Jennifer Mattern from All Freelance Writing
Please welcome our guest poster for today, Jennifer Mattern!
Want Better Freelance Gigs? Put Your Business First
In a recent post Pam talked about prima donna freelancers and how putting too much emphasis on your own business might detract from your focus on a client’s business. I look at it differently. I’d argue freelancers should put their businesses first, and doing so can actually lead to better client relationships and higher paying freelance writing jobs.
When you put your own business first, you might find yourself saying “no” as often as (if not more than) you say “yes.” Let’s look at some situations where your client might think something is best for their own business but where you might say “no” for the sake of your own.
When it’s Okay to Say “No” for the Good of Your Business
- Prospects or clients try to talk down your rates (significantly).It’s one thing to be flexible. It’s something else to be a pushover. Do this and they’ll keep asking for discounts down the line. If it’s a prospect and they’re pushing for much lower rates, they probably aren’t in your target market to begin with.
Don’t worry about feeling like a prima donna if you think you’re above a specific gig now and then. You probably are. There are plenty of gigs in the target market you’re trying to reach. If you’re only getting bottom-of-the-barrel offers, you can either improve your craft or rethink your marketing strategy. Get bogged down with low-paying gigs and you won’t have the time to dedicate yourself to clients in your actual market.
- Clients make unreasonable rush requests. A client emails you at 4:00pm wanting a rush job (which will take three hours) by 9:00am the following morning. Late nights happen. But there’s a big difference between working late because you’re behind and working late because a client waited until the last minute.
It’s okay to tell them they have to wait until the morning and that you’ll have to deliver after 9:00. They can wait, find another freelancer willing to cave to that kind of rush demand, or they can pay you a significant rush fee. Some freelancers fear telling a client they have to wait will lead to a lost gig. In my experience that isn’t true.
- Someone pressures you to take on a project that you don’t want to take on.It’s wonderful when clients like your work and want to hire you for more. But sometimes you’ll want to say “no,” and that’s okay.
You might not have time in your schedule. You might not be comfortable with the subject matter or type or writing. It might be something you’re inexperienced with and uncomfortable pursuing. Thank them but refuse the project if you feel that’s right for your business. You can refer them to someone else. If a client likes you enough to ask for more, they’re unlikely to replace you because you won’t take on every project they toss your way.
Assertiveness vs Prima Donna Status
When you work as a freelancer, you are the business owner offering a service that’s in demand. You set your working terms. You set your rates. You set your payment policies. Clients can work with them, try to negotiate with you (fairly), or they can always look elsewhere; not all clients are a good fit or within your target market. It’s okay to be assertive, firm, and even tough. That’s a case of looking out for your business interests — something your clients also do.
Some people mistake that for rudeness. I find those people are usually other freelancers (those used to working differently, who might not be comfortable exercising the same assertiveness in their own businesses). It’s very rarely on the client side. Ultimately they respect contractors who know how to put their businesses first. When you’re strong in relation to your own business interests, they know you can be equally strong on behalf of theirs.
Target Markets Matter
There’s a reason Pam and I have different thoughts on the issue of prima donna freelancers and whether or not you should put your business first. Pam writes for publications. I write for business owners. Editors are more used to critiquing your work and not necessarily having freelancers tell them what’s wrong with the publication or what they should do to improve.
Business owners in my market generally expect the opposite. Edits can be rare in comparison to writing for magazines. Clients hire business writers almost as much for consulting as actual writing work. We’re expected know what’s wrong, know what opportunities exist, and know how to address those problems or opportunities with our writing. We not only have to be able to put ourselves on the same level as our clients, but we sometimes have to be prepared to stand up to and work with a whole slew of decision-makers within a client’s company — all with different opinions and styles. Even within the world of freelance business writing things vary. Here’s the perspective I personally come from.
Tech-Savvy Small Business Markets
I tend to work with smaller companies and my clients are located all over the world. I work with more international clients than US-based clients. My clients tend to be tech-savvy or genuinely interested in improving their online presence. They’re people who understand that they need more than content slapped up on a website; they need authoritative content and copy that drives people to action. Occasionally I work with small Internet marketing or SEO firms as middlemen clients. But I work mostly with small business owners and independent Web developers.
