The Freelance Nevers

What’s on the iPod: Better Life by Keith Urban

Wow. The last few days I went from running in place (and all around) to a dead stop. Amen. I can take a lot of work at once, but I can’t take multiple interruptions that make it tough to get a single thing done. Such was my Tuesday and the first part of yesterday. I got the hair done (amen – I’m human again!), and came home to a resume in which the client was fluffed up because I failed to show his leadership qualities.

Sometimes I think they believe we read minds because nowhere in the info he’d given me was there a single mention of a project he’d led, a team he’d managed, or anything remotely resembling leadership. Two rounds of emails and a dozen pointed questions later, he coughed up the much-needed info.

This on top of my usual daily project deadline, plus two more articles for another client meant I didn’t get up from this chair until somewhere after 5:30. Then it was my turn to cook.

Yesterday I fared a little better, but I kept being pulled aside for various things, which meant my marketing was shot before it began and I didn’t get the start I wanted on a new project. Today is a new day, thankfully.

I was thinking about the ways in which we shoot ourselves in the foot (beyond the uncontrollable interruptions), and I’ve come up with a list of things we should avoid lest we handicap our own attempts to grow our businesses.

1. Never compete on price. If you think you can outbid someone and win the project that way, A) you’ve lost it in the long run (who needs a cheap writer? Not someone who needs a good writer), and B) you need to be dragged away from bidding sites altogether. Set your price as though you mean to do business like a grownup, not like a desperate writer wanna-be.

2. Never compromise your standards to win the job. The fastest path to resentment and job dissatisfaction is to take on a project that doesn’t agree with your morals, your standards, your pay rate, or any other part of your business or personal beliefs. Be true to yourself and let that – and your gut – guide you.

3. Never think you know it all. I’ve been doing this job for years, yet I’m still learning. I would no more tell you there is only ONE way to do this job than I’d tell you my feet are on fire (because they’re not). If you start presenting your expertise in absolute terms or make bold statement you can’t back up, you’re on the fast track to discrediting yourself and killing your reputation. (And yes, I see the irony of my listing this in a list of absolutes.)

4. Never make it up or embellish. If you don’t know, say so. If you haven’t done it, don’t pretend you have. If you expect to remain a trusted writing source, never lie to your clients or mask your experience.

5. Never miss your deadline. I mean never. If you’ve contracted to get it done by March 9th, it had better be in that client’s hands on or before March 9th. If you need an extension, ask for it the second you realize you need it (and it had better not be the day of or the day before). If you become unreliable, you also become unemployable.

6. Never underestimate your own value. You have mad skills. You’re offering a service that many clients are seeking. Just because you love your work doesn’t mean you must forgo fair payment for that work. My mechanic loves working on cars, but he’s not going to replace a transmission for $5.

What freelance nevers can you add to the list?