My So-Called Freelance Life - Michelle Goodman [40]
In the meantime, how do you dull the sting of rejection? My favorite way is not to wallpaper my office with them or fashion them into an A-line dress or pay Lulu.com $90 to turn them into a roll of toilet paper. It’s to keep putting myself out there, keep contacting the dream clients on my wish list, keep wheeling and dealing and dancing and charming and juggling as fast I can. The more balls I have in the air, the less I seem to mind the ones I miss.
Chapter 10
The Check Is Not in the Mail
When to give it up for free and when to run for the nearest exit
“I’m an experienced woman. I’ve been around. . . Well, alright, I might not’ve been
around, but I’ve been . . . nearby.”
—Mary Tyler Moore in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, 1970
“You need experience to get experience.” If you’ve been freelancing at least five minutes, you’re no doubt familiar with this maddening old saw. Truth is, when trying to break into a new niche or business sector without the relevant work samples, sometimes you have to drop your drawers and bend over a little—metaphorically speaking, of course. And unless you’re prepared to go back to a day job to get the necessary samples, the quickest way to flesh out a lean portfolio is to do a couple of freebie or low-paying gigs.
“Recently, I’ve been trying to break into technical writing and catalogs,” says Ally Peltier, the Baltimore-based freelance writer/editor you met in Chapter 7, who went solo after working on staff for five years as a book editor. “A local freelancer had begun a project she didn’t have time to finish and asked me if I was interested, giving me the opportunity to work with an IT company who was putting together a catalog. The rate was significantly lower than I would normally charge, but I took the job anyway, knowing that this was just a foot in the door. Next time, I’ll have a great piece from my portfolio to show, and I’ll be able to charge more.”
Avoid doing freebie or heavily discounted work for any commercial clients on your wish list or any deep-pocketed industry rock stars you hope to forge a long-term, financially lucrative relationship with as a freelancer. Negotiating up from nothing or from a fraction of what you should be getting paid is a long road. Besides, if you give away your services or grossly underprice them, your dream clients may see you as not ready for prime time. Better to get your dress-rehearsal work from smaller organizations that could use a financial break and may not have the budget to pay your full rate: a pet shelter, a public radio station, or the new fair trade café/gallery down the street.
When donating your time or cutting someone a deal, be sure to let them know they’re getting your “friends and family” rate, without lording it over them. “I’ve done some lower cost jobs for clients who I’m very interested in working with but who may not have a strong budget (e.g., nonprofits that are doing important things),” says freelance communications consultant Kate Henne. “In those cases, though, I always outline up front what my usual costs are, and in the invoicing I reflect a discount. That sets expectations for future work, not only with that client but with those they might recommend your work to.”
A handful of freebies or discount projects is plenty to kick-start a skimpy portfolio, so don’t even think about slashing your rates as a long-term marketing strategy. Underbidding your competitors by 50 percent to snag more gigs degrades your profession: You reinforce those cheapskate clients hell-bent on hiring writers, illustrators, and virtual assistants for a song even though they have the budget, and you wind up toiling twice as much to make the same amount of money. Or you wind up “giving