All posts by Jake Poinier

advice, client relationships

Losing a loyal client

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losing a clientBy Jake Poinier

One of the inevitable pass-the-Tums moments as a freelancer is losing a loyal client or editor to a new job. It’s one thing to fire a client, to do a one-off freelance assignment, or even just not being a good match. But clients and editors resign and get fired, too. What you do when that happens can make the difference between a short-term setback and a long-term drag on your income.

I received an email yesterday from a woman, let’s call her Jen, who’s been my primary contact for about 18 months at a large company that I’ve done work for since I got started in the business in ’99. She’s leaving the company at the end of the month. My heart sank.

As I reflect on the past 11 years, I’ve probably done work for a dozen different people within the company. And, over the course of the same time period, all but a few of those people have moved on to different positions or left the organization altogether. Some hired full-time writing staff, while others simply had their freelance budgets cut. I still have a few occasional users of my services, but Jen was my main source—a healthy, five-figure annual client who gave me a steady stream of assignments.

After the initial shock of losing my primary contact at the company, my optimistic side took hold. This isn’t about me, it’s about her. And I did what I always do:

  • I enthusiastically congratulated Jen on her new position, and asked what it is and what she’s going to be doing.
  • I (humorously but sincerely) expressed my personal sadness that she’s leaving her job, because I’ve enjoyed working with her.
  • I offered to write her a letter of recommendation, anytime, anywhere, for anything.
  • I asked her if she’d please facilitate a contact, at her earliest convenience, with the new person in her job.

Not surprisingly, she wrote right back, and her response made me feel considerably better. As it turns out, she’s taking a corporate communications position with another large company in town. Not only do they use freelancers, they happen to be a former client of mine from my old custom magazine editing days. And within 10 minutes after that, she’d already cc’d me on a glowing email to the new person in her department who’ll be handling her duties, so I have a warm if not hot contact. We’ll see if we click.

My next step is to contact Jen once she’s settled in at her new job and schedule to take her to lunch. But that’s another story for another day.

Jake offers blogs regularly about freelancing at DoctorFreelance.com.

advice

What do you call yourself, freelancer?

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editorial services firmBy Jake Poinier

What’s in a name? When it comes to freelancing, I’d argue: A lot.

What to call ourselves is a matter of frequent and sometimes heated debate on LinkedIn, as Planet Word brought up in a post today, “Are you a consultant or a freelancer?” My first recognition that “freelancer” isn’t always the best word to use was back when I first read Peter Bowerman’s The Well-Fed Writer back in 2001. He uses “commercial writer,” which is a useful distinction, particularly for those of us who focus on business writing rather than exclusively writing for publications.

The problem is, “freelance” can carry some negative connotations—fly-by-night, can’t get a real job, in-between-jobs—and I’ve learned over the years that there’s a benefit to using the right phrase at the right time. Here’s how my thought process has evolved:

  • Freelancer (or freelance writer and editor) is reserved for when I’m talking to people within the industry: graphic designers, web designers, ad agencies, magazine editors and other people who are hip to the concept. It’s useful shorthand, and immediately implies “I’m for hire.”
  • I’ll use commercial writer or corporate copywriter if I’m talking to someone who’s in a business field. For example, a marketing director or business owner that I’m confident has some experience in marketing/advertising, but might be wary of (i.e., may have had a bad experience with) freelancers.
  • Finally, when I’m talking to someone who might not be familiar with the creative industry, lately I’ve been using a complete phrase: “I run an editorial services firm.” I find that it puffs things up a bit, and will usually provoke a follow-up question.
  • Personally, I never use consultant. I suppose there might be a circumstance I’d use it someday, but I haven’t come across it yet.

So….what’s your favorite term for describing what you do? Please share your ideas in the comments!

