What’s on the iPod: Magnificent by U2
What I’m reading: Spartina by John Casey
Finally – a detox day that worked! The husband arranged for us to see the horseshoe crab breeding/red knot migration in Delaware Bay. It was a magnificent sight. I’ve never seen a live horseshoe crab, and certainly never saw one swimming. It’s like an eyelid opening – their “legs” or gill things come up out of the water like eyelashes batting. Very cool. The red knots that come to feed on the millions of crab eggs fly from the southern tip of Argentina, feed, then head to the Artic. It was amazing to see.
We stayed in a gorgeous bed and breakfast, which situated just close enough to the birds and the shore. We spent Saturday morning looking at birds and the afternoon at Rehoboth Beach looking at people. Exactly what I needed to separate from May properly.
Today’s going to be interesting. I have an article due in four weeks and I’m arranging interviews this week. And I’m pretty sure I’ll be fielding questions on an invoice. I sensed in the question posed over the weekend there was some “Wait – how much?” going on. The project was tough, but I put the time and effort into it and the price I billed was actually a little lower than the time I’d spent. We’ll see – maybe it was just clarification of what was included.
Thankfully an overdue invoice was paid over the weekend, as I suspected it would be. The client was always on time, so it surprised me to see it going over 60 days unpaid. I alerted him to it and he was swift to resolve it. Plus we got to reconnect and will hopefully be working together this summer.
Each time a client questions an invoice these days, which thankfully isn’t often, I entertain ideas of pulling a James Chartrand. I can’t tell you how many times even prior to James’s revelation I wondered if it would be easier had I assumed a male persona. Psychologically, it does seem men are assumed to be worth their price while it seems also that women’s value tends to be questioned more often. I hope that’s not true, but I’ve seen a number of cases of it in my own work experience.
I’d like to take an informal poll. Men, how often do clients question either your work or your invoices? One in twenty? One in 100? Women, same question.
What are you working on this week?
12 responses to “When the Questions Come”
Especially if you work from a home office rather than an offsite office and you're female, you're questioned more often, in my opinion. The attitude is , "Well, it's not like you're doing anything. You're home. You should be glad to earn a little pin money."
Of the freelance writers I know, evenly mixed between men and women, the men are NEVER questioned on price once the price is set; the women are questioned 95% of the time And that's in a sample of only about three dozen or so.
I work with project fees and submit a formal proposal or Statement of Work that outlines just what that covers so when it comes to invoicing, it isn't a surprise. I've never had anyone question an invoice-slow to pay-but not question it.
Now, that doesn't mean I don't get some "how much?" at the negotiating stage. I remember James feeling that just didn't happen in the "James" persona. I don't know if it would make a difference if I had a virtual sex change operation. 🙂 I suspect it's all in your presentation. I've gotten better at asking for what I'm worth and yes, I've lost potential clients that way, but I'm okay with that- at least right now. 😉
Can't wait to hear your male readers' perspective.
What I'm working on – outline for white paper, two blog posts, one guest post, article research.
Have a great week, everyone-male & female! 😀
Hi Lori.
I don't think I've been questioned about my invoices often enough to give you a good sense of whether it's unusual. I can remember two instances.
But one thing I find interesting is that the two editors who I felt were nickle-and-diming me were women. Wonder if it's women or men who do more penny pinching?
This week, I'm working on two articles and a bunch of short pieces for a marketing program I handle. Not exciting, but that's good. I'm not really operating at high speed these days!
Cathy, I think that's a great idea. I've explained my fee and my hourly rate for some projects, but I'm hesitant to give them hourly anymore. I'm growing weary of watching them count hours before I begin. I mentioned to this client the hourly only at his request. Four months ago. This project, frankly, was more work than was billed. Because it's an ongoing client, I tend to round down.
Devon, that's been my experience so far. I do get questioned often about my rate. I don't appreciate hearing it challenged as if I'm making it up as I go. I'm confident and assertive in my presentation of what I charge, yet I still get "Wait, we didn't expect that much."
Gabriella, I've been questioned by both genders. I will say my worst offender was female. There was one instance in which her watching the wallet created a bigger project issue for her. I couldn't get the revisions done in the allotted amount of time. If it had been someone who had given me a break in the past, I'd have pressed forward. However, I had lowered my rate and pushed for late payments and frankly, I didn't feel my time or talents were respected. It sort of hit the fan, but I explained that that's what that amount of money buys, and that expecting the impossible in the time allotted wasn't possible for any writer.
I can't say I get questioned a lot on my work or billing, but I do get asked a lot who I work for. "Now who owns your company?" That would be me. Cue the surprise.
And yes, I've often thought that being male would automatically confer some of the authority I currently have to work to earn. I've been in situations that you'd swear were from an episode of "Mad Men." I've noticed this breaks down by field somewhat – I've had more of a struggle with my IT clients and a much easier time with my PR clients.
The hermit crabs sound cool. I miss the East Coast sometimes.
Blogger is getting on my nerves. Speaking from the Motivational/Personal Development field, I see some gender-related factors, based on my experiences. Some of the clients, generally the ones I knew to be older gentlemen, have put up a fuss about the rate for what I suspect to be value-based reasons. I'm talking about family values, or cultural values. They probably grew up thinking that women weren't skilled or knowledgeable enough to warrant the same pay as a man. It's difficult to change those values once they've been set like that.