These are groups grossly neglected by the freelance writing community due to misconceptions about budgets. That’s because some writers don’t look beyond advertised gigs.
Tip: most of the best freelance writing gigs are never publicly advertised. You get them through referrals, being found in search engine rankings or through your platform.
I suppose what I really argue is that one freelancer’s prima donna behavior is another’s good business sense. It all depends on your specialty area and the market you choose to target. Be rude in the eyes of a client and you’ll put yourself out of business. But don’t mistake the views of your colleagues in different markets as a reflection of what clients think. Don’t assume that a behavior is “wrong” or bad for business just because other freelance writers aren’t comfortable with it. Unless those writers are earning at the exact level you want to earn at and are targeting exactly the same markets, what works for them won’t necessarily work for you.
About Jennifer Mattern
Jennifer Mattern is a freelance business writer and professional blogger who writes about freelance writing, social media, indie publishing, and small business. She also publishes e-books for freelance writers and is scheduled to publish her first nonfiction book, The Query-Free Freelancer, early next year.
Jenn,
What you describe here really are business executive skills. And any freelancer who can add those skills to their repertoire is indeed a very lucky – and most likely – successful freelancer. I admire the analysis you put into this post. It’s very informative.
Funny – when I worked for a technology services company, I was around IT types a lot. Most were very intelligent human beings who really knew their stuff, and were terrific logical, analytical thinkers. But most also appreciated humor; good, sly humor, which actually made them seem a little less “executive”, and a little more human.
But then, they weren’t the ones directly responsible for business decisions; they were responsible for making sure our systems were running efficiently, and when they weren’t, innovating existing systems/processes for future improvement.
I, maybe, tend to do better with those types; the more direct, business-results oriented people? A little bit of an oil and water thing with me, although it would certainly behoove me to try and bridge that gap!
Thanks for the excellent post.
Pam
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I’ve worked with the tech types too (and am dating one) so I know exactly what you mean. In some ways that makes being firm on the business side even more important. They can occasionally be wishy washy when they’re also responsible for running the business — the case of solopreneurs in that area. That’s where the writer-as-consultant role comes in. They want you to tell them what’s wrong and tell them what to do to fix it, or tell them what to do to reach a specific business goal.
Being firm about the business doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a friendlier relationship with clients — whether they’re the executive types or IT types. Most of my clients know when it comes to business we need to get right down to it and that there’s a place for compromise and times when we’ll butt heads. But they also understand that’s a part of the process to do what’s ultimately best for their business. Move beyond that and we’re quite friendly. We check up on each other when we hear about natural or political disasters where someone is. We talk about vacations. Sometimes they’ll tell me about their families. We can pal around as much as we can get down to business, and that makes the work more enjoyable. You can be fun to work with and still be a hard-ass when you have to for the sake of your own business. Those things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
And you’re quite welcome. Thanks so much for having me.
Jenn Mattern recently posted..Ten Reasons to Launch an Author Blog
You hit the nail on the head — freelance writing is a business. Freelance writers must be comfortable with being business owners; it’s not a J.O.B. I had to shift my perspective. Even though I knew I wanted a freelance writing business, I looked at freelance writing from an ‘employee’ mindset. I didn’t realize this after I read an article by one of the writer’s from The WM Freelance Connection. It was an eye opener.
I also shifted my perspective around my ideal client. I have a business background and want to work with people who get and understand business or at least understand they’re running a business. I prefer not to work with ‘wishy washy’ types who don’t know what they want or hem and haw when it comes to paying my rates. This doesn’t mean I won’t negotiate, it means I refuse to settle.
BTW: My first writing clients were from Canada. I’m open to working with clients around the world; one of my specialties is travel writing.
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“Even though I knew I wanted a freelance writing business, I looked at freelance writing from an ‘employee’ mindset.”
I’m so glad to hear you’re one of those writers who figured that out. It’s a concept I still struggle to get across to people who ask me for help or tips on how to improve what they earn. The rate side of it is one of the toughest. Freelance rates are not the same as employee rates. They’re not even close. I’ve pulled numbers on employee salaries vs costs for several past articles (Salary.com is a good source if you want more local numbers), and it averaged to around this: for a freelancer to earn the equivalent of an employee’s $xx,xxx salary, they’d have to earn around 40% more over the course of the year. When you break off billable hours from working hours, that percentage goes even higher when you look at the earnings from an hourly perspective.
