My So-Called Freelance Life - Michelle Goodman [84]
But not knowing how real we can get with our clients isn’t the only thing that trips us up as freelancers. There are all those outmoded business management “shoulds” to contend with too: We should do whatever it takes to make a mint. We should spend a fortune on advertising. We should expand like there’s no tomorrow. We should have our exit strategy planned from the get-go. We should be hardcore, ruthless, skeptical of so much as saying hello to the competition.
“My biggest challenges are fighting the things in my own head about the way a businesswoman should be: that I need to behave like a man or my perception of a man, when in fact all my business is built on my ability to have relationships,” says Wendy Merrill, owner of WAM Marketing Group. “It’s not a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog, cut-’em-off-at-the-knees world.”
Sarah Haynes of The Spitfire Agency has also rallied against tradition. “I could maximize my earnings by limiting my business to a few core competencies and doing them over and over again for the same people, but that would limit my love of my job,” she says. “I get bored doing the same thing every time. I like to prove that new things can be done. Once I’ve done something a few times, I’ll usually run off and do something else.”
So don’t worry about what Martha Stewart or Steve Jobs would do—here’s a better list of freelancer goals to aspire to: Be true to yourself. Work when and how and with whom you want. Treat your clients well. Charge what you’re worth. Keep setting new goals for yourself. Branch out into new niches. Learn new tricks and acquire new skills. Plant your ass in the chair and make time to refine your craft. Read interviews with your career heroes. Follow the news of your field. Take classes on anything that excites you. Go to book readings, art exhibits, rock shows, or whatever else inspires you. Rub elbows with like-minded indie professionals at happy hours and conferences. Make new freelance friends—even with competitors. Encourage, cajole, and collaborate. Celebrate your wins. Learn from your defeats, but don’t dwell on them. And above all, remember to have fun.
If I thought it would help, I’d ask you to do some lame exercise in which you visualize yourself into becoming the next Diablo Cody or Amy Sedaris. I’d tell you not to worry about stiffing your cell phone carrier, mortgage lender, or the IRS or sweat the fact that your only client is Pest Control Technology magazine. If I thought it would help, I’d tell you to burn some sage, chant “I am successful, I am successful, I am successful” a thousand times fast, and visualize your checking account filling with shekels as your inbox overflows with freelance job offers from Oprah Winfrey herself. “Never mind the home foreclosure notice your bank sent you or the repo company that just showed up to haul off your car,” I’d insist. “Let nothing, nothing—not even a two-year jail sentence for tax evasion—distract you from all your invaluable chanting, sage burning, and visualization exercises.”
I could say that, but I won’t. Because ignoring reality and embracing the woo-woo approach to work is not going to get you where you want to go. In fact, it’s going to get you a ticket to nowhere fast.
While I’m a fan of positive thinking, the reality is that growing a kick-ass freelance business requires a healthy dose of perseverance and chutzpah. Building a solid, steady client base takes time, patience, resilience. Ditto for branching out into a new creative niche—travel photography, T-shirt silk-screening, teak furniture building—or climbing to the next rung of the self-employment ladder. If there were a magic, one-size-fits-all silver bullet, everyone would quit and start freelancing tomorrow with a deskful of contracts from the likes of The New Yorker and Barneys and Paramount Pictures.
I’d be lying if I said I don’t get bored or demoralized from time to time. Or that I’ve never fantasized about