The female clients haven't, to my recollection, fussed about the rate. Probably because women are typically seen as more capable to create emotional type pieces for Motivational/Inspirational purposes. It's not true, but again, if you have that mindset, you're not likely to change it overnight.
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As far as going with a male persona for your business; I am more concerned with the trust issues should they find out that you're not the male they thought you to be. When James came out, I lost a little trust with her because of that, even though I could see what motivated her to do it. I realize that she wasn't the only one to do it, but it still kind of bugs me.
What am I doing this week? I'm finishing up one project and cussing out blogger. I've decided to move the darn blog over to wordpress. Maybe I'll just start over, I don't know.
I've had clients question my rates up front, but never my work or the final invoice. And as I've worked more and more with the best quality clients, the rates don't even get questioned. I realize I'm fortunate in that regard.
This week, I'm attempting to write a multi-page website while managing phase 1 of a kitchen renovation. I carefully cleared my calendar to make sure I'd have no writing to do when the job began … and then the kitchen cabinets were ready two weeks early, right as two major deadlines converge.
Eileen, I'm actually well below Writer's Market rates (for 2004) on this particular project, so I'm not sure why there would be a question. And doesn't it figure about the cabinets? 🙂
Wendy, I think I was just shocked that James had to resort to that in order to work. Yes, I think it was a factor in her not securing work. I'm not put off by it because I think she did what she felt she had to do. I'm only sad it worked so well. Says a lot about society.
They actually ask that, Valerie? That's more than a little rude, isn't it? I don't like to assume it's because of gender, but in some cases it's pretty obviously the cause of some of the issues.
You know I have to honestly say that I never considered the differences freelancing as a male might afford until I read James' post. It's crazy that I never considered it before, and I agree that it's DEFINITELY sad in a way that her experiment worked so well.
The only time I have ever been treated differently than a man in my career was when I first went to work as a counselor at a state agency where there were no other women and no one else of either gender as young as I was by at least 20 years at that professional level. However, that lasted only a short time until I demonstrated that I was as capable as the men. In the 1970s, when I first went into business, I was often the only woman and the youngest person in the room at business meetings. However, I never felt that I was treated any differently. Certainly since I have been a freelancer starting in 1996, I have never been treated any differently than a man. Although I occasionally get questions about my prices from potential clients, most already know what to expect because my hourly rate is posted on my Web site. Most of my clients are from referrals, anyway, and have an idea of what I charge. No one has ever questioned an invoice after the work has been done.
It saddens me to think that women still perceive discrimination, and it appalls me that female freelancers would resort to deceit because they think that is the only way to succeed.
As someone who entered the world of work in the days when women were secretaries or teachers, I have held professional positions, owned a business that grew to one of the top three in the industry within my market, and happily freelanced for 14 years without ever being discriminated against.
"Wendy, I think I was just shocked that James had to resort to that in order to work. Yes, I think it was a factor in her not securing work. I'm not put off by it because I think she did what she felt she had to do. I'm only sad it worked so well. Says a lot about society."
What "puts me off" is the crying about discrimination without acknowledgement of personal responsibility. When you act different wearing a mask, it's the confidence and attitude that more likely to influence landing gigs — not a newfound penis.
And it wasn't a case of someone doing what they had to do. It was branding plain and simple. A male pen name? That's one thing. An intentionally hypermasculine image where you even go out of your way to post things you know are offensive and degrading to other women? No sympathy (or respect) deserved. I went into my thoughts on that whole BS issue a while back here: http://www.dirjournal.com/business-journal/why-im-tired-of-hearing-about-sexism-in-social-media-and-freelancing/
As for whether or not women's rates are questioned more, I think that's also a pretty narrow consideration. Rather than people perceiving women as less valuable, perhaps men just come across as more intimidating so people are afraid to ask. And I wouldn't call being approachable a flaw. Women can always choose to say no, and if they don't, that's on them and not anyone else's gender bias.
And just for the record, I've almost NEVER been questioned about my rates. That's why I advocate for listing them publicly up front. Once you do that (even if it's just a range), there's no surprise on the clients' side. The ones who question you might simply not be in your market (if they can't afford you, they're definitely not).
Once I weeded out the market with a public rate structure, not only did questions and surprise stop immediately, but people who WERE in my market and able to afford me started showing up in droves. Many won't contact for quotes, especially if the competition already put their rate information in their hands. Custom quotes are fine if you really must. But if you choose that route, it's not gender issues leading to rates being questioned. It's more likely off-the-mark targeting.
Just took a quick peek at your business site specifically, and I can see some potential targeting issues there right on the homepage — "no project is too small" plus "reasonable rates" could easily give the impression that you're charging on the lower end.
On top of that, the copy does nothing to talk about specific benefits of hiring you there — all pretty basic "professional," "quality" copy. Since you mentioned that you're questioned fairly often about rates, it might be worth coming up with some new copy and split-testing to see how clients finding you act when your service is promoted differently up front.
Obviously I don't know if that's the real issue, but I think it's more plausible than gender discrimination. And testing never hurts. You might find something that works better for other reasons. 🙂