Jake dispenses business prescriptions for freelancers at DoctorFreelance.com—no matter what you want to call yourself.

advice, editorial

Curing writer’s block

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curing writers blockBy Jake Poinier

Call me a cynic, but I tend to think that the idea of curing writer’s block is impossible, because the phrase itself represents an unhelpful catchall for a variety of reasons (read: excuses) for not writing. Moreover, for the freelance commercial writer, unlike the college-essay writer, it’s simply something you can’t allow to interfere with your business. There was a tweet by @MenwithPens yesterday that captured my philosophy nicely: “If you’re taking money from people, you have a responsibility not to do crappy work.” That necessitates, of course, the responsibility to do the work in the first place.

Note well, I’m not saying that there aren’t times when the words are tougher to come by. What I *am* saying is that waiting for divine inspiration is a fool’s game, and you’d sound like a goofball to any editor or client if you actually uttered the words “writer’s block.” Unless you’re martyring yourself on the Starving Fiction Novelist pike, the successful freelancer needs to be able to get the words on the page.

  • If you’re suffering from a lack of uber-great ideas…do a brain dump or mind map, use the best of what you’ve got to start, and try to upgrade and polish as you go along.
  • If you’re lacking the motivation to write about a topic that bores you…write it as promptly and quickly as you can, so it’s off your plate and out of your head.
  • If you’re not sure how to start something…look for the places that you can even get a tiny toehold, whether it’s the boilerplate “Services” page of a corporate web site or a sidebar in a feature story.
  • If your deadline is looming, and the work’s still not ready for prime time…talk to your client or editor well in advance, and politely ask for additional time to get it to the quality you want to deliver.
  • If you’ve sat at your desk till the metaphorical blood drops start to bead on your forehead…get the heck out of your chair and take the dog for a walk or yourself for a bike ride for a full hour.

At the risk of retreating into a sports metaphor: I’m a lifelong Red Sox fan, and, ipso facto, lifelong Yankee-hater. As such, I enjoyed watching Alex Rodriguez struggle for a dozen games before he hit his 600th home run this week. I’m sure he was wondering when the next one was going to come after every agonizing failure. But at the same time, he still had to show up every night and take his cuts.

As a professional writer, you’re getting a couple of at-bats every day. Not every one is going to be a home run, but if the bat never leaves your shoulder, your stint in the big leagues will surely be abbreviated.

Please drop by Jake’s Dr. Freelance blog for advice on how to deal with troublesome clients, pricing your projects, finding new freelance business, and more.

advice, Business

9 Rules of Effective Voicemail Messages

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freelance voicemailBy Jake Poinier

It’s hard to believe that a professional in today’s world would leave a THREE-MINUTE voicemail message. But that’s precisely what someone did to me yesterday. (I was bored out of my mind after 30 seconds and ready to jam an ice pick in my ear after Minute One. I don’t remember a single thing she said before I 7’ed her.)

As a freelancer and professional communicator, you need to do better than that or it will hurt your business. My co-Zoner Sigrid has done a bang-up job with her series on how freelancers can benefit from writing smashing e-mails, and the point she makes in #5—“Most e-mails can be summed up within one window pane”—has its aural equivalent with voicemails.

Unfortunately, it’s easier to recognize an awful voicemail message than it is to leave a good one. Sometimes you’re going to hang up the phone and think to yourself, “Dammit, I am a babbling idiot!” I know there’s a temptation to be thorough and tell the person exactly why you’re calling in excruciating detail.

Don’t. You’d be better served to leave only your name and number than to blab on for a minute or more. Here are the few of the rules I personally try to adhere to anytime I get sent to voicemail:

  1. While the phone is ringing, rehearse in your mind what you’re going to say if you end up in VM. That way, you’re ready for it.
  2. Be brief. (But you already knew that.)
  3. Speak somewhat more slowly than usual and enunciate as clearly as possible. It’s sort of like public speaking.
  4. Immediately after you say “hi” and who you are, say your phone number, so if the person repeats the message, it’s right there.
  5. If you received the contact information from a third party, use that as leverage by stating that “Jim Johnson asked that I give you a call” or something to that effect.
  6. State why you’re calling in a single sentence, and limit it to one topic. You can talk about the other stuff when they return your call.
  7. If you’re on deadline, say so, politely. “I’m on deadline, so the sooner you can get back to me, the more I’d appreciate it” is what I generally say. Or, if you have a specific day/time that you absolutely must hear by, go ahead and mention it.
  8. At the end of the call, state your phone number again.
  9. Say thank you and that you look forward to hearing from them.

