What You Can Learn About Freelancing From Your Phone Bill

query-letter-adviceIt’s tough to know when to cut your losses. Deadbeat clients, those who ask for never-ending rewrites, clients who pay later and later, the list goes on and on. How long do you give them the benefit of the doubt?

That’s a question for another article. This post is about something completely different–those situations where the client is nice, friendly, reasonable…but you still find yourself getting the short end of the stick.

Example–the writer I know who has to make international phone calls to get his articles written. Calls that aren’t always reimbursed by his editors. This writer decided to start cutting out the companies that wouldn’t pay his phone expenses (which are regular and fairly predictable). He was shocked to learn he saved himself $200 in one month doing so. One of his publication credits wound up costing him half his fee in phone calls–clearly a losing option.

Examine the expenses you pay in doing your job and do the math. Are you spending too much in gas, parking, out-of-office meals and phone calls to meet those deadlines? It might be time to reconsider. In some cases–new writers who badly need publication credit, for example–it may be worth the effort to put up with the financial bite. But the moment it stops making sense to do so, cut and run. The bank account you save could be your own.

One thought on “What You Can Learn About Freelancing From Your Phone Bill”

  1. It’s a bit of a tangent, but your friend should also look into VOIP phone service with an international plan.

    I did a bunch of research and asking around before we moved to Canada, because I knew the bills were going to be high. I ended up choosing Broadvoice and have been quite pleased with it. (Happy enough that I’m keeping it when we move back to Phoenix next month, though I’ll likely drop the int’l plan.)

    I heard enough quality issues about Skype that it scared me off of business use, FWIW.

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