Tag Archives: freelance

advice, client relationships

Fred? It’s Wilma Calling

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By Jake Poinier

In the past week, I’ve twice employed what I’ll call my Fred Flintstone technique. If you’re a fan of the old Flintstones cartoon, you’ll remember how, when Fred would get yelled at by Wilma over the phone, he’d hold the ram’s horn handset away from his head while she ranted on.

The truth is, there are going to be times as a freelancer when you just need to hear the client out. Don’t try to defend yourself, don’t try to explain why you did what you did, don’t even respond. Just listen.

We’re not perfect, nor are our clients. Sometimes they are cranky, and some are crankier than others. Ultimately, you need to have a sixth sense of when it’s going to benefit you to keep your mouth shut. If you’ve ever been on a good — or bad — customer service call, you remember exactly how you felt. I’ve canceled accounts purely over poor customer service, and I’ve also had my faith renewed in an entire brand by a single sympathetic voice.

The best customer services reps are incredibly skilled at one thing: de-escalation. They don’t want you to pull the ol’ “put a manager on the line!” gambit, and they want to solve your problem quickly and to your satisfaction.

Well, as a freelancer, there *is* no one to escalate to. You’re it, whether you like it or not. The problem is yours to solve.

There will be days when the little devil on your shoulder is prodding you with a pitchfork, and saying, “Go ahead — give ’em both barrels!” Better, however to listen to the angel on the other side: Take a cleansing breath, close your eyes, listen with as much sympathy as you can muster…and hold the phone away from your ear if it’s too much to deal with.

Jake Poinier runs Boomvang Creative Group, an editorial services firm, and blogs regularly as Dr. Freelance.

advice, editorial

“You’re Fired” – Letting Go Of Busy Work

Catherineby Catherine L. Tully

Busy work will be the death of you if you aren’t careful.

I’m here to tell you that every time I have cleared away the “chaff” – the clients that took up a lot of my time without a fair amount of financial compensation – I have benefited in the long run.

Now what does that mean for you? I can’t tell you exactly, but I can share some examples from my own writing career…

One client I had provided work only periodically. The pay was pretty good, but the amount of hoops I had to jump through weren’t equal to the amount I was getting for the work. In addition, whenever they contacted me, they needed something right away. This meant I had to build a little space into my schedule. Space that eventually was freed up for other clients when I finally decided to “fire” myself from the gig.

Another client I had gave steady work for average pay, but the turnaround and amount of hours involved left me with little time for other work. As most writers are already aware, steady work in this field is really hard to come by. It took me a long time to get up the guts to fire myself from this job, but once I did there were many other opportunities that I had come my way and I wound up making more money in less time than I did with this client.

So what’s my point?

Every once in a while it is a good idea to evaluate your client base from a time/money/hassle point of view. Do all the pieces fit together nicely – or are there some things that stand out as a problem for you? Letting go of the busy work can be a great thing if you prune carefully.

Now I’m not telling you to go cutting clients indiscriminately. You need a base to go from that will pay your bills and provide you with some security. But when you have that, be sure you don’t get complacent and just go with the flow if it isn’t working well for you. Sometimes re-adjusting your work flow can offer the unexpected, and often that may mean more money in the long run.

It works for me.

editorial

Freelance Zone T-Shirts?

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Freelance Zone tee shirtsWe’ve been telling ourselves that it’s time to create some freelance-themed t-shirts for AGES and now that it’s finally about to actually HAPPEN, we wanted to give you the chance to throw your two cents in about slogans and such.

We know what WE would love to see on a shirt, but what are YOU interested in when it comes to letting your freelance flag fly? Nothing could be better free advertising than a shirt worn to your favorite theater, coffee shop, record convention, etc. than something that screams “I am a FREELANCE WRITER”…

So we throw the floodgates open for suggestions for slogans and t-shirt topics relevant to the freelance life. Please feel free to make suggestions in the comments and we’ll be very happy to get some input.