Keep in mind, this post took longer for you to read than an effective voicemail would take to leave. There’s no such thing as a perfect message, other than the one that gets you called back. I experiment all the time, and recommend that you do the same.

Do you have a killer voicemail message tactic that guarantees a return call? Please share your idea in the comments!

Drop by DoctorFreelance.com for advice on how to deal with clients who miss their own deadlines.

advice, Business, reading

Getting things done

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getting things doneFirst, a confession: I tried the Franklin-Covey/7 Habits routine numerous times in my corporate days, and failed miserably. So, I wanted to bring Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity to Freelance-Zoners’ collective attention. To me, it is a far better solution for the creative freelancer and the sometimes-squirrelly creative brain that we need to harness on a daily basis—and it is rock-solid when it comes to preventing things from falling through the cracks.

I saw it recommended in the Wall Street Journal a few months back, and it truly changed my way of thinking about organization (no small feat at the age of 42). With the caveat that the best organizational system is the system that you actually use, I think it represents a much better approach than the aforementioned Franklin-Covey route. Here are a few of the reasons author David Allen’s philosophy works for me:

  • He dispenses with the guilt-and-humiliation slant that plagues Franklin-Covey (i.e., forcing you transcribe into the next day what you didn’t do today).
  • You don’t waste any time giving things a priority number or letter.
  • He provides easy-to-employ steps that you can start using right away, and you don’t have to do everything at once. The startup procedure requires a good chunk of dedicated time, but it’s worth it.
  • For list-based folks like me and Mike O’Mary (who wrote “Feeling Listless” earlier this week), he offers an improved method for organizing your to-dos. And you can customize it to your needs, rather than being boxed into a single way of getting things done.
  • He makes no distinction between business stuff and personal stuff, which always seemed silly to me.

Your mileage may vary, but it’s the best $16 I’ve spent all year. Have you read/implemented Getting Things Done, or are you using an organizational system already that you love? Please share your thoughts with Freelance-Zone readers in the comments below!

When he’s not working on paying gigs for his editorial services company, Boomvang Creative, contributing blogger Jake Poinier can also be found dispensing freelance advice at DoctorFreelance.com.

advice, Freelance Forecast survey, resources

Top 5 freelance client deal killers

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top 5 deal killers

Last time, we discussed the top 5 qualities a freelance client is looking for, so this week, let’s take on the flip side: opinions on the top 5 freelance client deal killers; i.e., the dreaded “most frustrating qualities in a freelancer.” Here’s your top 5 from Freelance Forecast 2010:

  1. Unreliable/unavailable
  2. Didn’t follow assignment
  3. Quality of work
  4. Missed deadlines
  5. Surprise charges/overcharges

Any surprises? Let’s hope not.

To find some of the specific client hot buttons, Freelance Forecast also asked: “What is the ONE mistake or personal quality that would ruin a freelancer’s opportunity to work with you again?” Most of the answers were derivative of the above list—unreliable, blown assignments, poor work. But some of the other responses were instructive: Bossiness…not open to new ideas…lying…deceptive behavior…plagiarism…surprising me in any way…stealing a client from me…unwillingness to make it right…backing out at the last minute after agreeing to do the job…treating me poorly because I work for a government agency…flaking…misrepresenting their ability.

It comes down to this: What was true of the positive freelancer qualities is even more true of the negative ones: Every single item is completely or almost completely under your control. It’s a lot of responsibility, but you’re just the person for the job!

Father’s Day note: I owe a lot to my dad for inspiring me into a life of self-employment, and “Father’s Day musing: Is entrepreneurship genetic?” captures a few of my thoughts as we head into what’s been a bittersweet holiday for the past decade.

Freelance-Zone contributor Jake Poinier is the founder/owner of Boomvang Creative Group and Dear Dr. Freelance.