It’s easy for someone to say “I earned $50,000 at my last day job, so I’ll base my rates on what will earn me $50,000 freelancing.” Then they wonder why they struggle, can’t afford insurance, can’t afford vacations or sick days when they need them, can’t afford to set money aside for retirement, etc. It’s an easy trap to fall into. And it does go beyond that rate issue to a general employee vs business owner mindset like you mentioned (which is why we also have problems such as spyware-like “employee” monitoring software put out by several freelance marketplaces).
On another note, don’t be too quick to dismiss the potentially wishy washy clients. Sometimes they’re the best markets to work with because they’re the most willing to learn. When I launched my PR firm I specifically targeted webmasters and small business owners who didn’t have the first clue about PR. It gave me the opportunity to education them about the realities as opposed to the stereotypical “spin doctor” image (which is anything but true for most PR folks). I ended up with an educated client base that was willing to pay professional rates to do things the right way — rather than jumping onto the generic press release spam trend appearing around that same time. So take a closer look. There might just be hope for them yet.
Jenn Mattern recently posted..Ten Reasons to Launch an Author Blog
Interesting comments. What I wonder–mostly as a writer hobbiest who has had a few local essays and articles published–is that difference between writing for (small) businesses, and publications. In otherwords, anything I’ve gotten paid for has been, I think, closer to Pam’s experience. But as for taking on a “writer-for-consultant” role, I wonder: where does the writer start/end, and when does the business angle start in? I have business experience and an MBA; I’ve worked in an advertising department, which you’d think would involve writing, but barely did. (It was corporate, not an ad agency; that may be the big difference.) A lot of business and even marketing is numbers and data oriented. Are you working with other business consultants? Marketing departments? I can’t help but think of a speaker at a social media event I attended recently complaining that “anyone who has a facebook account thinks they’re a social media expert, but we still need people who can create a business plan and do SWAT analysis.” So what does a writer-for-consultant role really look like?
I actually do very little official consulting anymore since going full-time with writing and dropping the PR and social media consulting. At most I have one client left where I occasionally work with them on brand development (usually for new projects where they want to bring me on as a writer, so I don’t mind input when my reputation will be attached), and the odd social media project like blog comment management for a blog they run where I’m their primary writer. Those are examples of cross-over projects where you take on more than writing and have real say in how the company is presented — the brand overall to how reader relations is handled on a blog.
As someone who comes from a PR background — and someone who worked in that area of social media before we even called it that — I do agree with the speaker you mentioned. There are too many self-proclaimed “gurus” in social media these days, and not every writer is really qualified to cross that line from writer to social media consultant. And if you do it without the fundamentals behind you (and having a Facebook profile and Twitter account are NOT fundamentals), you risk your client’s business reputation if you screw up — say the wrong thing, react negatively in an inappropriate way, spam social media sites with their links in an attempt to promote them, etc.
My rule is that I only consult in areas I specialize in — online PR and brand management and social media. Even then it’s rare, simply because I prefer not to take the work on. It’s more in how the client perceives me though — they want my thoughts on the best news angle for a press release rather than feeding me one, or they might give me nearly complete freedom in choosing blog topics because they want me to share my opinions, be controversial, and get their audience talking. It comes down to whether you’re just writing what someone tells you to write (or what you queried them about) or having some deeper input or control within their business. It’s a responsibility you have to take seriously, but when you do take on these gigs the respect and pay and usually commensurate with that responsibility — in my experience at least.
The role would look very different for someone of a different background. In your case for example maybe a client would not only hire you as the primary writer for their ad agency’s blog, but they’d also charge you with the planning — naming, category setup, design sign-off, etc. Your past advertising industry experience would come into play (even though you weren’t in the agency setting previously), but you would also be hired for your writing skills based on the portfolio you create with those essays and articles you’ve published.
And by no means would you have to combine the two. There is nothing wrong with opting to stay “just a writer.” I make as much hourly on those projects as ones involving consulting. And when you build a specialist reputation and visibility for your work, you often get a similar level of respect from clients regardless of taking on any consulting or service-added role.
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