My Freelance Pros (and Cons) in 2021

I’m out of the office all month.

Did your throat just tighten up? The idea of taking time off at all usually gives me hives or agita or stresses me to the point it takes days to relax on vacation. But this time, I walked away easily. Very easily.

Since April 2020, I’ve been working like everything is on fire and what I write will beat back the flames. Odd analogy, but it’s been a frenzied pace at best. Clients stepped it up in 2020, and in 2021, they opened the floodgates. I never worked so much in my entire 21 years at this freelancing thing.

I won’t tell you how much I made because I’m of the opinion that earnings don’t speak to success — trying and doing does. Even trying, failing and trying again is success. Because you tried again.

I made a lot — just shy of 82% more than last year. And last year, I’d made 62% more than in 2019.  Even without December earnings.

But I made mistakes, too. That’s today’s post — what went right, what went wrong, and what you can learn from that.

[bctt tweet=”What went right — and wrong — in my #freelancewriting this year, and what it can teach you.” username=”LoriWidmer”]

Pros

I found some clients before 2019 that really increased their volume of projects as the pandemic bore down. Every client I worked with in the past increased the amount of work they funneled my way. Instant increase in earnings, and plenty of work every week except for maybe two total, which were welcome. I was hitting my monthly goal ($6,000) the first week of the month, sometimes before that week even started. I kept the goal low, at first because I figured it would just be a month or two of overabundance. Then I became far too busy to even think about moving the goal upward.

I turned down work that didn’t fit. A few things were just low paying, though they might have been interesting for someone else. One client was busy playing some game of chicken with me (without realizing I wasn’t about to flinch) and acting a bit dick-ish (calling it what it was) about negotiating, opting instead to state price and then yank the rug when I didn’t come running. Little did they know that I’d already met my annual goal and couldn’t spare five minutes to play their games. Color me unimpressed.

I created partnerships. My clients are my partners. I reinforced that idea with every one of them. Instead of simply taking assignments, I made a concerted effort to include them in interviews, suggest what might work for them, and brainstorm solutions when there were issues. I came away from this year feeling a lot more connected to my clients, and they to me.

I proved myself to a newer client. That led from what was a $3,600-per-month agreement to ones where the invoices were hitting five figures regularly.  I was trusted with more project types, and pretty soon the client was sending more work my way than I could handle. Which leads me to the mistakes I made …

Cons

I didn’t say “no” often enough. That five-figure client had, at one or two points, given me more projects than I had time to complete. My fault entirely — the word “no” never left my lips. Part of that was because as I was accepting projects, I wasn’t paying attention to what was already in the queue. That’s how I ended up with 18 projects in November. From one client. Again, that’s on me.

I left money on the table. I didn’t follow my own rule — if you’re too busy, raise your price. I didn’t. If I’d gone from today’s rate to what I’ll be charging in 2022, I would have easily doubled last year’s income. Or I would have trimmed the project list down to a much more manageable size and still not lost any money. That’s the hope for next month.

—

So how are you, freelance writer, going to take these lessons forward for yourself? Simple, really:

• Set goals and get an accountability partner to make sure you’re reporting your efforts (you meet goals better when you have to account for them).
• Behave as though you have plenty of money in your account — turn down work that doesn’t fit, negotiate terms that suit you, walk away when it feels like the best decision.
• Become your client’s partner, and work with them instead of simply taking directives. Think how you would do it if it were you benefitting from that project.
• Prove yourself by giving 100% to each client. Show them why you’re worth your rate and do it with confidence because you are worth it.
• Say no. Don’t take on more than you can handle. Budget your time better than I did.
• If you’re busy, raise your price. And don’t be afraid to lose clients or work over it.

Writers, what are the pros and cons you’ve witnessed in your own freelance writing career this year?