You’re a Freelancer: Now What?
This post is born of the frustration I feel every time I see mountains of advice on how to start your freelance writing career.
There’s so much out there for anyone starting out that it astounds me to hear how some struggle to get up and going. There isn’t a forum, twitter feed, or blog that doesn’t give beginners the steps to get into freelancing. This blog included.
The frustration doesn’t come from all of this, however. It comes from what’s missing: that same level of advice for freelancers who aren’t beginners. You know, you. Me. About 1.1 billion of us globally. Where’s the free advice for this lot?
The problem, I believe, is in the word “free.” Yes, there is advice out there for the mid-career or higher-level freelancer. But guess what? You have to pay for it. Right now, plenty of freelancers are making money teaching other freelancers how to advance a career. Or even begin a career, which makes no sense given the sea of free advice out there on that topic.
But when you’re a newly minted or slightly seasoned freelancer, where do you go from that point? What you need, what I needed were topics like this:
- How to build a mid-level freelance career
- How to move beyond beginner freelancing rates and clients
- How to build name recognition
- How to run a professional business
Those things will get you from beginner to savvy freelancer in no time. And each one is a blog post, frankly. And I just decided they’ll each be a blog post right here.
So let’s do this. Let’s get the career you just committed to or are struggling in into gear. I’ll take these topics one at a time, and please feel free to suggest other topics. You know best what you need.
That first one is more of a multi-post series, but we can go over the basics and get you started. I’ll try to get more detailed in a future post. Today, it’s about starting.
Building a Mid-level Freelance Career
When you start out, you often accept any work that comes your way, no matter the payment (or nonpayment). It’s normal to want to get some experience. Consider it your freelance internship.
It’s now time to move beyond your internship. It’s time to find real work. To do that, you need to figure out a few things:
- What rate to charge
- How to get higher-paying clients
- How to negotiate
- When a contract is needed
- Who is/isn’t your client
There are more things you’ll have to get answers to along the way, but this is a good starter list.
[bctt tweet=”Moving past beginner #freelancing career takes these few switches.” username=”LoriWidmer”]
What rate to charge
This question dogs every freelancer at every stage of their career. I can’t really answer that except to say this:
Charge more than you are right now.
You’re underpaid. I’d bet my last check on that. We tend to be a little too concerned about charging what we know we need to be making.
An average of 75 cents to a dollar a word will get you in the ballpark of what you need to be making. I switched from hourly to per-word rates a while ago because I work fast because I know the topic area well. Clients are getting quality work at a pretty good pace. As a writer friend of mine says, clients are paying for expertise and speed, and per-hour rates aren’t any incentive for the freelancer to go faster.
I suggest as you get better at what you do, you consider how you might be penalizing yourself by charging per hour. If I had to do it over again, I’d just start by charging per word.
How to get higher-paying clients
If you do that last thing I mentioned — charge more — this step will be much easier. Clients at a certain level (the level you want to attract) look for writers who charge like pros. Here’s a scenario:
You’re buying a new car. The car retails on the manufacturer’s website for $54,000 (it’s a pretty nice car). You go shopping, finding prices around $48,0000. Except one — an unknown-to-you online dealership is offering that brand-new car for $35,000. Same car, but at a $19,000 discount. Was your first reaction “What’s the catch?”
That’s how higher-end clients view low-ball offers. They may be intrigued, but they don’t go with you because they know what other contractors are charging. And they don’t know you, so they can’t be sure you don’t come with a “catch.”
Another way to get higher-paying clients: Look at the clips you’ve accumulated, make a list of all the areas you’ve done repeat work in, raise your rates, then go looking for clients upstream. And “upstream” clients are easy to find — they’re on Twitter and LinkedIn. They’re advertising. They are buying from the types of clients you may have already. Look at who is supplying whom. Go for the buyer. Or go for the supplier who is hungry to build name recognition.
Look beyond your current borders.
How to negotiate
This one is easy — set a price in your brain that is your absolute minimum. Don’t go below it unless:
- The job is easy
- The work takes you into new areas
- The pay is not too low
The “too low” would be similar to an offer I got a while ago. My price for the type of work the client wanted was $4,500 — and I was giving them a bit of a break so I could get into the industry they serve. Their price: $1,000. Yea, no. That’s a hard pass. Had they countered with $3,500 or possibly even $3,200, I might have taken them on. But the work was pretty intense, so chances are I’d have passed. As I said, I had already discounted my fee.
I’ve had (and still have) easy jobs that don’t pay a ton, but have funneled plenty of good work my way. They don’t pay a lot, but they pay in other ways, as we’ve talked about before. Consider the other benefits of that gig before you turn it down. Is it easy? Are you able to build a portfolio of work and then expand into a new area?
When a contract is needed.
Always. Next!
Actually, always is a bit deceiving. Yes, you need to do so with new clients. Even an emailed scope of work that they must confirm (and which includes your payment criteria) is better than nothing. But do have something written and approved before moving forward.
Who is/isn’t your client.
If you charge low rates, you’ll attract the same type of client every time. (Again, raise your rates, okay?) Your client is the one who enters the conversation treating you like a business person, not as hired help who can be dictated to like an employee. Your client is the person who values your skills and will pay your rate or something close to it.
Your client is not more of the same. Your client is not found on job sites, Medium, Upwork or anywhere where someone else is getting a piece of your hard-earned check (because then they would be your client, right?). Your client doesn’t pit you against 2000 other freelancers in a bidding war. Your client is someone who has budgeted seriously for the job they’re hiring you to complete. They don’t have to be rich — they just have to be respectful of your skills and time.
That’s the abridged version of how to build a mid-level freelance career. I’ve left out plenty. There isn’t enough room here, and a lot of it is going to vary based on who you are, what your business focus is, and who you’d like to work with. You’ll learn as you go, but hopefully this helps you kick-start the career and get a little higher up the food chain.
Writers, how did you move from beginner to mid-level freelancing?
Any advice for people who want to improve their earnings or client base?