And, t-shirt lovers, stay tuned as we’ll have an announcement or three about upcoming Freelance-Zone.com tees in the very near future. We plan a set of shirts that should amuse and inform…

advice, lifestyle

Your Freelance Business

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Joe Wallace freelance social media.jpgby Joe Wallace

I don’t really look like the kind of person who plans on getting out of bed in the morning, let alone mapping out a IT Support Naperville business. But I’ve found that a bit of the old printed paper and activity projection over the coming month, six months, year, etc. is very useful. In the last two years, any goal I’ve committed to paper has more or less come to fruition.

The goals I didn’t bother to write down? Vapor.

Over at Freelance Folder, Amber Weinberg has a provocative blog post called Why Freelancers Don’t Need a Business Plan. Like many such posts, the advice is pretty solid, just packaged in a controversial idea with an eyeball-yanking headline.

But if you read past that headline you find that she and I pretty much agree on everything–planning is important, real-world goals are key, and crunching the numbers is an effective way to see how attainable your goals really are.

A less interesting headline for her post would be “Don’t Waste Time Pretending to Plan Your Business Like a Fortune 500 Company”. An even more snore-inducing title would be, “Make Some Realistic Goals and Break Them Down To See How Attainable They Really Are”.

And there’s the rub.

Freelancers who set goals can operate more comfortably day to day, knowing they aren’t just spinning their wheels–they actually have a road map and the daily tasks are part of that journey. Freelancers who don’t may find themselves feeling as though they’re just drifting aimlessly from one gig to the next.

The psychological comfort of knowing you have realistic goals to work toward can’t be underestimated. As Amber Weinberg more or less says in her post, you DO NOT need a 20 page report on what you’ll be doing in the next 12 months. You just need to have some solid, attainable goals and move towards them. That can go a long way toward peace of mind in the freelance game.

advice, gear, lifestyle

Jumping On The Mobile Bandwagon?

Joe Wallace freelance social media.jpgby Joe Wallace

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with Dave Allen of North in Portland, an agency that specializes in brand engagement across the spectrum of traditional and digital media.

One of the highlights of the conversation was a discussion of companies who come looking for help with their image campaigns. “What’s your website about?” these hopefuls are asked. “Well, we’re like BIG ESTABLISHED SERVICE NAME”.

So what are you offering that Big Established Service is getting wrong? “Um, well, nothing. We’re just like Big Established Service Name. Except it’s US.”

By now you’re getting the picture. Why reinvent the wheel? It’s one thing to offer a different-tasting cheeseburger. It’s another to offer the same widget with only a different picture where the logo goes. Continue reading Jumping On The Mobile Bandwagon? →

gear

Mobile Freelancing with the iPhone

iphone 4
by Joe Wallace

I’m writing this post using my Mac bluetooth keyboard synched to my iPhone. I wrote about this a few days ago, all aflutter about the possibilities of finally getting down to serious writing using nothing but the iPhone 4 and a bluetooth keyboard.

And this is the result. A typo or two to correct, a bit of a muddle with the screen size when composing the text, but otherwise this post has been fairly annoyance-free.

It’s wonderfully liberating to be able to post quickly using only the iPhone but retaining full keyboard flexibility…at least as flexible as the smallish silver Mac bluetooth keyboard can be. My fingers are still getting used to the smaller form factor with these keys, but that should improve.

That said, WordPress does not play nice with the iPhone4 when it comes to uploading images. I have had lots of problems trying get images on the iPhone to WordPress and at this time I haven’t found a solution except to use what is already in my WP galleries.

I fully realize that early adopters of bluetooth in this way are sneering at my Joe-Come-Lately bluetooth freedom with the iPhone, but I am so pleased with this new relationship I have with my mobile phone that i might never go back to using a laptop again.

OK, I’m full of it on that front…but it IS a tempting notion…however silly.