed to communicate the value of what I do? Clients don’t seem to get it.”
Q: From Amy, a freelance translator: “I definitely need a smarter, more compelling sales pitch. “I struggle with clients who see translators as interchangeable, or think that one translation is as good as another. Some are even okay with having ‘bilingual’ employees do their translations in-house. “It’s especially frustrating when they don’t realize that […]
What is a fair price, anyway?
I used to think that a ‘fair price’ was whatever the client was willing to pay. I had always heard, “If they pay, they must consider it fair.” So I made it a practice to shoot for the ‘whistle price’. (Except when I chickened out.) That’s the fee where the client says, “Whew. That sounds […]