My So-Called Freelance Life - Michelle Goodman [25]
So how does your rate rate? If $80 an hour is twice as much as most freelancers with your level of experience are getting paid to do the same type of work you do, you may want to rethink your pricing. To lower the rate you calculated here, you may have to boost your hours, shrink your expenses, or add some higher-paying bread-and-butter work to your client mix.
And if all your freelance counterparts are getting paid $100 an hour, you might want to raise your price as well. Why leave people scratching their heads wondering what the catch to your bargain-basement price is? More important, why charge less than you have to?
I know it can be hard to put a price tag on your talents, services, and creations, but trust me, it gets easier with time. Sometimes I find it helpful to pretend I’m some badass, take-no-prisoners business manager whose sole purpose in life is to get me as much money as possible for my work. And while Michelle Goodman might be a bit timid when it comes to pricing, Mitzy Goodman is anything but a pushover.
Unlike supermodel Linda Evangelista, you may not be able to say it takes ten grand to rouse you out of bed in the morning. But knowing that you won’t wake for less than $80, $100, or $150 an hour might just be the thing that saves you from a lifelong diet of celery and cigarettes.
PART 2
Sell, Baby, Sell
You’ve outlined some goals for yourself, tricked out your home office, and gotten real with your finances. So what the heck do you do now, besides wait for your inbox to chime or cell phone to ring? How do you help yourself to a piece of the indie work pie, and just what the heck are you supposed to do and say once you get a nibble from a potential client?
So many freelancers—rookies and vets alike—will tell you that their criteria for finding clients is “whoever wants me, and whatever they’re offering.” But that’s hardly good criteria. Yes, you need to eat. But cherry-picking your projects can make the difference between eating ramen and eating solid food. More important, it can make the difference between filling your plate with mercenary freelance work and making room for that “pinch me—I must be dreaming” creative work you’ve always wanted to do (most likely the reason you wanted to freelance in the first place).
Likewise, failing to negotiate project price and parameters (deadline, expenses, pay cycle) is a recipe for overwork and underpayment. I think you can see where I’m going with this: A passive freelancer does not a satisfied, well-fed creative professional make. So in this section, I’ll show you how to be more strategic about the clients you get into bed with and the projects you accept, from first contact to signed contract.
Whether you’re new to freelancing and need some clients in a jiffy or an old pro looking to punch up your existing client list, you’ll get a meaty list of tips you can use to land new customers, build networking and marketing into your weekly routine, and channel your inner haggler. And if you’re still trying to wriggle free from the 9-to-5 tie that binds, not to worry. Many of the suggestions packed into this section are things you can do online and on your own time.
Chapter 7
Fill Your Dance Card
Jump-start your client list: Bang on doors, build a freelance posse, and get in the on referral game
“I told two friends about Fabergé Organics shampoo with pure wheat germ oil
and honey, and they told two friends, and so on . . . and so on . . . and so on . . .”
—Shampoo commercial from the seventies
To give you an idea of how much indie work is out there, a 2007 CareerBuilder study found that 55 percent of companies had either hired or planned to hire freelancers or contractors in the near future. Sixty-four percent of them planned to hire solo workers during the second half of 2007.